Banana Cream Pie à la Paleo

We love banana cream pie, and always make it on Thanksgiving. When Amy went Paleo right before the holidays, we started to think about how to make this pie without the usual good stuff, and still make it good! Although there are many steps involved here, it’s a very simple and delicious recipe, and can be made in about an hour.

Crust (thanks to Elana’s Pantry)
2 cups almond flour, preferably the blanched kind
1/4 t of kosher salt
2 T coconut oil
1 egg

Place flour and salt in food processor and pulse briefly – or toss with fork.

Add coconut oil and  and egg and pulse mixture forms a ball or blend with fork

Press dough into a 9-inch pie dish. It’s crumbly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes. It may have cracks in it, but it’s still good.

Filling (adapted from Great Pies and Tarts by Carole Walter)
2 -1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar or sweetener of your choice -divided
4 egg yolks
3 T cornstarch
2 T tapioca starch or more corn starch
1/4 t salt
1-1/2 t vanilla
1 T butter
3 firm, ripe medium bananas

Whisk egg yolks, 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar, salt, cornstarch and tapioca starch together

Heat in sauce pan until warm 2 -1/2 cups milk with the remaining 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar

Add 1/4 of the warm milk mixture to the bowl mixture stirring well to blend. Pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan and using a whisk, and blend the mixtures.

Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring with whisk. As it begins to thicken, stir more vigorously until smooth. Continue to cook for a minute gently to prevent cream from scorching on the bottom of saucepan. Do not over mix.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla

Dot the top of the filling with the 1T butter and set aside to cool. Take a large bowl and fill with ice and water and put sauce pan in the ice water bath to cool – stirring occasionally. (We really do this, since we can never wait the few hours for it to cool in the fridge!)

Add three sliced bananas into cooled mixture

Add  filling to crust cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge to cool

Top with whipped cream and candy nuts before serving

Whipped Cream
1/2 pint of heavy cream
2 t vanilla
1 T of coconut palm sugar

Whip the cream and add the vanilla and sugar at the end.

EAT, finally!