A creamy, rich, banana filled dessert that tastes every bit as good as the kind I used to eat before I became a vegan.
One of my favorite pies hands down is a cream pie. Coconut cream, chocolate cream, lemon cream, and banana cream, they’re all soooo good! I haven’t had one in over a year; because I wasn’t sure if I could actually make a good vegan cream pie, but yesterday there were three ripe bananas sitting on my kitchen counter top, begging to be turned into a vegan banana cream pie. What could I do? I didn’t have any choice but to oblige them their one request before they turned into a mushy mess.
The banana cream pies that I scarfed down as a child were usually made from banana flavored Jell-O pudding. Don’t even ask me to go there! There are so many inappropriate remarks going through my brain right now. Anyway, back to the pie. Those pies were great, as a kid you could hand me anything with sugar and I would have been happy. But then I grew up, and my taste in food became more refined. Those pudding pies just didn’t do it for me anymore, so when a craving took over my soul, I’d march myself over to Baker’s Square to get my cream pie on. But I can’t do that anymore, cuz I’m a vegan.
Like I said before, those bananas taunted me with their little banana voices, until they wore me down and I found myself seeking out five star banana cream pie recipes on the internet. Why wasn’t I researching a vegan banana cream pie recipe, or a vegan banana pudding recipe? Because, I wanted to try and create my own spin on a traditional pie recipe, and I wouldn’t be able to do that if I looked at other vegan banana cream pie recipes.
As I looked at recipe after recipe, I noticed a certain theme taking place. Heavy cream, whole milk, and eggs where at the center of this recipe, and I started to feel confident that I could replace the heavy cream with coconut milk, the whole milk with almond milk, and the eggs with flax “eggs.” If it didn’t work out, then it didn’t work out, but I had to try, because those bananas where not going to give up.
I finally settled on a Food.com recipe. It had five stars, and the recipe had “old-fashioned” in the title, it had to be good, right? So I took that lovely recipe, and I set out to make it vegan.
As the coconut milk, almond milk, sugar, cornstarch (I decided to use that rather than flour), flax “eggs,” and salt began to bubble and thicken, I felt optimistic. It firmed up nicely and I transferred it into a bowl to cool. Once it was cool enough to taste I was pleasantly surprised, because it tasted like a nice, thick, and creamy vanilla pudding, which is exactly how it was supposed to taste until the bananas were added. Yay!
While the vegan pudding was cooling, I made the crust. I didn’t want a regular pie crust so I made my almond and date crust. I just thought it would add more flavor and dimension to the pie. And it did.
Once the vegan banana pudding was cool I poured half of it over the crust that I had pressed into the pie pan, then I thinly sliced two bananas and evenly spread the pieces over the pudding mixture. I poured the remaining pudding on top of the banana slices, covered it, and put it in the refrigerator to set overnight.
To say that I was nervous to try this vegan banana cream pie recipe would be an understatement. I don’t know why I put so much pressure on myself, but I do. Thankfully, and happily, it was a success! It was creamy, dreamy, rich and bananarama delicious. There’s a blast from the past! Cruel Summer, Venus, I Heard a Rumour? Which one was your favorite? You tell me and I’ll tell you. Leave a comment.
Now that I know how to make vegan pudding, I’m going to make more cream pies, like chocolate, lemon, and coconut. Oh yeah, surprisingly, I didn’t really get a strong coconut taste from the coconut milk, it was there, but it wasn’t overwhelming.
Linda and Alex at Veganosity
Yields 1
A rich, creamy, dreamy vegan banana cream pie recipe that will satisfy everyone at your table.
20 minPrep Time
15 minCook Time
35 minTotal Time
Ingredients
- Crust
- 1 1/4 cup roasted/salted almonds
- 1 cup dates –soaked in warm water for 2o minutes
- 1/4 cup dried, toasted coconut
- Blend the ingredients in a food processor until it forms a ball. Press the mixture evenly on the bottom of a pie pan.
- Filling
- 1/2 cup vegan sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups of coconut milk – not light
- 1 and 1/2 cups of almond milk
- 3 tablespoons of ground flax seed + 6 tablespoons of water – mix well until it becomes thick and sticky like eggs
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
- 2 ripe bananas – thinly sliced
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together until well blended. Set aside.
- In a heavy medium saucepan whisk the coconut and almond milk together on medium heat until warm. Whisk in the sugar mixture and continue whisking, add the flax eggs and continue whisking until it becomes thick and it begins to boil. Transfer to a bowl and whisk in the coconut oil and vanilla until completely combined. Let cool for approximately one hour.
- While the filling is cooling make the crust.
- Drain and rinse the dates and put them in a food processor with the almond and coconut and blend until it becomes thick and sticky. Press evenly into the bottom of a pie pan.
- When the filling is cool spread half of it evenly over the pie crust. Spread the bananas evenly over the filling and then evenly spread the remaining filling on top of the bananas. Cover and refrigerate for at least 5 hours, preferably overnight to set.
- Keep refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Not into cream pie? No problem, try our vegan Chambord Cherry Pie
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