Banoffee Pie Flop

Ah, the spring-form pan. Such an innovative idea, in theory. But in reality, a culinary disaster waiting to happen. Or maybe I'm the disaster... My friends and family may be more inclined to say it's all me, as I do have a little bit of a history as the resident klutz.

So recently I've been getting into Chuck's Day Off, a Montreal based Food Network show about this trendy, urban tattooed guy and what he cooks in his restaurant on his day off. And actually last week, they featured this amazing (and simple) recipe for Banoffee Pie. It had ingredients that could only be good together. And here's what it looked like:

All weekend I thought of not much other than how I would go about making this dish, how easy it was, how it would be interesting to finally make my own caramel with condensed milk, and above all, how amazing I thought this would be. Here's the recipe:

• 20 Oreo cookies
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 300 ml can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 sliced bananas
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons strong coffee 

Instructions:

1. Place the sealed can of condensed milk into a large pot, fill with water to about two inches above the can, and cook in a preheated oven on 350 degrees for 3 1/2 hours. 
2. In the meantime, whiz up the Oreos in a food processor, and then add in 1/4 cup of melted butter. This recipe tells you to portion the crumbs right onto the plate using a circular mold or cookie cutter. I, of course, made one big one (actually I doubled the recipe too) in my lovely spring form pan. Set aside in the fridge.
3. When the caramel is done, set aside to cool.
4. Slice bananas and add a little lemon juice so they don't turn brown. Layer them onto the Oreo mixture, then add a layer of the caramel. Repeat once. 
5. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add the icing sugar and coffee, and whip just a little more. 
6. Serve each slice/mold with a good dollop of the coffee whipped cream, and a sprinkle of extra oreo crumbs. 

So this was all fine and good. I made it all, and it looked great. I picked up the pan with one hand, and sadly, this is the picture that one of my brother-in-laws snapped a picture of, later to be posted on facebook by another brother-in-law. 

SIGH........ Lesson learned: Use two hands with a spring form pan. Or maybe, don't freakin' use them at all.... My sister-in-law did get some on her arm while helping me clean it up, though, and said it tasted good. Something to try again another day.