This shockingly easy banoffee pie recipe combines a crunchy graham cracker crust, soft and sweet dulce de leche, thick slices of fresh banana, and a mountain of billowy whipped cream. Everyone who tries a slice is instantly hooked.
My team and I love all things pie and we’ve worked hard to develop a slew of new recipes over the years, especially around the holiday seasons. Here are some favorites:
- Sweet Potato Pie & Pumpkin Pie
- Nutella Tart
- Pecan Pie Bars
- Apple Pie & Apple Cranberry Pie
- Caramel Pear Pie
- Pecan Pie & Chocolate Pecan Pie
For even more inspiration, here are all of our favorite Thanksgiving pie recipes. But today, I’m showing you how I make banoffee pie:
What Is Banoffee Pie?
A popular English dessert, banoffee = bananas + toffee. A rich combination of different textures and flavors, banoffee pie combines a cookie/biscuit or graham cracker crust with silky dulce de leche, bananas, and homemade whipped cream. I normally have impeccable self control around all the desserts I bake, but I literally could not put down my fork with this pie. Between the soft, crunchy, creamy, gooey, and sweet—there’s no denying banoffee pie’s allure. You’ll be hooked.
Adding to its appeal, banoffee pie is the EASIEST pie you’ll ever make. The 3-ingredient graham cracker crust is pre-baked, but that’s all the oven time required. Just like in strawberry cream cheese pie, baking the crust makes the whole pie more sturdy. Layer the remaining ingredients on top, then refrigerate until ready to dig in. That’s it!
Instead of graham crackers, this pie is also fantastic with a Biscoff pie crust.
What Is Dulce de Leche?
Dulce de leche is similar to caramel, but a little sweeter and creamier. It’s prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk until everything caramelizes. If we’re getting all scientific, I learned that a lot of the flavor comes from the Maillard reaction. Interesting! Dulce de leche is Spanish for candy made/of milk. There are a few ways to prepare dulce de leche including:
- The classic method of cooking down and constantly stirring milk and sugar
- The shortcut method of cooking sweetened condensed milk
We’re using the shortcut method today, but I included a link to a classic dulce de leche recipe in the recipe notes. Both are delicious!
Dulce de Leche Made From Sweetened Condensed Milk
There are a couple ways you can make dulce de leche from a can of sweetened condensed milk. You can boil it—the actual closed can—in a pot of water for a couple hours or you can pour the sweetened condensed milk in a pie dish and bake it in a water bath. I prefer the oven method because I’ve heard some pretty scary stories about the hot cans bursting open after boiling for so long. Items you need:
- large roasting pan
- pie dish
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
- aluminum foil
Instructions:
- Pour the sweetened condensed milk in a pie dish.
- Place the pie dish in a large roasting pan and place the roasting pan in the oven.
- Fill the roasting pan with enough HOT water until it reaches halfway up the pie dish. This is exactly what we do when we bake cheesecake.
- Loosely cover the pie dish with aluminum foil.
- Heat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Bake until sweetened condensed milk has thickened and caramelized, about 2 hours. Add more hot water after 1 hour, since some of it has evaporated.
All of the “work” is hands-off. After 2 hours, the sweetened condensed milk has turned into golden dulce de leche. Magic. Let the dulce de leche cool, then pour into your pre-baked graham cracker crust. You can make the dulce de leche up to 2 weeks in advance.
After that, we have a layer of banana slices. Make sure you use nice yellow bananas and save mushy spotty bananas for recipes like banana bread and banana muffins.
Have you ever had caramel and banana before? This pie is exactly that, but better. A voluminous mountain of soft homemade whipped cream is the finishing touch! Piled high, this creamy layer balances out all the other textures and flavors in this completely irresistible pie.
Banoffee pie is so simple that you’ll feel like you’re doing something wrong. You’re not—it really is this easy. If pie crust isn’t your thing, banoffee pie is!
For even more delicious flavor combinations with bananas, you’ll want to try this peanut butter banana cream pie next.
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Banoffee Pie
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 35 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 servings
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This shockingly easy banoffee pie combines a crunchy graham cracker crust, soft and sweet dulce de leche, thick slices of fresh banana, and a mountain of billowy whipped cream. Everyone who tries a slice is instantly hooked.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) graham cracker crumbs (about 12 full sheet graham crackers)
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 and 1/4 cups dulce de leche**
- 2 large bananas, sliced
Whipped Cream
- 2 cups (480ml) cold heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar or granulated sugar*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional toppings: chocolate shavings, chopped nuts, or toffee bits for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Make the crust: If you’re starting out with full graham crackers, use a food processor or blender to grind them into fine crumbs. Stir the graham cracker crumbs and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl, and then stir in the melted butter. The mixture will be thick, coarse, and sandy. Try to smash/break up any large chunks. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie dish. With medium pressure using your hand, pat the crumbs down into the bottom and up the sides to make a compact crust. Do not pack down with heavy force because that makes the crust too hard. Simply pat down until the mixture is no longer crumby/crumbly. Tips: You can use a small flat-bottomed measuring cup to help press down the bottom crust and smooth out the surface, but do not pack down too hard. And run a spoon around the bottom “corner” where the edge and bottom meet to help make a rounded crust—this helps prevent the crust from falling apart. For more shaping technique tips, see the graham cracker crust recipe page.
- Bake the crust for 15 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes.
- For the whipped cream: Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract on medium-high speed until medium peaks form, about 3-4 minutes. Medium peaks are between soft/loose peaks and stiff peaks and are the perfect consistency for topping and piping on desserts.
- Spread dulce de leche on top of the crust. Arrange banana slices in 1–2 layers on top of the dulce de leche, then spread whipped cream on top.
- Refrigerate pie uncovered for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. Garnish with toppings before serving, if desired.
- Cover and store leftover pie in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Cover the baked and cooled graham cracker crust tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before using. Dulce de leche, instructions below, can be made up to 2 weeks in advance. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator. The fully assembled pie can be prepared up to 1 day in advance. Store uncovered in the refrigerator until ready to serve. I don’t recommend freezing the prepared banoffee pie because it doesn’t thaw very nicely, but you can certainly freeze any leftover slices for up to 3 months.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor | Glass Mixing Bowl | 9-inch Pie Dish | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand)
- Dulce de Leche: You can use store-bought dulce de leche, but I recommend making it at home. You can make it completely from scratch or use 1 (standard 14-ounce/397g) can of sweetened condensed milk. Instructions: Pour the sweetened condensed milk in a pie dish. Place the pie dish in a large roasting pan and place the roasting pan in the oven. Fill the roasting pan with enough HOT water until it reaches halfway up the pie dish. Loosely cover the pie dish with aluminum foil. Heat oven to 350°F (177°C). Bake until sweetened condensed milk has thickened and caramelized, about 2 hours. Add more hot water to the roasting pan after 1 hour, since some of it has evaporated. After 2 hours, the sweetened condensed milk has turned into golden dulce de leche. (If not, continue to bake.) Let the dulce de leche cool, then pour into your pre-baked graham cracker crust. You can make the dulce de leche up to 2 weeks in advance.
- Bananas Browning: Though I haven’t experienced the bananas browning underneath the whipped cream, you can certainly squeeze a few drops of fresh lemon juice all over the banana slices before layering them into the pie. This keeps the banana slices fresh, especially if you’re making the pie a day in advance. With a small amount of juice, you won’t detect the lemon flavor.
- Non-US Readers: If graham crackers are not available where you live, we have also tested this pie with a crust made from digestive biscuits, and it turned out great. Use 200g ground digestive biscuit crumbs (about 2 cups; 13–14 biscuits), 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar, and 6 Tablespoons (85g) melted butter. Pre-bake the crust for a bit longer, about 16-17 minutes.
Delicious recipe! I used unflavored gelatin to stabilize the whipped cream, otherwise followed the recipe as written. It has kept well and slices nicely. Will definitely make again!
Another yummy, easy recipe! The crust just by itself is amazing & stands up to the filling. Simple ingredients make an delicious pie that anyone can be proud of. Warning: this pie is rich & addictive, so serve small slices to start, then maybe you’ll get to take the rest home for yourself!
Note: I used the Nestle brand Dulce le Leche in the can this time, & it was still super.
Thanks Sally & crew for another winner!
I make the caramel in the crockpot a couple cans at a time (they keep in the fridge for up to a month unopened) Just put the cans in the crockpot, cover with water cook on high for 8 hours. Let cool in the water. Viola’ Dulce De Leche! Its great in this pie, in coffee, on top of ice cream……
This pie was a hit – easy to make, delicious flavors, and that graham cracker crust… I did follow another reader’s suggestion to add a smidge of cream cheese to stabilize the whipped cream and that worked perfect for me. When making the dulce de leche in the oven, I found whisking to reincorporate everything at the hour mark and then kicking the oven down to 300*F for the remaining time (whisking well again at the 30 min mark) helped to prevent the condensed milk from going solid on me.
How much water do you add to the baking sweetened condensed milk after an hour? I would be worried about making it too runny by adding too much.
Hi Mary, you are adding the water to the water bath, and not directly to the sweetened condensed milk.
I had this pie at a cafe in Dublin a couple years ago. I’ve been trying to find it here in the US but everyone that has it – just isn’t the same. I’ve decided to take things into my own hands and made it myself. This turned out almost as good as the pie we had in Ireland. Thanks so much. It was delicious.
Hi Ange, thanks for trying this pie! We’re so glad you loved it.
I am so disappointed! I have been cooking my dulce de leche for 4 hours in the oven and it hasn’t even began to turn dark. I’m not sure what I did unless it was because I put it in a cake pan instead of a pie pan. I am trying to take this to a family gathering and gave myself more than enough time, but I wasn’t planning on this long!
Take the can, clean off label and adhesive and place the unopened can in pot. Cover it with water so there’s about 2” over it and simmer low for 2-3 hours depending on how dark you want the dulce de leche. Turn off heat and let entire thing come to room temp. Open can and voila. No fuss no muss. Takes time but it’s all passive and effortless. Works like a charm.
I am having the same problem. It is not cooking at all as described.
This was a hit at my pie day party! I had a lot of difficulty with the dulce de lece – like many others, I ended up with a curdled/flan like consistency due to cooking for the recommended 2 hours. I realized that was way too long for my oven/dishes and ended up making it a second time for about an hour and 40 minutes.