This shockingly easy banoffee pie recipe combines a crunchy graham cracker crust, soft and sweet dulce de leche, thick slices of fresh banana, and a mountain of billowy whipped cream. Everyone who tries a slice is instantly hooked.
My team and I love all things pie and we’ve worked hard to develop a slew of new recipes over the years, especially around the holiday seasons. Here are some favorites:
- Sweet Potato Pie & Pumpkin Pie
- Nutella Tart
- Pecan Pie Bars
- Apple Pie & Apple Cranberry Pie
- Caramel Pear Pie
- Pecan Pie & Chocolate Pecan Pie
For even more inspiration, here are all of our favorite Thanksgiving pie recipes. But today, I’m showing you how I make banoffee pie:
What Is Banoffee Pie?
A popular English dessert, banoffee = bananas + toffee. A rich combination of different textures and flavors, banoffee pie combines a cookie/biscuit or graham cracker crust with silky dulce de leche, bananas, and homemade whipped cream. I normally have impeccable self control around all the desserts I bake, but I literally could not put down my fork with this pie. Between the soft, crunchy, creamy, gooey, and sweet—there’s no denying banoffee pie’s allure. You’ll be hooked.
Adding to its appeal, banoffee pie is the EASIEST pie you’ll ever make. The 3-ingredient graham cracker crust is pre-baked, but that’s all the oven time required. Just like in strawberry cream cheese pie, baking the crust makes the whole pie more sturdy. Layer the remaining ingredients on top, then refrigerate until ready to dig in. That’s it!
Instead of graham crackers, this pie is also fantastic with a Biscoff pie crust.
What Is Dulce de Leche?
Dulce de leche is similar to caramel, but a little sweeter and creamier. It’s prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk until everything caramelizes. If we’re getting all scientific, I learned that a lot of the flavor comes from the Maillard reaction. Interesting! Dulce de leche is Spanish for candy made/of milk. There are a few ways to prepare dulce de leche including:
- The classic method of cooking down and constantly stirring milk and sugar
- The shortcut method of cooking sweetened condensed milk
We’re using the shortcut method today, but I included a link to a classic dulce de leche recipe in the recipe notes. Both are delicious!
Dulce de Leche Made From Sweetened Condensed Milk
There are a couple ways you can make dulce de leche from a can of sweetened condensed milk. You can boil it—the actual closed can—in a pot of water for a couple hours or you can pour the sweetened condensed milk in a pie dish and bake it in a water bath. I prefer the oven method because I’ve heard some pretty scary stories about the hot cans bursting open after boiling for so long. Items you need:
- large roasting pan
- pie dish
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
- aluminum foil
Instructions:
- Pour the sweetened condensed milk in a pie dish.
- Place the pie dish in a large roasting pan and place the roasting pan in the oven.
- Fill the roasting pan with enough HOT water until it reaches halfway up the pie dish. This is exactly what we do when we bake cheesecake.
- Loosely cover the pie dish with aluminum foil.
- Heat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Bake until sweetened condensed milk has thickened and caramelized, about 2 hours. Add more hot water after 1 hour, since some of it has evaporated.
All of the “work” is hands-off. After 2 hours, the sweetened condensed milk has turned into golden dulce de leche. Magic. Let the dulce de leche cool, then pour into your pre-baked graham cracker crust. You can make the dulce de leche up to 2 weeks in advance.
After that, we have a layer of banana slices. Make sure you use nice yellow bananas and save mushy spotty bananas for recipes like banana bread and banana muffins.
Have you ever had caramel and banana before? This pie is exactly that, but better. A voluminous mountain of soft homemade whipped cream is the finishing touch! Piled high, this creamy layer balances out all the other textures and flavors in this completely irresistible pie.
Banoffee pie is so simple that you’ll feel like you’re doing something wrong. You’re not—it really is this easy. If pie crust isn’t your thing, banoffee pie is!
For even more delicious flavor combinations with bananas, you’ll want to try this peanut butter banana cream pie next.
PrintBanoffee Pie
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 35 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 servings
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This shockingly easy banoffee pie combines a crunchy graham cracker crust, soft and sweet dulce de leche, thick slices of fresh banana, and a mountain of billowy whipped cream. Everyone who tries a slice is instantly hooked.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) graham cracker crumbs (about 12 full sheet graham crackers)
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 and 1/4 cups dulce de leche**
- 2 large bananas, sliced
Whipped Cream
- 2 cups (480ml) cold heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar or granulated sugar*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional toppings: chocolate shavings, chopped nuts, or toffee bits for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Make the crust: If you’re starting out with full graham crackers, use a food processor or blender to grind them into fine crumbs. Stir the graham cracker crumbs and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl, and then stir in the melted butter. The mixture will be thick, coarse, and sandy. Try to smash/break up any large chunks. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie dish. With medium pressure using your hand, pat the crumbs down into the bottom and up the sides to make a compact crust. Do not pack down with heavy force because that makes the crust too hard. Simply pat down until the mixture is no longer crumby/crumbly. Tips: You can use a small flat-bottomed measuring cup to help press down the bottom crust and smooth out the surface, but do not pack down too hard. And run a spoon around the bottom “corner” where the edge and bottom meet to help make a rounded crust—this helps prevent the crust from falling apart. For more shaping technique tips, see the graham cracker crust recipe page.
- Bake the crust for 15 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes.
- For the whipped cream: Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract on medium-high speed until medium peaks form, about 3-4 minutes. Medium peaks are between soft/loose peaks and stiff peaks and are the perfect consistency for topping and piping on desserts.
- Spread dulce de leche on top of the crust. Arrange banana slices in 1–2 layers on top of the dulce de leche, then spread whipped cream on top.
- Refrigerate pie uncovered for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day. Garnish with toppings before serving, if desired.
- Cover and store leftover pie in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Cover the baked and cooled graham cracker crust tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before using. Dulce de leche, instructions below, can be made up to 2 weeks in advance. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator. The fully assembled pie can be prepared up to 1 day in advance. Store uncovered in the refrigerator until ready to serve. I don’t recommend freezing the prepared banoffee pie because it doesn’t thaw very nicely, but you can certainly freeze any leftover slices for up to 3 months.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor | Glass Mixing Bowl | 9-inch Pie Dish | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand)
- Dulce de Leche: You can use store-bought dulce de leche, but I recommend making it at home. You can make it completely from scratch or use 1 (standard 14-ounce/397g) can of sweetened condensed milk. Instructions: Pour the sweetened condensed milk in a pie dish. Place the pie dish in a large roasting pan and place the roasting pan in the oven. Fill the roasting pan with enough HOT water until it reaches halfway up the pie dish. Loosely cover the pie dish with aluminum foil. Heat oven to 350°F (177°C). Bake until sweetened condensed milk has thickened and caramelized, about 2 hours. Add more hot water to the roasting pan after 1 hour, since some of it has evaporated. After 2 hours, the sweetened condensed milk has turned into golden dulce de leche. (If not, continue to bake.) Let the dulce de leche cool, then pour into your pre-baked graham cracker crust. You can make the dulce de leche up to 2 weeks in advance.
- Bananas Browning: Though I haven’t experienced the bananas browning underneath the whipped cream, you can certainly squeeze a few drops of fresh lemon juice all over the banana slices before layering them into the pie. This keeps the banana slices fresh, especially if you’re making the pie a day in advance. With a small amount of juice, you won’t detect the lemon flavor.
- Non-US Readers: If graham crackers are not available where you live, we have also tested this pie with a crust made from digestive biscuits, and it turned out great. Use 200g ground digestive biscuit crumbs (about 2 cups; 13–14 biscuits), 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar, and 6 Tablespoons (85g) melted butter. Pre-bake the crust for a bit longer, about 16-17 minutes.
I’ve made this several times before, and each time had rave reviews, but I want smaller portions…can I make the recipe into mini banoffee pies?
P.S. If you don’t see this before I make them, I’ll report back on how they went 😉
Yes, mini pies would work!
Hi Sally,
Would it help the pie set faster by putting it in the freezer for an hour?
Many Thanks,
Molly
No, it needs the time in the refrigerator to set properly.
This is the 9th recipe I’ve made from your site. Every single one has been a hit! It is true this pie is super easy to make. Gooey, rich, and delicious. I used an Emile Henry deep dish pie pan. When I poured in the dulce de leche I was worried that I should have used a smaller pie pan, but it ended up being just right since it is so rich, you don’t need very thick (tall) pieces. You are awesome!
This pie kind of blows my mind. I made it and served it after four hours. None of us liked it. Actually, I found it rather disgusting. None of us took more than one slice. Still, I hate to throw away food, so I saved it and we tried it again the next day. I expected it to be a sad experience, but everyone LOVED it. I guess we just needed it to sit a bit longer so the caramel could get a chance to sink in more. It’s a mystery. I will make this pie many, many more times, I will just make sure to make it a day before I serve it, haha. It really turned out super yummy in the end I don’t know if I made the pie in some kind of weird way for it to need longer time to sit, but since it turned out so delicious in the end, I will remake it in the exact same way
This was so delicious!!! I loved it so much! It was so easy
I was a little unsure of how this would taste/turn out because I’d never heard of it before, but it was delicious! The bananas are a great addition. The only reason I gave it 4/5 stars was because the crust fell apart trying to take it out of the pan.
Hi Sally,
Made this last night-had to after trying a slice from a British pie shop in Savannah…this was definitely a hit with my family. Easy to make and delicious.
thank you
Try adding some Biscoff cookies to the graham crackers for the crust … it’s a nice touch!
I can’t eat flour so I made the crust with ground up pecans like I have to do with my cheesecakes. It was wonderful ! I am a big fan of the tv show Lost and Charlie was always talking about this pie… so I had to make me one.
I am OBSESSED. Just made this pie for the second time. What a brilliant combination of flavors and textures!
Hey Sally, I absolutely love Banoffee and I’ve been making it just the way you do for forever. Except I’ve always had one glaring problem – my Dulce De Leche never seems to “set” despite hours in the fridge. This isn’t such a problem for family, but I made it once for a friend’s birthday and it tasted delicious but looked messy. I can never seem to get nice slices because of that. It’s more of a everyone dig in with forks kind of dessert.
I’ve even tried it with my own homemade caramel sauce (also yummy) but no luck.
Would love your thoughts and suggestions!
Hi Sunaina! This is a messy pie– dulce de leche isn’t extremely thick, so the slices will never be particularly neat. How about my salted caramel instead? By following that exact recipe, the caramel thickens beautifully in the refrigerator, so it will set nicely after it’s poured into this crust.
This was my first pie made from scratch, and it was a great recipe for a beginner like me. I baked the condensed milk a little too long so it wasn’t pourable, but in the end that did not matter! It was still sooooo delicious, and I will definitely make it ag again!
Nice to see this recipe on your site!
I like to put just a sprinkle of coffee powder in the whipped cream. It adds a pleasing slight bitter note to the sweet, and Digestive biscuits for the crust, as per the British, adds just a bit of salt.
Hi Sally,
I’m hoping to make this pie for our (Canadian) Thanksgiving this weekend coming. Do you think it would work if I added a layer of the vanilla pudding from your Classic Banana Cream Pie recipe to make a kind of Banoffee Cream Pie? If so, would you change anything recipe wise? I’m worried it might turn out too rich with both the pudding and dulce de Leche layers!
Paige, I love the way you think! Yes, this would be pretty sweet but it would also be delicious! If you try it be sure to use a deep dish pie plate and you might not use all of the pudding for the pie but the leftover would be great on it’s own to enjoy later. Please let me know if you try it!
We always make the caramel by stirring the condensed milk on the stove in a pot until it reaches the right color. It is much faster and easier. Love banoffee pie!
OH MY WORD this was amazing Sally……..just made this for my family and the entire thing was gone in 5 minutes. No kidding, it went that fast! And the comments made my day – thank you Sally!!! 😀
You can also take the sweetened condensed milk, take the label off, and put it in a pot of boiling water for three hours. You need to make sure the water stays above the can though. If it is getting low, just add enough water to make it above the can.
I was looking for banana dessert recipes for my husbands birthday and stumbled upon this. Made the Dulce de Leche as instructed and it came out perfect at 2hrs. With the huge mound of whip cream on top, it made for a show stopper when presented with candles. Thank you! Thank you for posting this recipe! It’s a keeper for sure!
Sally,
I love this recipe! So easy and so good. Question for you, I unfortunately picked up low fat condensed milk by mistake. Can I use this to make the dulce de leche?
Thanks!
Karen
Hi Karen! Unfortunately, the results won’t quite be the same with low fat sweetened condensed milk.
I made this last night. Put directly in the fridge overnight. When I cut into it this morning (about 12 hours later) the inside was runny! The inside is soup! What happened?
Dulce de leche was very thick and at room temp. Made fresh whipped cream.
This happened to me as well! It tasted good but I was hoping for the thick dulce de leche inside! I wonder if moisture from the bananas thinned it out?
Quick question – i think i let my dulce cook to long… its really thick. it’s not really able to “pour” into my pie crust. Is that a problem? Should i redo? thanks!
It’s not hardened or anything, right? If you can still chew it easily and would enjoy it in a slice of pie– you can definitely still use it. If you want a softer, creamier pie, I recommend trying again.
I made this over the weekend and my family loved it! Easy to make and so delicious, this recipe is a keeper!
Can I use your caramel sauce instead of dulce de leche?
Sure can! Use this salted caramel: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-salted-caramel-recipe/
If desired, you can reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon so it’s regular (not salted) caramel.
Hey Sally, good day! I really really wanana try this, but i do have one question : I do not have a pie dish, do you think a 9-inch springform will work here? I made your Brookie Pie and used a springform as you suggested there. Thanks in advance!
Hi Emily! Yes, a springform pan should work just fine here. Place a baking sheet underneath the springform pan when baking the graham cracker crust– just in case there is leakage.
Made it tonight. My favorite pie tester (my 6 yr old son) could not get enough !
Hey Kathy! This is a great question. I found that underneath the whipped cream, the bananas were just fine. Let me add a note to the recipe because a small squeeze of lemon juice will keep them from turning brown. Wouldn’t hurt for extra insurance, right?!
Hey Tiffany! Thanks so much for taking the time to say hi and for reading my blog for so long! I’ve made banoffee pie with toffee bits sprinkled on top– I actually used the Heath bar “bits o brickle” as garnish– but I’ve never layered them INTO the pie. I think that would be AWESOME for some crunchy texture. Definitely try it and let me know how you like it.
There are lots of options for alternate crusts! You can always use a regular pie crust (see my blog post for tips on blind baking your crust) or a crust made from vanilla wafters instead of graham crackers would be delicious here, or a hazelnut crust like in this Nutella tart (https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/nutella-tart-toasted-hazelnut-crust/). Enjoy!!
Hi Natalie! I’m excited you’re making this banoffee pie! You can keep the dulce de leche covered at room temperature for 1 night. You can also refrigerate it, but it will become quite solid after refrigeration, so let it sit out at room temperature to soften back up into a spreadable consistency.