Chocolate Banoffee Pie

On my top ten best puddings in the UK is banoffee pie. This recipe is a twist on the original banoffe pie that I first fell in love with. I found this chocolate version in a cookbook called "Puddings" and every recipe used sweetened condensed milk, so they all looked very yummy. I got raving reviews on this one, but beware as it is very rich tasting and very addictive to eat. For those in the US, you may not be able to find some of the ingredients listed but I found some nice equivalents. Guess you'll have to come to England to taste the real version!!!

Ingredients:

Base:

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp mixed spice (or pumpkin pie spice)

100 g butter (1/2 cup)

250 g digestive biscuits, finely crushed (one sleeve of graham crackers)

Filling:

100 g butter (1/2 cup)

50 g sugar (1/4 cup)

50 g dark brown sugar (5 Tbsp packed brown sugar)

397 g can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)

1 Tbsp black treacle (dark molasses)

75 g (3 oz) dark chocolate, melted

Top:

4 small bananas, sliced

284 ml carton double cream or heavy whipping cream (1 cup), lightly whipped

cocoa powder to dust

chocolate shavings

Method:

Add cocoa powder, mixed spice and melted butter to the crushed biscuits and blend well.

Press mixture into the base and part way up the sides of a 20 cm (8 in) spring form pan, then chill well.

Make the filling; place butter and both sugars in saucepan over low heat stirring until the butter has melted and the sugars dissolved.

Add condensed milk and bring to a gentle boil and stir continuously to make golden caramel.

When it really starts to boil, remove pan from the heat and add treacle (molasses) and melted dark chocolate and mix thoroughly. Spread filling over the biscuit base and chill about 1 hour 30 minutes until firm.

To serve, slice bananas, fold half of them into whipped cream and spoon over toffee base.

Decorate with the remaining bananas and dust liberally with cocoa powder.

I also added grated shavings from the left over dark chocolate on top as well. Unclasp the spring form pan and serve. You may want to set it on a larger plate as it gets a little crumbly when you cut it to serve.

***Note: If you need to prepare this dessert far in advance, you may want to lightly coat your sliced bananas with lemon juice to keep them from turning brown. (Granted they are coated with cocoa and chocolate, but just in case.)