I sat at my dearest friend’s house in Dubai insisting that I was too stuffed to even consider a sip of water let alone dessert. Despite my protests, out came Banoffee and my resolve went down the proverbial drain.

What is one to write about Banoffee? Just one more thing that the British got right, like Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Banoffee is beyond delicious, a perfect combination of the unhealthiest ingredients (except for the bananas) playing havoc with the waistline, and extreme euphoria for the mind and the taste buds.

A biscuit and butter pie crust playing turf to homemade caramel, bananas and whipped cream, topped with a biscuit crumble, a sprinkle of coffee and chocolate shavings, sparingly, if desired.

While conducting my research on Banoffee, I came across many articles, books, essays and chef’s stories regarding the pie. All gave their personal opinion and two cents on the origin of the pie, none disputing its sweet scrumptiousness.

Needless to say I was intrigued, if the pie was created in the 70s then there had to be literature on it by the creator Ian Dowding. Seek and you shall find, and I did, an essay titled The Completely True and Utter Story of Banoffee Pie by Ian Dowding, and with it his original recipe. Following are the excerpts;

Nobody ever invents dishes – they evolve. This then is how it happened. It may be a bit mundane but I’d like to put the record straight.

In the late 1960’s there were the seeds of a food revolution sprouting. Foreign travel was getting through to the British public that there was more to food than boiled beef and plum duff. I had completed a two-year catering course at Swindon College reasonably competently and had got a job at a small restaurant in Berkshire as an assistant sous chef.

Russell [the sous chef] used to do all the important things like main courses, pates and patisserie – I did all the rest. Russell had his secret recipes one of which was a dessert he had brought back from America called Blum’s Coffee Toffee Pie. However it was no secret that it rarely worked. The tantrums Russell threw when it didn’t work schooled me well in the art of profanity if nothing else.