Valenties' Day Test Run- Banana Peach Cream Pie
By: Mateja ^_^
Published: Sunday, January 16, 2011 - 9:50am

Ingredients




Ingredients for crust:
2 counts store bought ready to bake pie crusts
food coloring
Ingredients for yellow pastry cream:
1 cup milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 pinch of salt
2 bananas
15 oz. can of peaches
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, soft (optional)

Preparation

1 Directions for crust: 2 Prick the crust with a fork to prevent bubbles from forming and bake it in a 9 inch pie form.. Follow the directions on the pack. 3 Cut the second crust into a shape of a rose and three hearts (or anything you like), apply food coloring, and bake on a cookie sheet for no more than 5 minutes in a 425*F preheated oven. This was a last minute idea. I wanted to use the second crust and a light bulb shone over my head. Next time the execution will be more precise and the coloring will be nicer. But all in all I was satisfied with the results. 4 Directions for both pastry creams: 5 In a small bowl beat together egg yolks and 1/2 of the sugar. Add flour, salt, and mix well. Set aside. 6 In a pot, bring to boil milk and the other half of the sugar. 7 Slowly add hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Transfer the cream mix back to the pot and return to medium heat, mixing constantly to prevent clumping. When it starts to boil again, let it bubble for 1 minute. 8 Remove from heat and stir in 2 tbsp butter. Stir until butter dissolves. 9 Divide the pastry cream in half and stir chopped chocolate into one half of the pastry cream. Stir until the chocolate melts completely. 10 If you want to have firmer pastry cream, let the cream cool down first, than mix in 2tbsp of soft butter in each cream) 11 Cut the bananas into half circles and dice the peaches. Put them in a bowl and stir to combine. 12 Putting the pie together: 13 Into a cooled crust spoon 1/3 of the yellow pastry cream. Second layer is 1/3 of the fruit mix. Follows 1/3 of the chocolate pastry cream, second 1/3 of the fruit, 2/3 of the yellow cream (the pan is getting wider!), last third of the fruit, and 2/3 of the chocolate cream. Decorate with red rose and the hearts, pipe the border (mine is crocked ;) ), and put into the fridge for at least three hours or overnight.

About


It is less than a month till Valentine's Day, so I decided to do a test run of the dessert. I want something creamy, rich in flavor, easy to make, yet something that will stay on our taste buds memory for a long time! Cream pie was the first thing that popped in my mind. Store bought pie crust is already a shortcut. Than I can go two ways: either cook the pastry cream or just make store bought pudding pie filling. And there are so many decadent flavors to choose from. 
For the test run I decided to cook vanilla and chocolate pastry cream and for the fruit, bananas and peaches. But for the real deal I will go with strawberry and coconut pastry cream; as for the fruit, bananas inside and fresh strawberries for decoration. Yea, the plan sounds perfect, will let you know how it went.
Let's get cooking!