Banana Cream Pie

Banana is currently my daughter's favourite word. Recently we tried this recipe for the first time, and our family loves it. It comes from The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes. We realized how old this recipe is when reading the instructions it said, "... then remove the custard from the fire and add the butter and vanilla." We didn't have any fires on our stove while making it, which is a good thing.

6 Tablespoons sugar
5 Tablespoons flour 
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs - separated. Beat whites until dry
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 medium sized bananas
1 baked pie shell
whipping cream (optional)

Mix together sugar, flour and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Scald the milk in the top of a double boiler. While milk is heating, use a whisk to stir the milk. Slowly add sugar, flour and salt mixture to scalded milk while stirring constantly. If you have difficulty sifting the dry ingredients into the hot milk, reserve part of the cold milk to moisten them with. But if you are careful and do this gradually, you can sift them in and there won't be a single lump.

Add the beaten egg yolks and cook 2 minutes longer, then remove the custard from the heat and add the butter and vanilla. Let this cool.Once cooled, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Slice one banana into bottom of pie shell. Spoon half of custard into shell. Then slice the other banana onto the custard in the pie shell and cover with remaining custard. Chill thoroughly.

Optional: Once chilled, cover top with whipping cream, or serve individual pieces with a dollop of whipping cream.

I had put slices of a third banana on top of the custard before putting it in the fridge to set. I wouldn't recommend this as the bananas turned brown and were harder to cut through after. Next time we will try just putting the whipped cream on top.