Banana Boat

make a date with your oven

one of my favorites

Banana cream pie doesn’t get much love. It rarely tops lists of people’s favorite desserts and aside from the occasional spot in the South, I almost never see it on a menu. I’ve loved it since I was a kid but whenever people ask me what my favorite pie is, I feel shy answering honestly. It feels like an unsophisticated answer, like I am saying my favorite food is mashed potatoes or cheese pizza. But it’s the truth. It’s the first pie I ever made myself and I put it in our first book because it's first in my heart. Despite this undying love, I wanted to fuck with the formula and make something related to banana cream pie with a little less fuss and a little more fanciness. These banana galettes are the answer.

This is the perfect sweet-but-not-too-sweet dessert. You spread a layer of date caramel on top of the pie crust, add the slightly sweetened bananas, fold over the edges, and you’re done. Through the magic of the oven these guys transform into something that you’d find in the case of your favorite coffee shop. They’re delicious warm, dusted with powdered sugar, topped with whipped cream, or cold the next morning with your latte. You can’t fuck these up. Plus galettes are the ideal dessert for those of us who get a little too preoccupied trying to *perfectly crimp* our crust edges. These are rustic by nature so embrace the imperfectness.

Dates and bananas are meant to be together. If you’ve had the banana date shake from Fast as Fuck you already know this. The date caramel isn’t the star of the show here but that doesn’t mean you should overlook it as a standalone recipe. It’s a great dip for apples, spread on some toast, smeared inside cinnamon rolls, or as the filling for some wholesome whoopie pies made with the carrot cake cookies from Eat Like A Give a Fuck. So even if you don’t make the galettes, I strongly encourage you to make this caramel. I’m putting it in everything. But you should make the galettes too.

Banana Galettes with Date Caramel

Makes 4 good-sized galettes, enough for 6-8 people

Flaky Pie Crust

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cane sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 stick nondairy butter, chopped into chunks and frozen for at least an hour

4 tablespoons coconut oil or shortening, chopped into chunks and frozen for at least an hour

1/2 cup ice cold water

Date Caramel

10 pitted medjool dates, as plump as you can find

½ cup nondairy milk

2 tablespoons maple syrup

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

6 good-sized bananas

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons coconut oil

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

First, let’s make the crust. This can be done a few days in advance so you don’t have to stress about doing it all at once. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Dump the chopped up cold butter and coconut oil into the flour bowl. Using a pastry cutter or 2 big-ass forks, mush all the fat into the flour until there aren’t any big chunks. It should look like clumpy sand with a bunch of pea-sized fat pebbles in it. If any of the fat starts getting too melted, stick that entire fucking bowl back in the freezer for a few minutes so they can firm up. When you bake up the pie crust those little fat pebbles are gonna melt, leaving little pockets in the crust making it all flakey. That’s why you wanna keep all this as cold as possible.

Sprinkle the flour with half of the ice water and stir until a shaggy dough starts to come together. You want it to come together into a ball with as little water as possible because that can make it tough. Add as much of the rest of the water as you need to make that shit happen. Pat it together into a ball and cut that shit into four roughly equal parts then kinda pat them into sort of flat disks about the size of a softball. Wrap them each in plastic wrap or throw them in an airtight bag and keep them cold until you’re ready for them.

Next, let’s make the date caramel. Throw the dates, milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt in your food processor and run that shit until it’s smooth. You might have to take off the lid and scrape down the sides a few times to make that happen but it’s easy enough.  Pour that into a little cup and set it aside.

When you are ready to bake, warm up the oven to 350 degrees F and grab a medium bowl. Cut the bananas into coins no thicker than ½ inch and toss them in the bowl. Add the maple syrup, coconut oil, and cinnamon and stir to combine. Now it’s time to galette. On a well-floured surface, roll one of the crusts to create a large, shaggy-edged circle about the size of a dinner plate. Draw a circle in the center of the crust leaving an inch around the edge so we can fold that shit over. Smear a couple spoonfuls of the date caramel on the bottom of the crust inside the circle then cover it in a single layer of banana slices. Fold the edges over to create a little hand pie. Repeat the process with all the pie crusts and place them on 2 baking sheets. Brush the crust with a little nondairy milk and oil mixed together and sprinkle over some sugar, just for looks. Bake for 25-35 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Let these cool for at least 30 minutes before serving to give the filling a chance to firm up. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold dusted in powdered sugar, with some ice cream, whipped cream, or just as-is with a cup of coffee or tea.

Banana Galettes With Date Caramel

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Thanks so much for joining us here in The Broiler Room where everyone is good-looking and there’s always dessert in the fridge. What’s your favorite pie of all time? Or do you have a secret favorite dessert that other people think is childish? Let us know in the comments!