BanBerPudPie

Our friend Erin’s birthday happened to fall on Week 15, so I let Erin’s preference guide the pie for this week.  I had already made her all-time favorite pie, Banana Cream Pie, during Week 3 and since part of my pie adventure is to not repeat pies, I started flipping through my cookbooks to find a pie with banana in it that might serve as a suitable replacement.  I came up with two that I was very interested in trying and Erin opted for the Banana Blueberry Pudding Pie.

Erin's birthday pie

The recipe for Banana Blueberry Pudding Pie comes from the Cutie Pies cookbook, a resource for pies that I love more and more.

How it all begins

The crust on this pie was unique.  Rather than a pastry crust or some form of crushed cookie with melted butter, this recipe called for crumbled vanilla wafers left unmarred by other ingredients or baking.  Just crumbled vanilla wafers.  This was topped with sliced bananas and blueberries that had been dipped in fresh lemon juice.  So far putting this pie together was very simple, and not having to use the oven would make this a perfect pie to make during the hot summer when turning the oven on means raising the temperature of your home from miserable to standing at the fiery gates of Hades.

First vanilla wafers (just vanilla wafers)

Then come the bananas

Add some blueberries and we're almost done

On top of the vanilla wafers and fruit, I mixed together a filling of cream cheese, condensed milk, vanilla pudding, and whipped cream.  Chilled it in the refrigerator for a few hours and voila!  A simple pie, perfect for those hot summer nights.  But was it good?

Whipping up some memorable filling

The simple vanilla wafer “crust” was a pleasant complement to the pudding and fruit.  Another aspect of this pie that made an impression on me was the subtle tanginess achieved by the lemon dipped bananas and blueberries.  It may have been intended to keep the bananas from browning too quickly, but the effect on my taste buds was delightful.  With each bite of this pie, I felt like a kid again, eating pie at Grandma’s dining room table.  Banana Blueberry Pudding Pie is yet another pie I will be putting in my growing list of pies I will be making again in the future. 

View of the layers

Now, I’m sure all of you are dying to know if Erin enjoyed her birthday pie and I am pleased to announce that she loved it and took a slice home for later.  The rest of my family enjoyed the pie immensely; in fact it was given a nickname: BanBerPud Pie.