The most delicious no-bake banoffee pie recipe with a cloudy white chocolate mousse topping and buttery cookie base is a showstopping dessert.
This is not the time to worry about your diet. This is the time to give in to this delectable Banoffee pie. Indulgence on a plate, that’s what I like to call it. And you know what? Sometimes we need that? Sometimes you had a crappy week and all you need is a piece of pie to make it all better and yes that’s called emotional eating but so bloody what? If you can’t even allow yourself to be comforted by a piece of pie, what is this world coming to?
So here’s the deal with this banoffee pie recipe: You push your fork through a cloudy layer of white chocolate mousse before reaching the bananas covered in gooey caramel. You then reach a thick layer of buttery, slightly-salty crumbs before lifting the fork to your mouth and experiencing true bliss. I mean, who could say no to this? Traditionally a banoffee pie is topped with whipped cream but I wanted to amp it up a little and thought that a light-as-air layer of white chocolate mousse would take this banoffee pie from good to fan-frickin-tastic. Yes, it requires a little more work but seriously, it is so worth it.
The base is made with Tennis biscuits (coconut-flavoured tea cookies) which are a South African favourite but you could use any cookie you want. Good ol’ Graham crackers would be perfect here. I mixed the crushed cookies with salted butter instead of the preferred unsalted because I wanted a bit of salt in this pie. It offsets the sweetness from the white chocolate mousse and caramel filling perfectly while also enhancing all the layers perfectly. And that’s it.
Yes, there are a few steps you need to go through to get this pie done but I promise you it won’t take you that long and the end result is so worth it. Plus, it’s weekend so you have a little extra time to potter around your kitchen and play domestic goddess/god. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I still have a piece of pie left in the fridge and I better go grab it before one of the kids or C gets a hold of it. Happy weekend!
No-bake Banoffee pie with white chocolate mousse topping
Ingredients
for the white chocolate mousse
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 egg whites
- 75 g white chocolate melted
- 1 cup whipping cream whipped to stiff peaks
for the base
- 4 cups approx 400g cookies cookie crumbs
- 1/2 cup salted butter melted
for the caramel filling
- 1 x 400g can dulce de leche/caramel treat
- 250 ml whipping cream
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 3 large bananas sliced
to serve
- dark chocolate grated
Instructions
- To make the white chocolate mousse, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Allow to cook for 5 minutes until the mixture is syrupy.
- While the syrup is boiling, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
- Pour the hot syrup into the egg whites in a thin, steady stream whilst continuously whisking until the mixture is thick and glossy.
- Pour in the white chocolate and whisk well then fold in the whipped cream.
- Transfer the mousse to a piping bag fitted with your desired nozzle and place in the fridge to chill.
- To make the base, combine the cookie crumbs with the melted butter and press into the base of a +- 20cm loose-bottomed cake pan.
- Place in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
- To make the filling, whisk the cream until thick then whip in the caramel and lemon juice.
- When the base has set, slice the bananas and place them into the prepared base. Pour over the filling and place in the fridge to set for 1 hour.
- When 1 hour has passed, pipe the chocolate mousse onto the pie and place back in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours but preferably over night.
- When you are ready to serve, grate over a little dark chocolate and slice.
Hi. When I saw your pie I was so impressed to make it and I did it but I had the same experience as Suzann had my mousse was so runny that I couldn’t shape it like u. The second time I add some jelatin powder to it and it was better. As I search about white chocolate mouse I found egg yolk instead of egg white so do u have any suggestion for that ?!
Thx for your help.
Oh dear, as I’ve said to Suzanne, it could be that you deflated the mousse by either beating the air out when incorporating the ingredients together or that your egg white wasn’t aerated enough? You’ll see in the photos that it is a very soft mousse, almost just like whipped cream, so it shouldn’t be stiff at all. If you do prefer it to be firmer, gelatin will definitely help but you could also use more white chocolate which will set as it cools.
Dear Alida,
I made this yesterday, and my boyfriend and I just had a slice – it was absolutely delicious, flavor-wise, but it was not set at all, even though I chilled it in the fridge overnight, like you recommended. Any idea why this could be? Both the white chocolate mousse and the caramel filling were very soft, and I couldn’t cut a proper slice without the filling running everywhere. I must say I’m not a super-experienced baker, especially not when it comes to cream-based pie fillings (I’m much more used to working with fruit fillings, and I usually make cakes rather than pies anyways). I’d love to get your thoughts on what I may have done wrong or how I could make it work better next time, because the taste was delicious and my boyfriend and I both thought it would be a shame not to try again. Thanks so much!
Much love, Susan
Oh no! If you look at the photos, you’ll see that my white chocolate mousse is also quite soft, not runny, but definitely not stiff. I prefer it that way. If yours was softer than that, it could be that you might’ve poured the syrup into the whipping egg whites too quickly and it deflated quite a lot? It needs to be a thin, constant stream while the mixer is whipping quickly.
As far as the filling is concerned, that’s very strange that it was very runny. Did you use fresh cream? I can’t really think of any other reason it would be runny, to be honest.
I tried Banoffee pie for the first time last year and always wanted to try it at home. Seeing your beautiful recipe finally has me motivated. I can’t wait to try this!
Thanks Cheryl! Let me know what you think once you’ve tried this!
Being totally useless at cooking – this looks perfect for me! It looks absolutely delicious.
Nicky, you MUST try this. And please let me know what you think once you have!
Wow! I wish I could have it now. Sounds absolutely delicious.
Thanks Safiyah!