My Own Banana Cream Pie

I was asked to serve in our church's nursery starting in January. We had to go out of town on the second Sunday of January, to go see our nephew give his farewell talk in church before leaving on a two-year mission to Brazil. So, I had to ask one of the nursery parents if they could substitute.

I was delighted when the first parent I got hold of readily agreed to take my place. So I baked her a pie and she was delighted that she finally got to be part of the blog.

This week I was craving good old Southern comfort food. I love a good Southern banana pudding, with the layers of vanilla wafers, bananas, pudding, and whipped cream. So I decided to try to replicate this in a pie. Since I couldn't find any truly satisfactory recipes online for doing this, I made my own.

Southern Banana Cream Pie
recipe by Margo Mead

1 1/2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2-2 bananas, sliced
1 4-serving box instant banana pudding, prepared as directed on box for pie filling (takes less milk than for pudding)
cool whip or prepared whipping cream

Combine crushed wafers with melted butter or margarine. Press on bottom and sides of pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool.

Place sliced bananas all over bottom and sides of crust. Pour in prepared instant pudding. Top with cool whip and additional sliced bananas. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Best if eaten the same day.

Week 13: The Orange Mousse Pies that Never Went Anywhere

I joined a group called "Love the Pie" on Facebook, and they posted a link to an Orange Mousse Pie one day. I thought it sounded pretty good. So I went back and found the link, bought all the ingredients and proceeded to make it.

I tripled the recipe as usual. It made so much filling that I had to make 1 more pie shell to hold it all. So we had our pie for ourselves, and 3 other pies besides. And we found that the pie did not taste as good as the recipe looked. It was a little too creamy and not enough orange-y.



And then, life got in the way. I don't remember why, but I just could not find the time to get these pies out to anyone. Finally I appealed to my friends on Facebook to come pick them up, and one did. Cody took another one to a potluck. The last pie just got thrown away. I felt so wasteful, especially since the ingredients were not cheap. But in the end you just have to learn from it and go on.

Orange Mousse Pie
from Pillsbury.com

INGREDIENTS
Crust:
1 box Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Filling:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup orange juice
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
2 cups whipping cream
2 large oranges, chopped, drained (2 cups)*

Topping:
1 container (6 oz) Yoplait® Original 99% Fat Free French vanilla yogurt

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 450°F. Bake pie crust as directed on box for One-Crust Baked Shell, using 9-inch glass pie plate. Cool on cooling rack 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, mix gelatin and orange juice; let stand 1 minute. Cook and stir over medium heat until dissolved. In small bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and orange peel with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and fluffy. Gradually add softened gelatin; blend well. Refrigerate until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
3. In large bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into orange mixture; gently fold in chopped oranges. Spoon into crust. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. Garnish with additional orange peel, if desired. Top each serving with dollop of yogurt. Cover and refrigerate any remaining pie.

*One can (11 oz) mandarin orange segments, drained and coarsely chopped, can be substituted for the 2 large oranges.