Banana and Chocolate Cream Pie

Happy Pi Day! In case you don’t know what Pi Day is, it’s March 14, or 3/14. 3.14 is the approximate ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Technically, pi is a irrational number, so its decimal representation never ends. But for all intents and purposes, the magical number of pi is 3.14. To celebrate Pi Day I decided to make pie and join the Pi Day Pie Party!

My husband absolutely LOVES pie. In any situation, he prefers cake over pie. For his birthday we always get a pie instead of cake, and we even got two pies for him for our wedding instead of a groom’s cake. That being said, you can probably figure out that my husband loves Pi day. It’s the only day where pie is the clear winner.

Usually I prefer to make savory pies, but I decided to try making a dessert pie for my husband on one of his favorite days. His two favorite kinds of pies are banana cream pie and chocolate cream pie, so I combined the two into a banana chocolate cream pie!

I’m not a crazy good baker. Let me just put that out there. I believe I’ve mentioned before that I prefer the Sandra Lee method of semi-homemade cooking and baking. So I started out with a pre-made pie crust. I rolled it out into my custom Pi pie dish (yep, I made it myself!), and then baked it.

How do you bake a pie crust? Well, I might not be the best person to ask. Technically, you’re supposed to prick holes in the raw crust with a fork and then bake it at 450 degrees for about 11 minutes. I did that though, and my crust ended up all puffy. I’m not sure where I went wrong, but the crust was all covered up any way, so I wasn’t too concerned.

For the first part – the banana creme pie – I whipped up some vanilla instant pie filling and poured it into the crust. I’m not sure how many people out there prefer banana pudding with vanilla pudding, but I just can’t stand actual banana-flavored pudding. I always make banana pudding with vanilla pudding and sliced bananas. So I sliced up one whole banana and layered it on top of the vanilla pudding.

Next, I made the chocolate creme pie part. I mixed up some instant chocolate pie filling and layered it on top of the banana layer, and then I added chocolate chips. Because why not? I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate chip pie, right?

I finished the banana chocolate pudding pie with whipped cream (from the can, of course, haha) and sprinkled chopped walnuts, sliced bananas, and chocolate chips on top.

I must admit, this is part where I had a bit of a pie fail. It’s very warm for March right now, and the whipped cream on the pie immediately started melting. And when I sliced it up, it was a big melty mess. BUT, this was definitely one of those “looks bad but tastes great” moments. My husband taste tested the pie for me, and he said it was “phenomenal” and one of the “best pies” he’d ever had.

SCORE! I will definitely put this “best pie” in the winner category. And after the first sloppy piece, I put it in the freezer and let it set for a while. If you start with a really cold pie, heat up your knife or pie server, and clean the slicing utensil between cuts, you can come out with a pretty decent slice.

To celebrate #piday even further, I have joined a Pi Pie Party!

You can see all the amazing pie recipes being shared today by clicking the images below.