Salty Banoffee Pie

One of my culinary obsessions is good salt. I love being able to feel the crunch of good natural sea or rock salt on certain foods and I also love the flavour altering qualities real salt has on many ingredients. One of those ingredients that's transformed by a good pinch of salt is of course caramel. Lovely lovely caramel. The taste sensation produced by combining these two ingredients is nothing new but I feel that it's an important component in elevating a banoffee pie into something more special. The interplay between the newly altered caramel taste, the biscuit base, the bananas and the cream is so good that you'll really have to try this for yourself. I'm lucky I got pictures of this in time because my tasters scoffed it all up! Also, please click on the pictures to see them in their full glory!

















Ingredients
Dulce de Leche
1 can of condensed milk
enough water to immerse the can (and more to keep topping up the levels)
a pinch of Maldon sea salt

















Biscuit Base
crushed digestive biscuits
enough butter to hold the base
2-3 tablespoons sugar

Topping
1 banana
1 pot whipping cream
3-4 tablespoons of caster sugar
70% chocolate for grating

















Method
Dulce de Leche
Remove the label from the can of condensed milk. Pierce it in two places (on the top) with a can opener and immerse in a heavy based pan with enough water to cover 3/4 of the can. Boil the can for a good 2-3 hours to get a sauce-like consistency. Boil it for longer to get a firm caramel. You need to watch the can. Keep adding water so it consistently reaches 3/4 of the way up. Let it cool and scoop out the goodies. Alternatively put some trousers on and buy a can of ready made dulce de leche at the supermarket.

Biscuit Base
Crush some digestive biscuits (but not to a completely fine grain). Add enough melted butter and the sugar so that the crumbs stick together. Place the base at the bottom of of a lightly buttered circular mould onto a plate and refridgerate for 15 minutes. You could freeze it for 5 instead. But who has room in their freezer? Take it out so you can layer on the other stuff.

















Topping
Scoop on the dulce de leche on to the biscuit base making sure not to go all the way to the edge of the mould. Sprinkle in a few flakes of the Maldon sea salt. Slice a banana and place the slices on top of the dulce de leche and the biscuit base. Whip up the cream with the sugar and add one spoonful ontop of the banoffee pie (this is my perfect ratio but add more if you feel like it). Grate the dark chocolate to finish. Watch the scavangers totally annhiliate your pie. Feel good about yourself.