Happy National Banana Cream Pie Day!

Did you know there was such a thing? Me neither. However, I love Banana Cream Pie and am happy to have an extra reason to eat it and clearly the suggestion of the day is to celebrate it! Bananas are important to include in your diet. If you don't love a plain banana, perhaps a Banana Cream Pie will turn that frown upside down?

I wouldn't be me without taking a look at banana nutrition for a quick minute to help convince you of it's virtues. According to the popular health website, mercola.com from Dr. Mercola; "Bananas contain all kinds of good things – health-promoting flavonoids and poly-phenolics, such as lutein, zeaxanthin, beta and alpha carotenes, acting as free radical-gobbling antioxidants. That’s also an advantage in the high vitamin C content, most known for its infection-fighting properties. Just one banana contains 467 mg of potassium, which is important for controlling your heart rate and blood pressure. This is interesting, since the same amount of banana has just one milligram of sodium. The vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) in bananas provides around 28% of what is needed daily to help prevent anemia and coronary artery disease. And that’s just part of it. Fiber in abundance helps keep your digestive system regulated. Magnesium helps strengthen your bones and protects your heart. Manganese is needed to activate antioxidant enzyme. One banana supplies an adequate amount of copper to keep up the production of red blood cells."

This is all compelling information for including bananas in your life and my Banana Custard recipe takes it to the level of a celebration. Of course, I also love Bananas Foster, banana ice cream, grilled bananas, banana muffins and banana bread. I guess I'll have to post those recipes soon as well, now that I mention it. But back to the custard.

I recently posted my recipe for a Deconstructed Banana Cream Pie using a Cream Cheese Walnut Cookie crumbled as a base. This recipe can be found on the Something Sweet page and I have used that picture here. The Banana Custard takes only a few minutes to make but does neet some time in the fridge to get cold and set up. So if you don't have time to make the cookies you could use other cookies you have on hand to crumble for the crust or bake your favorite pie crust recipe. Either way, I hope you'll make my Banana Custard recipe to enjoy even without a crust and celebrate the sweetness of bananas! Enjoy!

Banana Custard

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 2/3 cup water

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 very ripe bananas, 1 will be mashed and 1 sliced - but must be done at the last minute to prevent browning, do not mash or slice ahead of time

whipped cream - 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar or sugar amount to taste

shredded sweetened coconut to taste, optional

In a saucepan dissolve the cornstarch in water with a whisk, add in sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat whisking constantly but gently until mixture gets thick and starts to bubble. Remove from heat immediately and stir in vanilla, butter (coconut if using) and mashed banana. Allow to sit for 5 minutes then transfer to a bowl and press in a piece of saran wrap to prevent skin from forming. Allow to cool further. When just slightly warm, put in refrigerator until completely chilled - about 2 hours.