Creamy Banana Pecan Pie combines two classic pies into one delicious dessert! This simple banana pie recipe is made in a pecan crust, with fresh bananas sandwiched between two creamy layers.
Creamy Banana Pecan Pie is a must-make recipe for your next special occasion. The perfect pie for the holidays! I like pecans, but have always felt like pecan pie is just a little bit too pecan-ish for me. And banana pie is always a great idea as well, but it’s so much better with a little crunch and the flavor of the pecans.
You do have to bake the crust, but it is one of the easiest pie crusts ever! All you need is flour, butter and finely chopped pecans. Once the crust is baked, the rest of the pie is completely no-bake and comes together in just a few minutes. Easy pie recipe that will have all of your guests begging for seconds!
Ingredients in Banana Pecan Pie
Flour – Regular all-purpose flour works wonderfully for making the crust.
Butter -Real butter works best and it definitely needs to be softened to room temperature. Can’t have a pie crust without some type of fat to hold it all together. And make it taste amazing too!
Pecans – You want these to be finely chopped. Pecans are pretty soft, so you should be able to easily chop them with a knife or chopper, but you can also smash them with a mallet. You can use a blender or a food processor, but you probably only need to pulse it a few times. You don’t want the pecans to turn into flour!
Cream cheese – Any variety will work. You can use regular cream cheese, or a low-fat or non fat version. Just make sure to soften the cream cheese before adding to the mixture so that it will mix smoothly.
Powdered sugar – Easier to just buy powdered sugar, but if you are out, you can make your own in a pinch. Just place regular granulated sugar in a blender and blend until it looks like powdered sugar!
Cool Whip – 8 oz. container of non-dairy whipped topping, regular or non-fat. Can use stabilized whipped cream instead (directions below).
Bananas – Barely ripe bananas work best. You want them to be firm, but not too green either! The recipe calls for 3 large bananas, but you can use 4-5 small ones too!
Instant vanilla pudding mix – Just one small box. You can use sugar-free if you’d like, but I prefer the regular kind. If you want a stronger banana flavor, you can use instant banana pudding instead.
Milk – I use 2% because that’s what I have, but you can swap in pretty much any variety of milk. 1%, skim, almond milk, soy milk, whole milk….it all works fine!
How to make Creamy Banana Pecan Pie
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine flour, butter and 1 cup of pecans until well mixed. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9″ pie plate. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool completely.
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar together. Fold in 1 cup of the Cool Whip. Spread over the cooled crust.
Arrange sliced bananas on top.
In another bowl, whisk the pudding mix and milk. Immediately pour over the bananas. Top with the remaining Cool Whip. Garnish with chopped pecans. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Creamy Banana Pecan Pie
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Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup butter softened to room temperature
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans + more for garnish on top
- 8 oz. pkg cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 8 oz Cool Whip thawed and divided
- 3 large firm bananas, sliced
- 1 pkg 3.4 oz instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 1/3 cups cold milk
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350°.
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Combine flour, butter and 1 cup of pecans until well mixed. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9″ pie plate. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool completely.
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In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar together. Fold in 1 cup of the Cool Whip. Spread over the cooled crust.
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Arrange sliced bananas on top.
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In another bowl, whisk the pudding mix and milk. Immediately pour over the bananas. Top with the remaining Cool Whip. Garnish with chopped pecans. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
CAN YOU REPLACE THE COOL WHIP IN PIE?
If you can’t find Cool Whip where you live or you prefer not to use it in recipes, you can use stabilized whipped cream instead. If you just use regular whipped cream, the consistency will be too light and the cream will not hold up very well when mixed into the cream cheese layer. It’s very simple to make your own stabilized whipped cream and it just takes a few minutes!
To make stabilized whipped cream, you will need the following ingredients:
- 4 ounces of cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- Beat the cream cheese with the powdered sugar and vanilla until soft and smooth.
- In a separate bowl, beat the whipping cream just until soft peaks form.
- Add the cream cheese mixture to the whipped cream and beat until stiff peaks are formed. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
A little tip for making whipped cream faster. Use a metal bowl for whipping the cream and place the bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes before you make the whipped cream. This will significantly decrease the amount of time that you will need to beat the whipped cream – the process will go much faster!
HOW TO SOFTEN CREAM CHEESE
You can soften cream cheese by simply letting it sit on the countertop for 2-3 hours, until it comes to room temperature. Using room temperature cream cheese is vital. I don’t know if you are like me but I always forget to take the cream cheese out of the fridge! An easy way to soften the cream cheese is to use the defrost function on your microwave. Place the cream cheese, unwrapped, in a bowl, then select the lowest setting on defrost. Mine usually takes about 45 seconds. That’s it! Then proceed with the recipe.
Creamy Banana Pecan Pie combines two classic pies into one delicious dessert! This simple banana pie recipe is made in a pecan crust, with fresh bananas sandwiched between two creamy layers.
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