Happy National Pi(e) Day: Lightened Banoffee Pie

This is my first year celebrating National Pi Day with a slice of homemade pie. Did you know that Pi day was deemed an actual national holiday by the House of Representatives in 2009. Now I do not actually know if everyone started eating pie 5 years ago, but I think it is a wonderful idea! I should have been celebrating it since math was one of my favorite subjects in school.

How about a nerdy fact that I learned? We need to celebrate it even bigger next year because, according to USA Today, at exactly 3/14/15; 9:26:53, it will show the first ten digits of Pi in perfect order. So cool!

So what pie did I choose to commemorate this day? I actually have been keeping my eye on a specific recipe for the past 6 months from my Dessert recipe board on Pinterest called Banoffee Pie from une gamine dans la cuisine. The pictures of the recipes are what always what capture my attention but I could not muster the richness of the dessert, so I decided to lighten the original recipe.

What is dessert if not prepared the way it was intended? The recipe calls for 4 steps of sinful goodness, but I was challenged to produce something lighter because I know what dulce de leche and bananas foster taste by themselves.

While the original recipe is almost 800 calories a slice, my recipe turned out to be almost 300 calories a slice. Yes. My husband took an extra slice because it was THAT good, even with this lightened version.

So what did I do? I used low-fat dulce de leche instead of the full-fat version. Instead of graham crackers I used Goya's Palmeritas, which are Spanish cookies. Even though I like making my own whipped cream, I decided to use Cool Whip, which I only use on occasion, which was simply perfect for this dessert. I know there is no comparison but my hubby and I are making it a point to watch our dessert intake. The bananas foster used coconut sugar, less butter and rum and was so delicious. I could have eaten that on its own.

This layered pie was amazing and was really hard for me to stick to one slice, but maybe I will share with my mother, who comes into town tomorrow. Want a slice? Come on over and share a cup of coffee on this brilliant mathematical day.

Lightened Banoffee Pie

by Noelle Kelly

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients (8 slices)

1 whole package of Goya Palmeritas cookies, crushed
2/3 cup Gaucho Ranch Dulce De Leche Milk Caramel Spread or any low-fat version
1 stick salted butter, divided
3 bananas
2 teaspoons Nielsen-Massey pure vanilla powder
1/8 cup rum
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1 cup cool whip, thawed

Instructions

Crust

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place cookies in a food process and pulse until the cookies are fine crumbs. Add 1/8 cup of the coconut sugar and add 6 Tablespoons of melted butter into the crumbs and pulse until mixed.

Place cookie crumbs into a 9-inch pie plate. Press crumbs onto the pie plate and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and cool crust for 20-30 minutes.

Caramelized Bananas

Melt the remaining 2 Tablespoons of butter in a non-stick pan and add the mashed bananas, vanilla, 1/8 cup coconut sugar and rum. Cook for 10 minutes on medium high heat until the mixture is caramelized. Place bananas in a bowl to cool for 20-30 minutes. Set aside.

Assembly

Add 2/3 cup dulce de leche to the bottom of the cookie crust. Spread evenly. Place the cooled banana mixture on top of the dulce de leche and also spread evenly. The last layer is the thawed cool whip.

Place pie in the fridge to cool or flash cool in the freezer for 30 minutes, which is what we did. Serves 8.

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Labels: bananas, banoffee pie, dulce de leche, Gaucho Ranch, Goya, lighter recipe, National Pi Day, Nielsen-Massey, pie, quick, vegetarian, vegetarian recipes on recipage