Bananas Foster Fried Pies. No fooling. It's Bananas Foster. In a Fried Pie.
What do you get when you combine six gregarious bloggers with one fabulous pie dough recipe? Pie Week, of course! Kirsten at Comfortably Domestic inspired us when she posted a recipe for fabulous “no excuses” pie dough made in a food processor in mere minutes. Needless to say, I had to give it a shot. My last few attempts at pie dough failed miserably. Too dry. Too wet. Too flavorless. Too pathetic. Father, forgive me for I had sinned; Pillsbury pie dough from the dairy aisle had become my ‘go to’ for all things pie. But not anymore. Using Kirsten’s pie dough as our common denominator, the following bloggers decided to unite and shout our love of pie from the rooftops.
Want to know who’s participating?
Monday – Kirsten from Comfortably Domestic
Tuesday – Jeanne from Inside NanaBread’s Head (hey, that’s me!)
Wednesday – Kat from Tenaciously Yours
Thursday – Mads from La Petite Pancake
Friday – Megan from Wanna Be A Country Clever
Saturday – Allison from Decadent Philistines Save the World
Each of us will be posting our own pie selection using Kirsten’s amazing pie dough recipe as the common thread. My contribution came to me when I was contemplating what to do with a bowl of rapidly ripening bananas. A few minutes later, I was rummaging through my pantry and accidentally ran into a bottle of Bacardi. What? Like you’ve never done that before. But hey… this isn’t about me and my burgeoning booze stash. It’s about PIE, so let’s get to it!
The cast of characters - all laid out and ready to roll. Ha! I kill me.
NanaBread’s Bananas Foster Fried Pies:
Kirsten’s pie dough (link above; I doubled it)
3 tablespoons of your favorite rum (or more, to your taste)
24 individually wrapped Kraft caramels
1/2 cup of evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
1 ripe banana (ripe but still firm works best)
1 egg plus 2 tablespoons of water (for egg wash)
Oil for frying, approximately 24 ounces
powdered sugar for dusting
Start by placing a small skillet on the stove; add the rum, then turn heat on to medium. Once it starts to bubble lightly, use a long kitchen match or long-neck butane lighter to flame the rum and burn off the alcohol. Please be careful here. I don’t want anyone to get burned. Allow the rum to flame until it goes out on its own; reduce to 1 tablespoon. Pour the rum into a heatproof bowl and set it aside.
Unwrap your caramels and place them in a microwaveable bowl; add the evaporated milk. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring or whisking each time, until the caramels are melted and incorporated into the milk. Add the rum and vanilla; whisk until smooth. Set it aside and let it cool until it’s the consistency of creamy peanut butter. If you need to speed up the process, put it in the refrigerator. Just check it every 5 minutes to make sure it doesn’t get too firm.
While your caramel is cooling, flour your work surface and roll your pie crust thin (approximately 1/8th to 1/16th of an inch). You don’t want it too thick or it won’t fry properly and nothing is worse than a gummy fried pie. While we’re talking about rolling pie dough, I have to say that Kirsten’s version rolls beautifully. No jagged edges. No tearing. I could roll it thin and still pick it up to move it around without it tearing. So far, it’s a solid A+.
Look how smooth and perfect Kirsten's pie dough turns out.
Using a bench scraper (or a knife), cut the pie dough into 5″ squares. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and water for your egg wash. Working with four squares at a time, use a pasty brush or your fingers if you’re not fussy like me and brush each square with egg wash to help seal your edges.
Which came first - the caramel or the banana?
Place one tablespoon of caramel into the center of each square. Slice your banana on a bias to make longer, uniform pieces approximately 1/2″ thick. Place one slice of banana on top of the caramel on each square. Fold into a triangle and gently press the edges to seal. I like to let mine sit for a few minutes to give the egg wash time to do its thing. Using a fork, dip the ends of the tines in flour and gently crimp your fried pies. Set the crimped pies onto parchment or waxed paper and allow them to rest while you assemble the rest of the pies.
Make sure your oil is at 300F before you start frying.
In a large heavy-bottomed pan, heat 1″ of oil to 300F. I use canola oil, but you can use whatever you prefer. Once your oil is hot, fry the pies one at a time until they are golden brown on each side. I like to use a flat frying ladle and spoon hot oil over the top as they’re frying. This helps create those gorgeous bubbles in the dough. Check it out. (PS – I love the morning light at my kitchen window.)
Now that, my friends, is a perfectly fried Fried Pie.
Drain the fried pies on paper towels to absorb the oil and allow them to cool. To serve, dust lightly with powdered sugar and drizzle lightly with the remaining caramel sauce. If it’s too thick to drizzle, microwave it for 15-30 seconds, or until it softens enough to drizzle easily. Or you could skip the powdered sugar, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and drizzle caramel over that. Or you could skip the powdered sugar and the extra caramel and just eat these plain or with whipped cream. Trust me; these are plenty sweet on their own. Must be all those buttery sweet caramels. Mmmmm… caramel.
Crispy, chewy, sugary, gooey. It doesn't get any better than this.
If there are any pies left over {go ahead…I’ll wait until you stop laughing} wrap them in parchment or waxed paper and slip them into freezer bags. Store in the freezer for up to 2 weeks. To reheat, unwrap the pies and place them on a baking sheet. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, or until they are warmed through. Could you microwave them instead? Sure, but baking will help restore that crispy crust to the outside. And I’m all about crispy, flaky pie crust.
Thank you, Kirsten, for sharing your recipe with the world and for inspiring our pie shenanigans this week. See what you started? And speaking of – be sure to check in with Kat, Mads, Megan and Allison as Pie Week continues. There’s no telling what those ladies are up to, but it’s sure to be delicious!
Pie Week, Day 1 – click here to see Kirsten’s Monday entry – Apple Tart with a Cheddar Streusel Topping It’s sure to be an All-American family favorite.
Up Next: Kat at Tenaciously Yours tackles her first pie…EVER! Can’t wait for Wednesday to see it. Let’s just say they don’t call her ‘tenacious’ for nothing.
*UPDATE* November 16th is “Love the Pie” Party Day at www.TidyMom.net. Come join Love the Pie with TidyMom sponsored by Cherokee USA, Le Creuset, Wilton, Bags by Bloom and Harvard Common Press and browse the pie links bloggers are sharing. If you love pie like I love pie, you will not want to miss it!
Inside NanaBread's Head 
Let’s be serious here. I still can’t even begin to deal with this. I thought I had Prepared Myself Emotionally after seeing the first picture of your pie over the weekend, but apparently not. I think it’s the powdered sugar and the caramel drizzle that’s doing me in.
I’m sorry this is causing you emotional distress, but I’m going to have to encourage you not to lick or stick a fork through your computer screen. You could hurt yourself. Like birds flying into windows. After these were made, I found myself contemplating other combinations. Sliced apples = Caramel Apple Fried Pies. Chocolate & Caramel = Caramello Fried Pies. Caramel, Chocolate & toasted pecans = Turtle Fried Pies. I could go on and on.
I think you have officially revolutionized the pie industry. I’m in awe.
I wish you could have all been here to help me eat them, but I took them to my friend Pat instead. I think there’s a good chance she’s happy you weren’t all here to help me eat them.
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Please adopt me…
Done!!! As soon as I stop laughing.
PS – One more reason you need to come visit Houston.
Visiting here from Kirsten’s site, your teaser photo over there was just too good not to investigate further. These look delicious and I am definitely going to try them at some point, your tutorial is wonderful. Have you ever made these and drizzled chocolate instead of the caramel? Just wondering. Thank you for being part of Kirsten’s Pie week and sharing this great recipe.
Hi, Paula! I see your comments on Kirsten’s blog all the time, so it’s awesome to have you drop in to visit. This was my first attempt at caramel filled fried pies, so I haven’t tried the chocolate drizzle yet. Everything is better dipped in chocolate, so I’m certainly willing to give it a shot. I hope you like the fried pies. If you try this version, let me know how they turned out! PS – Don’t you just love Kirsten? I’m convinced she is my twin, separated at birth.
You have inspired me! I’ve sent the link for the No Excuses Pie Dough to my boyfriend and printed the recipe out. We have been buying pie dough so that title was the kicker. These look incredible but beyond what we are going to attempt: a simple pumpkin pie with HOMEMADE crust. Yippee!
Way to go, Dianne! Best of luck in your baking endeavors. Kirsten’s crust is fabulous, and crazy simple to make. Come back and let me know how your pumpkin pie turned out. I’d love to hear. It warms my heart to see pie lovers uniting!
First of all, if there is rum in my house, I know. It cannot hide.
Second – holy mother of golly these look awesome! I am drooling on myself over here.
Pie week may end me.
Perhaps. But death by pie. Think about it! What a way to go.
I feel like we are at the point in our relationship that I can confide a little something: I swear that gazing upon those little fried lovelies of yours does not get easier with time. Every time I see them, I drool. Then I die. Then I drool again. Then I might squeak a little. *Ah-may-zing!*
I should also probably mention that all you guys are so awesomely inspiring that I might just kill my un-killable vintage ’80’s food processor with all of the flaky goodness it is churning out on a regular basis.
“Then I might squeak a little.”
That’s awesome. Pie Week was a stroke of genius.
Thanks for inspiring it & being our fearless leader!
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Oh my, those look absolutely scrumptious! I too am a Pillsbury pie crust girl and will definitely be checking out Kirsten’s recipe. Thank you for sharing!
These are beautiful… awesome banana fosters recipe. I make something similar, though now I’m tweaking it with your recipe. Scrumptious!
It’s more of a quick & easy bananas foster method than a traditional one, but it works well in these fried pies because the caramel firms up so well. Makes filling those little pies MUCH easier!
Wow. That looks almost too sweet and sticky – who’d have thought it was possible? (Well, me actually. I’m a big fan of pie, but sometimes find myself adjusting American recipes because they contain a lot of sugar – I guess Northern European palates are a bit different, perhaps?)
They look awesome, though – very professional and pretty! Like something ou might get in a restaurant…
Still, I wonder if these would work with pineapple and some sort of fruity sauce… Maybe some coconut, even. (Fresh pineapple and rum…there’s a unbeatable combination!)
I’ve never deep fried anything this way, though (not even chicken, I make it in the oven), it looks way too scary with all the hot oil!
I came here through Kirsten’s blog, and sort of did my own small contribution to Pie Week. (The name is just too great, I couldn’t resist!) Warning: Only go to my blog if you are mentally prepared for Pie Week’s crappiest pie. Seriously.
I’m not a fan of super sweet pies, either, so I’ll warn you that these are mind-numbingly sweet. Sugar coma sweet. It’s the caramels. I’m not sure, given your preference for slightly sweet fillings, that these would be the right fried pies for you. You can, however, substitute other fillings. The key is to start with a filling that is nice and thick so it doesn’t leak or blow out when you fry them. As another bonus, you can bake these instead of frying them. I do it all the time. Just brush them with an egg wash or melted butter before baking so they come out nice and golden brown. I’m glad you’re enjoying Pie Week, and I love that you gave it a try at your house. I’m not sure about that pie crust you made, but I love the enthusiasm you put into it! Thanks for stopping by. Come back any time!
Haha! I’m not sure about my pie crust either -it sucked! I think if you’re making pastry without wheat, you’re gonna need some of the expensive weird specialist products (xanthan gum etc.)
Can’t wait until I can have wheat again and try all the wonderful things you’re making this week (I think I’ll end up having sweet potato pie every day for a week!) :)
Definitely will visit again – your lovely jumbly ‘junk drawer’ blog puts me in a good mood :)
I love that you just lay it out there. I laughed out loud at your assessment of your pie crust. I’ve never tried life without wheat, so I can’t imagine what your crust was like. For that reason, I’m looking forward to the day when you can have wheat again and make a proper pie crust. It’s one of life’s little pleasures. Your sweet potato pie sounds lovely. You’ll have to post it as a celebratory Pie Week update once you’re able to make it. We won’t mind waiting for it. Frankly, every week should be Pie Week somewhere! I’m happy to hear that my junk drawer style puts you in a good mood. That makes ME smile!
Give yourself a break! ;) You did attempt pie dough made without wheat–not an easy prospect!
Thanks, Kirsten!
Well, I like trying out new things. It doesn’t always go as planned!
And I promise there will posts about all kinds of pie once I’m back on the wheat wagon, sweet potato pie and peach pie (which I’ve never made, but I’m sure it’ll be delicious.) There will probably be so many pie posts that people will be fed up with it.
And yes, there should always be a pie week somewhere! (I’m hoping you lovely ladies will have one again, and devoet it to savoury pies… I’m very inspired by all of your recepies.)
Fantastic. I’ve had mixed results with pie crusts, but you’ve inspired me to try again.
Awesome, Beth! If our little Pie Week experiment causes others to break out and try Kirsten’s pie dough at home, I’m thrilled! You’ll have to let us know how it turns out. PS – her “No Excuses” pie dough freezes well, too.
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Can I eat this for breakfast? Can you not tell anyone if I do? ;)
Yes and yes!
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