Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients

• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust (store-bought or homemade), fully baked and cooled
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 tbsp butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 ripe bananas, sliced
• 1 cup heavy cream, whipped with 2 tbsp sugar (for topping)

Method

1. If not using a pre-baked crust, blind-bake the crust at 400°F (205°C) with pie weights for 15 minutes, remove the weights, and bake 5 more minutes until golden. Cool completely.
2. Whisk the milk, sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks together in a saucepan.
3. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and bubbling, about 8 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.
5. Layer the sliced bananas in the bottom of the crust before pouring in the warm filling.
6. Pour the warm filling into the cooled crust and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
7. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or until fully chilled and set.
8. Top with sweetened whipped cream before serving.

The Tale of Banana Cream Pie

Story updated September 18, 2026

Banana cream pie is a distinctly late-nineteenth-century American dessert, only possible once bananas themselves became a familiar sight at the grocer's. Bananas were still an exotic novelty in the United States until steamship trade routes made them widely available in the 1880s; once they were common, cooks quickly began pairing sliced fruit with pastry. One of the earliest known published recipes, calling for bananas layered into a pre-baked shell and topped with whipped cream, appeared in the 1901 Woman's Exchange Cook Book. The pie is generally believed to have emerged in the Midwest, home to America's deepest pie-baking traditions, before becoming equally beloved across the South. Its early versions were fairly plain, built around fruit rather than filling; the thick, custardy, cream-forward pie familiar today developed gradually, reaching its fullest popularity in the mid-twentieth century.