Summary

Prep: 20 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes
Ages: Toddlers to Teens
Difficulty: Intermediate
Makes: 1 large pie or 8 mini pies (10cm)

Banoffee pie

Banoffee pie is a classic British dessert which is made in three layers.

First you have a biscuit base, usually made using digestive biscuits and butter.

Then you have a caramel layer on top of the base, traditionally made with sugar and butter.

This is then topped with layers of cream and sliced bananas.

Delicious? Absolutely! But unfortunately also quite full of refined sugar and fats.

This skinny banoffee pie is a lighter, healthier way to get this amazing combination of flavours and textures.

So we used dates and creamy sunflower seed butter to make a great caramel free from both dairy and refined sugar.

And as for the biscuit base? Oats coated in maple syrup and blended with coconut oil, so that it has all the sweetness and crunchiness of a classic biscuit base.

Instead of whipped cream, we’ve used coconut cream, packed with healthy fats. Together with banana slices it makes for a very moorish and healthy dessert!

We did sneak in some chocolate chips which do have refined sugars and dairy but they are entirely optional.

If you prefer you can give it a light dusting of cocoa powder instead to get all the flavour of that chocolate, without the chocolate.

Ingredients

Oat crust base

• ¾ cup sunflower seeds (120 grams)
• 3 cups gluten-free oats (270 grams)
• ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted (90 ml)
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 ½ tablespoons pure maple syrup (70 ml)
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoons water, or as needed

Date caramel

• 2 ¼  cups large Medjool dates (about 400 grams)
• 4 tablespoons smooth sunflower seed butter or peanut butter or
• 1 ½ teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

Topping

• 3 x 400ml cans coconut cream – ideally straight from the fridge
• 4 bananas, cut into thick slices
• 6 tablespoons of small milk chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Grease an 8” loose bottom tart pan or 5 x 10cm tartlet pans with butter or with an oil spray.
3. Soak the dates in boiling water for 5-10 minutes. This is for the caramel later on.
4. Place the sunflower seeds, gluten free oats, cinnamon and salt in the food processor and blend until the texture is sandy and fine.
5. Add the maple syrup and coconut oil to the mixture and pulse until it begins to hold together. Add in water (1 tablespoon at a time) as needed until the mixture starts to create clumps that can be pressed together.
6. Sprinkle the dough into your tart pans and working from the centre press the dough firmly into the pans. Add more dough to cover the edges of the pan and compact everything with your fingers until it makes a thin layer.
7. Poke these base layers of each tartlet a few times with a fork. This helps the hot air to escape while it’s baking.
8. Bake in the middle of a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes.
9. Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.
10. Start making your ‘date caramel’ by putting your pitted soaked dates, peanut or sunflower seed butter, salt, lemon juice and vanilla into the processor and process until smooth. Set aside.
11. Press the date mixture into the prepared crusts with the back of a wet spoon.
12. Pour the coconut cream into a medium sized bowl and beat with an electric mixer until it puffs up a little.
13. Cut the bananas into slices. Push half of the banana pieces into the date mixture and top with the whipped coconut cream.
14. Garnish with the remaining bananas and chocolate chips if you are adding.
15. Enjoy these delicious mini banoffee pies!

Creamy vegan banoffee pie – our step by step guide:

Enjoy this deliciously creamy vegan banoffee pie!

If you’re following a vegan diet you might also want to look at some of our top picks for vegan multivitamins here:

7 Best Vegan Multivitamins

Future Kind Review: Essential for Vegans Multivitamin