Salted Caramel Banana Cream Pie

Pie Crust

• Begin by blind baking the crust. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
• Remove JusRol pie crust from wrapper and unroll right into your pie dish.

  Lightly press the crust into your pie dish, and if desired, shape the edges of the crust.
• Using the parchment paper that the crust came in, press it lightly into the crust as a liner. Then add pie weights (or dry rice/beans) and fill about halfway up the side.
• Bake crust in preheated oven for 8-9 minutes with weights, until crust is lightly golden brown.
• Then remove parchment and pie weights, and bake for another 4-5 minutes until the bottom of the pie crust is lightly golden.
• Once baked, remove from oven and let cool.

Salted Caramel

• Start by measuring out your ingredients. With caramel you need to work quickly so I like to have these set out.

  Measure out the cream and butter. Cut the butter into tablespoons. Measure out the vanilla and salt as well. Set aside.
• Into a medium saucepan, add the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Turn heat to medium, and continuously mix with a rubber spatula as this heats.
• Keep mixing as this caramel bubbles and mixes. You want to keep mixing so the sugar doesn't caramelize or burn.
• If sugar starts to crystalize on the side of the pan, you can brush the sides of the pan with a silicon or pastry brush that's been dipped in water.
• Keep cooking and stirring the caramel until it reaches a golden brown color. (You want to be really careful not to burn it – once it's an ambery brown, you want to pull it off the heat).
• Once it is a golden, ambery brown, take the pan off the heat and then add the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Then, slowly pour the cream in and mix that well. Then add the vanilla and salt in, and mix well to incorporate.
• Let the caramel rest to come to room temperature before using on the pie. The pie doesn't assemble well if the caramel is too hot.

  (You can also make the caramel ahead of time and store it in an airtight container on the fridge for a day or two.)

Vanilla Pastry Cream

• In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the egg yolks and cornstarch. Mix well with a fork or whisk until well incorporated and no clumps are present. Set aside.
• In a large saucepan over medium heat, add the sugar, heavy cream, and half and half. Heat until just bubbling.
• Once bubbling, use a measuring cup to scoop out about a half a cup of the hot cream mixture and slowly pour it into the egg yolk mixture. Do this slowly so the eggs don't scramble, and mix constantly as you're pouring the cream mixture in.
• You are going to keep slowly adding some of the cream mixture to the egg yolks to temper the yolks and keep them from scrambling. Do this slowly!

  Keep tempering until you've poured about half of the cream mixture into the yolk mixture.
• Then, pour the yolk mixture back onto the stove and let it come to a bubble.
• Once it comes to a bubble, it should start to thicken. Keep stirring and once it is thick, remove from the heat.
• Then add in the butter, and mix well. Next add in the salt and vanilla and mix well.
• Transfer the vanilla pastry cream to a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap so a skin doesn't form on the top. Place in the fridge and let cool for at least 2 hours, up to overnight.
• (This pastry cream can be made a day ahead and kept in the fridge until ready to assemble.)

Stabilized Whipped Cream

• Begin by adding the 6 tablespoons of cold water to a small microwave safe bowl. Sprinkle the unflavored gelatin on top.

  Allow to sit for 3-4 minutes. Microwave for a few seconds (6-10) until the gelatin is fully dissolved. Stir the mixture then set aside to cool for a minute.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
• Whip the mixture on medium-high speed until the mixture starts to thicken. Once soft peaks form, turn the mixer to low speed. Slowly pour in the gelatin mixture and turn the speed back up to medium. Continue to mix until stiff peaks form.

Assembling the Pie

• Once you have the pie crust made and chilled, the caramel made and cooled down, and the pastry cream chilled, you're ready to assemble the pie.
• Begin by spreading the caramel down on the bottom of the pie crust.
• Then slice up the bananas and place them on top of the caramel in a layer.
• On top of the bananas, spread the vanilla pastry cream.
• Then, top the pie with the stabilized whipped cream and chocolate shreds.
• You can slice into the pie immediately or chill it until ready to serve. Enjoy!