Editor’s note: In this monthly column staff writer Lisa Spear indulges her sweet tooth by sampling desserts made at area restaurants.
Banana cream pie. It’s a simple dessert with just a few ingredients. But at Paul and Elizabeths’s restaurant in Thornes Marketplace in Northampton, it looks like a decadent confection topped with a mound of whipped cream that seems to comprise half the pie.
But it’s the walnut crust that makes this pie stand out from others I’ve had. It’s thin, but mighty, made with oatmeal and honey that tastes and feels like crunchy granola.
“It gives it this extra heftiness compared to other cream pies,” said baker Katie Brennan.
The cream pies are some of Paul and Elizabeth’s biggest selling desserts, says Brennan, and they come in a few other basic flavors — chocolate and coconut.
Brennan’s favorite is a blend of the banana and chocolate cream pie.
I prefer just plain bananas. The fruit comes as the first layer on top of the crust, sliced up when ripe with brown speckles. They’re soft, but keep their textural integrity, even while buried under vanilla custard.
The bananas are warmed and softened when the custard, sweetened with maple syrup and cooked on the stovetop, is poured over them.
When cooled the pie is topped with a monstrous, puffy cloud of whipped cream. At least a pint of heavy cream is used for each one.
“It’s like a meal in itself,” said Brennan.
Brennan is at the restaurant on most days, churning out pies and other baked goods like the warm pear crunch, a fresh pear in honey sauce topped with maple granola.
She says she has no formal culinary training; she learned to bake in her mother’s kitchen in Hadley.
One of the most rewarding aspects of making pies, she says, is seeing customers reactions to her creations.
“I get to see people enjoy what I’ve made, so that is pretty special,” she said.
When you take a bite of the banana cream pie, you’ll find that the crunch of the crust’s walnuts, the smoothness of the custard and the mushy slices of banana co-mingle well. It’s a dense dessert — and utterly delicious.
Have you discovered a confection at a local eatery that makes you want to skip the main course? Email Lisa Spear at lspear@gazettenet.com.