If you pay attention to who writes what in this blog, you’ll notice that I’m responsible for a disproportionate number of dessert posts. I really, really try to not make all my posts about dessert, if just so that Lucy can get some sweet stuff in once in a while, but it is only with great effort that I add main dishes or veg recipes. And now I know why:

This is from my grandma’s recipe box. The massive, towering stack of recipe cards? That’s all the desserts. The diminutive stack? That’s everything that isn’t dessert. Clearly dessert madness is hereditary.

This recipe is from the big stack. It’s one of the favorite recipes, and even if you aren’t a banana fan, you can use another fruit, or even just keep the pie crust recipe. It’s the best pie crust I’ve ever eaten, bar none. I know everyone has pie superstitions and rules, but trust me, this one works. Make sure you follow basic pie rules: half butter, half shortening or lard; make sure the fats and the water are very cold when you’re working with them; and poke holes in the crust before you bake and use some sort of pie weights (dried beans in aluminum foil work fine, and you can still use the beans). The butter provides flavor and shortening/lard create the flaky texture. The flakiness comes from when the pea-sized balls of fat you create when blending are coated with flour, then they’re flattened out into paper-thin disks and when baked, they essentially fry the surrounding flour: but this can’t happen if the fats aren’t cold when you start, because they’ll get melty too soon, and it will mix together too much and not fry it properly. The pie weights show the crust who’s boss, and prevent it from puffing up too much, there are worse things in the world than too-thick crust, but a perfect crust will be sure to impress your MIL/MILE/everyone else with taste buds. And lastly, if you don’t want to burn the edges of the crust, aluminum foil is a great heat shield, just put it over any part that’s browning too fast.

That said, I know I lot of people think pie crust is impossible. If you follow the rules above and recipe below, I assure, not only is it COMPLETELY POSSIBLE, it’s also incredibly delicious.

Flaky Butter Pastry

• 1½ c sifted flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp sugar
• ¼ c butter
• ¼ c shortening
• 3-4 tbsp cold water

Sift flour, salt, and sugar into a medium sized bowl. Cut in butter and shortening with a fork or pastry blender until mixture is consistency of a coarse meal. Sprinkle water over one tablespoon at a time. Mix lightly with a fork just until pastry holds together and leaves the sides of the bowl clean. Roll out pastry to a 12 inch round, fit into a 9-inch pie plate (or roll to 11 inches for an 8 inch pie plate). For a baked pastry shell (like the banana custard cream pie), prick pastry all over with a fork. Bake in a very hot oven (450°F) for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Banana Custard Cream Pie

• Prepared pie crust (cooled)
• ½ c sugar
• ½ c cake flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1⅔ c milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c heavy cream
• 3 tbsp confectioner’s sugar (regular sugar will do)
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 4 medium ripe bananas
• 1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

Combine sugar, flour, & salt in top of double boiler. Stir in milk until mixture is blended. Cook over simmering water, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick, about 15 minutes. Beat egg yolks slightly in a small bowl. Stir in a small amount of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, then pour mixture in a thin stream into the hot mixture, stirring vigorously to blend. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Put a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface to keep skin from forming, refrigerate until cold. To assemble*: whip cream with confectioner’s sugar and vanilla in a medium sized bowl until stiff. Fold half the whipped cream into the chilled custard, and spoon half of this filling into prepared shell. Slice 2 of the bananas and place in a layer over custard. Top with remaining custard. Slice remaining bananas, toss in lemon juice, spoone over filling. Spread the remaining cream over the top of the pie or pipe through pastry bag around the edge of the pie. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

*I was out of lemon juice, so I changed the order of assembly so there were no bananas on top, except for a couple decorative slices which I picked off and ate promptly after taking pictures. I put down just enough custard to cover the crust, then a layer of bananas, half the remaining custard, more bananas, and then the rest of the custard. And I spooned the whipped cream on, because I was too lazy (and hungry) to find my piping bag.

Find this recipe on SpringPad: http://sprng.me/9mgc9