Double Banana Cream Pie from Scratch

What do you do with 4 completely overripe, disgustingly brown bananas?

My first thought is always banana bread, but banana bread is so boring.  Plus, nobody can make banana bread like my mom.  I remember the first semester of my freshman year of college, my mom would make banana bread for me when I came home.  I would wait in anticipation while the smell wafted from the kitchen and ask, a million times of course, "Is it done yet??" When it finally was, it was well-worth the wait.

But since I wasn't up to the challenge of topping my mom's banana bread, I settled for making banana cream pie.  In my house, we've always used the box mix pudding to make cream pies, but I wanted to do it all from scratch. I searched for recipes, but all of the banana cream pies used vanilla pudding for theirs and I wanted banana pudding, so I adapted.  It turned out really well!  I added extra vanilla to my whipped cream to contrast the strong banana flavor in the pie and it tasted great.  I really loved the 'piece-y' texture of the pudding and the sweetness of the pie was complimented well by the semi-salty crust.  If you can't tell, I really liked it.  You will, too! 

P.S. I'm switching to collages for my step-by-step photos to make my page load faster.  I went to Numion, an online stopwatch to see how long it takes websites to load, and mine took 12 seconds, so I'm trying to cut that down a little bit!

What food does your mom or someone close to you make that can't be beat?

Double Banana Cream Pie from Scratch

adapted from: Food.com

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 overripe medium bananas

2 ripe (but still firm) bananas

1 9 inch pie shell, baked

whipped cream 

Directions:

1. 1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, flour, and salt; stir in milk and mix well.
2. 2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil; boil for 2 minutes.
3. 3. Remove from the heat.
4. 4. Stir a small amount of cream mixture into egg yolks; return all to saucepan.
5. 5. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly; remove from the heat.
6. 6. Add butter and vanilla; mix well; allow to cool slightly.
   7. Beat the two overripe bananas into the pudding mixture until texture is fairly smooth.
7. 8.. Slice the remaining 2 ripe bananas and place evenly in pastry shell; pour cream mixture over bananas.
8. 9. Cool; before serving, garnish with whipped cream.
   10. Refrigerate any leftovers.
   
   
9.