Best Banana Cream Pie
Updated Sep 04, 2025
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This banana cream pie is pure comfort food with its flaky, buttery crust, smooth, sweet custard infused with real bananas, and mountains of whipped cream on top. It's a bit old-school diner nostalgia, perfectly balanced, and surprisingly easy to make at home. A slice promises a flavor and silky texture that everyone will love.
If I had to pick one pie that feels like a warm hug in dessert form, it’s banana cream pie. There’s something about the combination of flaky crust, silky custard, and fluffy whipped cream that just spells old-school comfort dessert to me.
This is the kind of pie that we all ogle behind the glass and might be rotating on an electric Lazy Susan of some sort (poor Susan, how did she get stuck being associated with a slowly spinning circle?). Top the poofs of whipped cream with some curls or shavings of chocolate, and you’ve got yourself a show-stopper. I use a refrigerated pie crust in this recipe because I’m a little lazy when it comes to pie crusts, but if you’re not, go ahead and make your own!
To emulate that classic diner experience (and go into a little bit of a sugar coma), serve this pie with a Thick Chocolate Oreo Milkshake.
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What's In This Post?
Best Banana Cream Pie: A slice of this sweet comfort-food pie is like having an old-school diner in your very own home.
Ingredients
- Rolled refrigerated pie crust – Because the filling is a homemade cooled custard, you are going to have to blind bake the crust, which means to bake it empty before you add the filling.
- Sugar
- Cornstarch – Helps thicken the custard.
- Salt
- Whole milk
- Egg yolks – The egg yolks help thicken, stabilize, and enhance the pie custard.
- Unsalted butter – For richness and glossiness.
- Pure vanilla extract
- Ripe bananas – You want them to be ripe, but not mushy.
- Sweetened whipped cream – The ultimate pie topping.
- Semisweet chocolate – Use a vegetable peeler to make pretty little shavings.
FAQs
Fresh ripe but firm bananas are best for texture and flavor. Frozen bananas might add too much moisture and soften the crust.
Blind baking the crust thoroughly and letting the custard cool before assembling helps keep the crust crisp and flaky.
Yes! It’s best made the day before or the morning of serving to let the filling and whipped cream set perfectly.
How to Make Banana Cream Pie
- Blind bake the crust: Unroll the premade crust into a pie pan (unless you’re making your own; good for you!), prick the pie crust with a fork, crimp the edges decoratively, and then put parchment paper on the crust and fill the pie with dried rice, dried beans, or pie weights. Blind bake for 20 minutes at 375 F. Remove the weights and parchment and bake for another 15-20 minutes.
- Make the custard: In a large saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and milk. Cook until it bubbles and thickens, then reduce the heat so that it bubbles slowly for another 2-3 minutes and thickens up further.
- Temper and add the eggs: Lightly beat the egg yolks in a small bowl. Whisking constantly, pour a few tablespoons of the hot filling into the egg yolks until blended. Then, slowly pour the egg mixture back into the pan. Allow to come to a boil and stir for about 2 more minutes.
- Finish the custard filling: Remove from the heat and mix in the butter and vanilla. Transfer to a container and place some plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard. Refrigerate the mixture for about 1 hour.
- Assemble: When the crust and the custard are cooled to at least room temperature, slice the bananas about 1/2-inch thick. Lay the bananas across the bottom of the pie crust. Carefully dollop the custard on top. Top with whipped cream.
- Finish and enjoy: Refrigerate the pie for 4 to 6 hours, until fully chilled. Top the pie with chocolate shavings if desired. Slice and serve.
How to Top a Pie With Whipped Cream
You can simply dollop whipped cream on, OR if you want to create those lovely swoopy peaks and valleys you see on those awesome pies at the bakeries, you can make that happen. The best tool for this job is a mini offset spatula. A small offset is perfect for creating gorgeous swoops in whipped cream toppings or making perfect peaks and valleys in the meringue for a Lemon Meringue Pie.
Just let your hand gently move in a circular motion through the cream, up and down in a swirly motion, without over-stirring the whipped cream (you don’t want to push out the air, which is what makes whipped cream whipped). Just play around with it until you get the knack of it, and create a pretty rolling landscape of whipped cream atop your pie.
Topping Pie With Chocolate
A bar of chocolate and a vegetable peeler will get you some pretty chocolate shavings for the top. Mine were a bit flaky because my chocolate was cold, but if you warm your chocolate slightly, you will get curlier curls.
Storage
Cover in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. The pie is best within the first two days, but I’m sure you won’t have any problems finishing it by then.
What to Serve With Banana Cream Pie
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Best Banana Cream Pie
Ingredients
- 1 rolled refrigerated pie crust
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ½ cups whole milk
- 3 large egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large firm but ripe bananas
- 4 cups sweetened whipped cream (double the recipe)
- 1 thick bar semisweet chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F. Let the pie crust sit out at room temperature for 20 minutes, then unroll the crust and fit it into an 8 or 9-inch pie pan with the parchment on top. Prick the pie crust with a fork in a number of places. Remove the parchment (reserve it!) and crimp the edges decoratively. Fit the parchment back into the pie crust and fill the pie with dried rice, dried beans, or pie weights. For more on blind baking a pie crust, click here.
- Bake on the lower rack of the oven for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven, carefully remove the parchment and weights, and return the crust to the oven. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until golden and cooked through. Set on a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and milk. Place the pan over medium-high heat until it starts to bubble and thicken, then reduce the heat a bit so that it bubbles slowly for another 2 or 3 minutes and thickens up further.
- Lightly beat the egg yolks in a small bowl. Slowly pour a few tablespoons of the hot filling into the egg yolks, whisking all the while, until blended. Slowly pour this egg mixture back into the pan over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, so that it is all smooth and blended. Allow to come to a boil (big bloopy bubbles will rise to the top and pop) and stir for another 2 minutes until the mixture is quite thick.
- Remove from the heat and add the butter and vanilla. Stir until the butter is melted. Transfer to a container and place some plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard. Refrigerate the mixture for about 1 hour, until it is fairly cool and evenly thicker.
- When the crust and the custard are cooled to at least room temperature, slice the bananas about 1/2-inch thick. Distribute the bananas on the bottom of the pie crust. Carefully dollop over the custard and use the back of a spoon or an offset spatula to smooth the top.
- Use a spoon or a piping bag to cover the top of the pie with the whipped cream. If you used a spoon, then use the back of a spoon or an offset spatula again to make nice swirly swoops in the whipped cream. Refrigerate the pie for 4 to 6 hours, until fully chilled. Top the pie with chocolate curls if desired: Use a vegetable peeler to scrape down the side of the chocolate bar, so that thin pieces of the chocolate fall off in curls.
- Slice and serve.
