I think I mentioned recently that we moved to Louisiana 4 years ago in January. What I didn’t tell you was that our move here was part of a much bigger life transition, both in ways that we expected (we meant it when we said we’d go just about anywhere when my husband graduated from college) and ways that we didn’t expect (the months leading up to his graduation were much more tumultuous and stressful than we ever anticipated). On top of that, there were so many general unknowns: the economy was crashing and my husband and I had no idea how that would affect us (other than the fact that one day we were qualified for a home loan and a week later we weren’t because the housing market had fallen apart). Once we’d had a few months to get settled in our new location, reality started setting in: we were far from our friends and family. Real life was expensive. We had a baby and a toddler in a completely unfamiliar place. The economy was getting worse. I felt so lost.
Sara and I had talked about starting a cooking blog for awhile. Cooking blogs were in their very baby stages and we had very modest expectations for what we hoped it would be–mostly a place to organize our recipes for ourselves and share our recipes with our friends and families. A fun hobby. Something to keep us busy. So four years ago tomorrow, we launched our humble little blog with a few of our favorite recipes and hoped that maybe someone would come and read them.
Imagine our surprise when, after a month or so, we started getting comments from people we didn’t know. It was kind of terrifying and exhilarating and fun all at once. We changed our look, we changed our name, we changed our look a few more times. We learned as we went along and suddenly…we had all these readers, all these friends, people who actually kind of cared about our recipes and our stories and the things we were sharing. And, slowly, I started finding myself again.
We get lots of emails and comments that bring us so much happiness (don’t get me wrong, we get a lot that make us want to write a book about crazy people, too!), from the little things like finally showing up your mother-in-law with your homemade dinner rolls to stories so emotional and personal that we feel like it’s an undeserved honor to be considered a part of them. But we rarely get to genuinely thank you guys for what you’ve done for us. We could take pictures and write recipes until we went crazy, but if there was no one reading them, there wouldn’t be any point in it. Thank you for taking this wild ride with us, for letting us tell you our stories and for helping us re-discover who we are. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that this has been one of the greatest, most unexpected blessings in our lives in so many ways and we don’t have the words to thank you.
So I’ll try to do it with pie. Naughty, naughty pie that should only be eaten once a year.
You’ll need a packaged chocolate cookie crust (think a graham cracker crust, only made with Oreos), bananas, sweetened condensed milk, whipping cream, brown sugar, powdered sugar, cream cheese, and toffee chocolate bars (like Heath) or chocolate-covered toffee bits.
Using one can of sweetened condensed milk,
prepare the Dulce de Leche according to these directions.
Yes, I know this picture has two cans–although math was never my subject, I am a fairly competent counter. But I doubled the recipe for evil purposes.
When the Dulce de Leche has cooked, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool slightly. Spread it over the bottom and up the sides of the cookie crust.
If my Dulce de Leche looks a little…clumpy, that’s because it is. When you look at the instructions and they say that it takes about an hour for the Dulce de Leche to cook, it may not be in your best interest to use that hour to take a nap, even though you’re six months pregnant and tired and you were up half the night with allergy-ridden children. It’s okay. It was hidden under layers of awesomeness and still tasted fabulous.
Cut your bananas into 1/4″ slices and lay them on top of the Dulce de Leche…
Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of crushed chocolate toffee bits on top of the bananas and set it aside.
In a medium bowl with electric beaters, mix together the cream cheese and brown sugar until light and fluffy. In a large bowl, beat the whipping cream and powdered sugar together until medium peaks form. Add the cream cheese and mix until well-combined, light, and fluffy.
Gently spread the whipped cream mixture over the toffee bits and then sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of toffee bits. Chill for several hours before serving.
Edited to add: Apparently, everyone else in the world calls this Banoffee Pie. That’s what I get for living under a rock. 🙂
Dulce de Leche Banana Toffee Pie
Recipe by Our Best Bites
Ingredients:
1 8-serving chocolate cookie pie crust
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas
1 cup crushed chocolate-covered toffee bars or Heath bits
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
8 ounces cream cheese (light is fine)
1/4 cup brown sugar
Instructions:
Prepare Dulce de Leche according to these instructions. When done, allow to cool slightly and then spread onto the bottom and up the sides of the cookie crust.
Cut the bananas into 1/4″ slices. Lay the slices over the Dulce de Leche. Sprinkle with about 1/2 of the toffee bits and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Beat with electric beaters until medium peaks form. In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese and the brown sugar with the electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the whipped cream and mix with the electric mixer until fluffy and combined. Gently spread over the toffee bits and then sprinkle with remaining toffee bits. Chill for several hours before serving. Serves 8-10.
Questions & Reviews
Made this for a meeting tonight but just had to steal a sliver to taste…..oh my it IS divine. Definetely going to be a keeper. Very easy too. Did the crock pot method for the dulce de leche part. SOOOO AWESOME. Thanks for sharing.
I made this pie for an early St. Patrick’s Day party (since they eat a lot of that in Ireland) and everyone said it was my best dessert yet! Even the one who lived in Ireland loved it! Just a tip: when making two pies don’t double the whipped topping. I think I have enough of it left over to make the Strawberries and Cream Pie from this site. Lucky Me!
Happy happy Birthday! I cannot thank you enough for your hard work and dedication to this blog and your cookbook! I make things every week from your recipes! Thank you for the realness!
Had quite a lot of festivities this weekend and so we made 2 of these pies and brought them….such a HIT. Everyone loved them! Thanks OBB for making cooking/baking so much fun and enjoyable.
Could I use the ready made dulce de leche that is found in the hispanic food aisle in most stores?
I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure you could! 🙂
Banoffee Pie! I’ve had something similar pinned for a while. This looks WONDERFUL. Thanks for working so hard and sharing all of your wonderful recipes with us.
I’ve been reading for almost four years now and I’ve loved your website. Thanks for sharing all your delicious recipes! Happy bloggy-birthday!
I enjoyed Banoffee Pie everyday for three weeks at the Preston, England MTC. That was thirteen years ago and I have been dreaming about it ever since, can’t wait to try this!
Happy Birthday! Your pie looks delicious as all of your recipes are. I am so glad that you ladies started this blog and kept it going. We love trying and falling in love with your recipes. Thank you for all of the work you do for all of us.
Happy Birthday, OBB! This looks wonderful and very rich! 🙂
Oh. My.
(Happy birthday, Kate and Sara!)
I made this once (ala Paula Deen) and by the time I served it, the dulce de leche was liquid. As soon as those cut bananas touched it, it went runny. Did I do something wrong?
I can’t believe I just cried reading a cooking blog. Thanks for all you do! I have never trusted anyone to give me a steady stream of reliably yummy recipes like y’all. I’ll never forget my first OBB- the peppermint ganache brownies. They got me hooked!
Happy birthday to your blog! Great pie to celebrate.
Happy birthday OBB! So thankful for you both! I started following you a year ago and have never eaten the same since. Your recipes are fantastic.
Happy Birthday! What would we do without you?
I have to admit I’m more the visit than comment kind of visitor but I do check your site daily (sometimes more than once!) for recipes or interesting blogs. I have seen this recipe before but never made it (yet). Looks delicious. In honor of your anniversary I went to Amazon and bought the Kindle version of your cookbook. Congrats on your success and thanks for all the great recipes and blogs!!
Happy Birthday OBB!! I love your recipies and I love reading your blog!
Happy Birthday Our Best Bites! I am living the resident’s wife life far away fom home and family too. This year marks my 6th year having to live away from family, and I have always used fun recipes to brighten my day and make me feel slightly closer to home. Some of the other student wives were talking about this great blog that they found, where everything tasted wonderful, and how fun the authors were! I bought the book on good faith and it has been so fun trying all of your yummy recipes! Your popcorns are often seved at our presidency meetings, and your cookies and breads at our book club. This year I hit the big 3-0, to celebrate I am having an “Oprah style” party where my friends can win some of my favorite things (on a much smaller level… Think gerber daisies, and a drawing where only one is given away!) and your book! Just thought you would like to know that your fan club is still growing and this is just the beginning! Happy Birthday!
DULCE DE LECHE is ARGENTINIAN!
Not only is it called “Banoffee” pie — it’s an English dessert. My friends, who live in London, introduced me to this dessert! The Brits say it’s an “American” dessert. There is an interesting history on this pie that you can read about on Wikipedia. Banoffee pie, regardless of how you make it, is delicious!
I just wanted to tell you that I made the tuna noodle casserole for my family last night…IT WAS SO YUMMY!! An instant hit with my family! My husband said he justed wanted to keep going back for more! My tuna casserole recipe was sad and didn’t get made very often (it involved cream of mushroom soup…) Well, your recipe will have a permenant place in our family menu.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! FABULOULISHOUSNESS~~
Dale and I are so very proud of you! Happy Birthday Our Best Bites!!!!!
Happy Happy Birthday!! I love love love Our Best Bites and am so glad you created such a sweet, fun, charming, and friendly, not to mention crazy delish! cooking blog. Thank you for all of the fab recipes and for creating a place where I feel like your friend xoxo
My husband used to work under a chef for a film catering business. It’s been YEARS ago but he taught me to make a yummy pie w/ sweetend condensed milk that you make into caramel by boiling the unopened can of sweetened condensed milk. It was a pretty cool cooking concept. That pie had banana’s in it too. Just thought maybe it would give you something to play with. 🙂 I had never seen the concept before or since.
Happy blogiversary! I love your site and am thankful that I get to read your life stories to feel a little bit more normal about the silly things I do.
Happy Birthday! I LOVE your blog and look forward to seeing what you post every week. I have made many of your recipes and they are all delicious. Thank you!
I love the pi day idea! I usually make apple (my son’s favorite) or berry (my husband’s favorite) for pi day but I’m pretty sure that it’s my turn to have caramel-toffee-creamy-deliciousness that is very likely to become MY favorite. I also have one daughter that thinks she doesn’t like pie because of the crust but I’m pretty sure this could change her mind. Thanks for another great recipe!
And happy birthday! You have pulled me out of many dinnertime slumps. Love the blog, love the cookbook, can’t wait for the next one!
Happy 4th birthday! I’ve been reading you since the beginning, too, ever since I saw your link on my sister Carly’s blog. I had just started to realize back then what a food blog was. Now I read a lot of them, but honestly, yours is my fave–fun, easy and DELICIOUS recipes. You guys are awesome! And I love being able to tell people that my sister is good friends with you guys. 🙂
Perfect recipe to try for next week’s Pi day! Thanks! (And I’ve seen this recipe all over lately, but I’m gonna make yours, because nobody makes it as well as you do!)