BANOFFI PIE

I'm reposting this Banoffi Pie for Pie Day.  
 Marlena Spieler had Tweeted a few time about making Banoffi Pie..what is that? I'd never heard of it before so I did a little research.
It is a pie that is said to be invented by Ian Dowding and Nigel McKenzie at the Hungry Monk restaurant in East Sussex. It is made with an English biscuit crust, dulce de leche, bananas, whipped cream. What is there not to love?
I decided I had to try this, it sounded so good.
Guess what, it is and easy to make.
The recipe I found is made with a pate sucree crust or a short bread,cookie like crust. But I asked Marlena about hers and she used ginger snaps to make a crust so that is what I did.

11/2 C Ginger snaps
6 Tbsp melted butter
2 tins sweetened condensed milk
4-5 bananas
1 C whipping cream
1-3Tbsp sugar
instant coffee

Ginger snap crust:
11/2 C crushed ginger snaps
6Tbs butter melted
Combine the butter and the ginger snap crumbs well, press into the bottom of a 10 inch spring form pan or tart pan with a removable bottom. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Cool completely.

Dulce de Leche or Banoffi toffee:
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
Place the cans in a deep pot with lid, fill the pot so that the water covers the cans at least 1 inch over the top. Cover and boil for 3 hours. Be sure that the water stays above the top of the cans.
DO NOT LET THE WATER BOIL AWAY or you will have a huge explosion of molten caramel.
Let the cans of dulce de leche cool completely.
Spread one and a half cans of the dulce de leche over the bottom of the prepared crust.
Slice the bananas in half lengthwise and fit the around on top of the caramel


Whip the cream with 1tsp instant coffee and 2-3 Tbsp sugar depending on how sweet you like it.
Whip until stiff peaks form. The instant coffee will dissolve as you whip the cream.
Cover the whole pie with the whipped cream. Sprinkle a little more instant coffee over the top.

When you make the dulce de leche or toffee, make extra cans since they will keep in the cupboard almost forever. They may form sugar crystals but give a little crunch to the caramel or I'm thinking if you reheat the dulce de leche it will dissolve the sugar. It will come in handy as a topping for ice cream, cake, eating right out of the can.
Also, to make it easier and quicker just buy a pre-made pie shell. Graham cracker crust works well and now I think they may have a "Nilla" wafer crust also. Chocolate would also be a good addition to this, maybe a thin layer on the crust then the dulce de leche? Use your imagination, it's all good.
Thank you Marlena!! This is a super pie.