Banana Cream Pie

My husband's birthday was this past Friday.  

Every year for his birthday I make him this 

Chocolate Macaroon Tunnel Cake

It's his FAVORITE.

If you have followed my blog for a while, you may have read how we celebrate birthdays here.

The birthday boy/girl gets to choose their dinner and dessert of choice (homemade by Mom)

We had made some weekend plans, happy hour with some good friends on Friday night (then home for cake and presents with the kids) and dinner with some other good friends Saturday night.

That left Sunday for our family dinner celebration.

Might as well make it a whole weekend celebration.

The hubby requested Chicken Parmesan, Garlic Cheese Bread and Salad for dinner.

We had to have dessert!!

He loves Banana Cream Pie, last year I made him this 

Coconut Banana Cream Pie

and it was a hit!

This year I searched and found the recipe for this pie at a blog that I recently discovered called

 A Spicy Perspective.

This pie was so perfect!! It was light and fluffy and bursting with flavor.

I will TOTALLY be making this one again!!

Banana Cream Pie

A Spicy Perspective

Crust:

2 Cups graham cracker crumbs 

6 Tablespoons butter (melted)

1/4 cup sugar

dash of salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tablespoons water

Filling:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 - 3.4 ox box of instant vanilla pudding

1 cup milk

8 ozs cream cheese

1 - 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

4 bananas (divided)

1/2 cup coconut (toasted)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  I used my food processor to crumble my crackers.  I took about 14 crackers to get 2 cups.  If you want to be quick, buy the graham cracker crumbs!! ;)

Add to it your salt, sugar and cinnamon.  Combine with a fork.  Add the melted butter and water and continue to combine until the crumbs  are well blended.

Press into sides and bottom of a 9" deep pie pan.

Bake for 10 minutes, set aside to cool.

For filling, combine the pudding mix and cold milk and set aside.

In your mixer whip your cream and sugar and vanilla until its fluffy, set aside.

In your mixer, cream your cream cheese  and slowly add in the sweetened condensed milk.

Add to this the pudding and combine.

Fold in HALF of the whipped cream, reserving the rest.

Spread a small amount of cream mixture over graham cracker crust, and top with 3 sliced bananas.

(I doubled the recipe and made two pies!!)

Spoon the rest of the cream mixture over bananas and  top with whipped cream.

Cover lightly with plastic wrap and chill at least one hour.

Before serving top with one sliced banana and toasted coconut.