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Banana cream pie is a variation of a cream pie which includes sliced bananas.
Bananas "took the American market by storm in the 1880s" according to food historian Lynn Olver as quoted by the New York Times.[1] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of 'cream pie' dates to the 1810s.[2]
The dish dates to the end of the 19th century. A recipe for a banana pie, in which sliced bananas were placed into a baked pie crust and baked to soften the bananas, then topped with whipped cream, appeared in the 1901 Woman's Exchange Cook Book by Minnie Palmer.[3][4][5] A 1906 recipe in The Blue Ribbon Cook Book calls for the addition of custard on top of the bananas with no further baking.[3][4]
Classic recipes typically call for fresh bananas and custard in a prebaked pie crust which is then topped with whipped cream.[3][6]
Typically ingredients include a pastry crust which has been blind-baked or a graham cracker crust, which is then filled with bananas and custard or pastry cream (a cooked mixture of milk, sugar, vanilla, eggs, butter) and topped with crème fraicheorwhipped cream.[5]
The dish is known throughout the US but is most common in Midwestern cuisine and Southern cuisine.[5] As of 2007 it was also popular in Los Angeles, according to the New York Times.[5][1] According to the South Florida Reporter it was a favorite of US soldiers in 1951.[4][5]
