Mini Chocolate Banana Cream Pies

🎶 on the twelfth day of christmas, my true love gave to me… 12 mini chocolate banana cream pies…

11 mini butterscotch eclairs

10 cranberry pineapple upside down cakes

9 mini lemon tarts

8 mini coconut cakes

7 tiny slices of almond cake

6 eggnog pots de creme

5 chocolate peppermint mini cupcakes

4 mini cranberry bundt cakes

3 mini lemon ricotta loaves

2 mini sorghum ginger cookies

and a mini chai latte cupcake. 🎶

The last day of the 12 {mini} days of Christmas features one of my favorite desserts of all time: Chocolate Banana Cream Pie. Chocolate custard, bananas, rum custard, and whipped cream are layered inside a buttery shortbread cookie crust for the ultimate crowd pleasing dessert.

🎄welcome to the 12 {mini} days of christmas – day #12! 🎄

If you’re wondering “why mini?” click on over to the first post in this series to find out. Otherwise, let’s talk about these mini chocolate banana cream pies…

This is the first time I’ve ever done a series on this blog, but it won’t be the last. It was kind of nice focusing on creating recipes that fit a theme – baking several desserts that are quite different in substance, but connected under the umbrella of being small.

I also began this series on the mini dessert bandwagon, and I’m still on it.

Maybe even more so.

These mini chocolate banana cream pies are a great example of why. I’ve been making this exact same recipe as a regular sized pie for years. I love it. My family loves it. Everyone to whom I’ve ever served it, loves it.

It’s not really hard to understand why a pie like this is such a crowd pleaser. A buttery, shortbread cookie crust is layered with chocolate custard, bananas, rum custard, and whipped cream. What’s not to love?

But, from now on, unless I’m making several chocolate banana cream pies to serve a crowd, I’m making them as mini pies. One of the best things about mini desserts is how much control they offer each of us to decide how much dessert we really want.

Served whole, each one of these mini pies is about the same size as a normal slice of a regular sized pie. If that’s the kind of portion you’re looking for, the pie is all yours for the taking. No slicing required.

But, when you just want a bite or two, it’s kind of hard to cut a small enough slice of regular sized pie or cake. Not so with mini desserts. Like so many of the other recipes in this series, these little chocolate banana cream pies can be sliced into 2, 4, or even 6 little slices.

This might be the end of the 12 {mini} Days of Christmas series, but it’s not the end of mini dessert recipes. I see a lot more of them happening in 2018 as well as some other super cool things that I can’t wait to tell you about.

This is not only the end of the series, it’s the last post of 2017.

As the year comes to a close, I want to shout a big, fat THANK YOU through the screen because I am really, truly so very grateful for YOU  – every single one of you who reads the words I type and bake the recipes I create. I love your feedback and your questions. Your criticism and your praise.

I also want to thank all of you who have purchased my very first cookbook, Salted Caramel. Your support means more to me than I can say. 2018 will include at least one more… perhaps even 2.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

See you in 2018.

xoxo

used in this recipe:

Wilton Non-Stick Mini Tart Pans

Mini Chocolate Banana Cream Pies

Mini Chocolate Banana Cream Pies

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• Author: Rebecca Blackwell
• Yield: Six 4-inch pies

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Ingredients

FOR THE CRUST:

• 16 oz. shortbread cookies
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 4–6 tbsp. butter, melted

FOR THE FILLING:

• 5 oz. bittersweet chocolate
• 2 cups whole milk
• ¼ c. cornstarch
• ½ c. sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp cold butter
• 3 tbsp. rum
• 1 1/2 tbsp heavy cream
• 2 large bananas
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 5 tbsp. powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

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Instructions

MAKE THE CRUST:

1. Add the shortbread, salt and nutmeg to the bowl of a food processor and process in long pulses until finely ground and beginning to stick to the sides. Add the vanilla and the 4 tbsp of the melted butter. Pulse until all the shortbread crumbs are moistened and if you squeeze it between your fingers, it sticks together. Add as much more of the butter as you need.
2. Divide the crumbs between six mini tart pans. Press evenly into the bottom and up the sides of each pan. Freeze the pie shells for at least one hour.

MAKE THE FILLING:

1. Place the chocolate in a small bowl and set aside.
2. In a heavy saucepan, whisk together the cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Slowly whisk in the milk and then the egg yolks. Cook over medium-high heat until the custard boils and is very thick, about 5 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla. Measure out ½ cup of the hot custard and add to the bowl of chocolate; let sit for a minute or two to melt the chocolate.
4. Whisk the 2 tbsb. butter into the custard in the saucepan. Stir in the rum and transfer the rum custard to a heatproof bowl. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 2-3 hours.
5. Stir the chocolate custard until all the chocolate is melted and smooth. If the chocolate hasn’t melted after a few minutes, heat it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. Stir in 1½ tbsp. cream. Remove the pie shells from the freezer, divide the chocolate custard between the 6 shells and spread across the bottom. Refrigerate the shells until ready to assemble.
6. Cut the bananas into ¼-inch thick slices and distribute over the chocolate custard in each of the tarts. Spoon the rum custard over the bananas, smoothing the top.
7. Whip 1 1/2 cups cream with the powdered sugar and vanilla until it forms soft peaks, Spread on top of the rum custard. Drizzle with chocolate sauce if desired and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 1 day.

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