WHITE CHOCOLATE BANANA CREAM PIE SOUP

One would think that a White Chocolate Banana Cream Pie shouldn't be so difficult. You can bake a storebought crust, make a simple custard-pastry cream that you cook in a pot on the stove, stir some white chocolate chips into the custard while it is hot, and pour the custard over banana slices in the crust. Decorate with a little whipped cream and white chocolate curls. Voila, a magnificent dessert!

But, alas, if you don't know the secret pitfalls of pastry cream, there are two separate places that can precipitate a disaster. You normally heat the milk and/or cream with the sugar and starch mixed together. This is fairly easy. You just stand there stirring and heating until the mixture thickens. This is somewhere close to boiling, and how long it takes over medium heat depends on how cold the liquid was originally.

So, now you have this nice thick mixture -- the sugar, starch and milk. The directions say to remove this from the heat and stir a few spoons of this hot mixture into the egg yolks. Then, you stir the egg yolks back into the hot mixture, return it to the heat, and bring it back to a boil. This sounds simple enough, but this mixture is really thick. So, when you heat it, it goes blop, blop, blop and it begins to stick to the bottom even though you are stirring. Your instinct is to call it a day and take it off the heat.

Alas, don't do it. If you quit with the first few blop, blops, guess what? Tomorrow you've got soup. Overnight, in the refrigerator, your wonderful thick custard has turned to soup. In the egg yolks, there are little enzymes, alpha amylase, that just love starch. Overnight, they break down all your nice, firmly set starch.

You must be strong and prevail. No matter that it goes blop, blop, no matter that it threatens to stick, you must keep going. Keep scraping the bottom with a spatula, and keep heating until you are sure that the entire mixture has gotten hot enough to kill these enzymes.

I think it helps if you stir maybe as much as a cup of the hot mixture into the egg yolks. Bring the mixture back to a boil, then just add about a third of the cool yolks, bring it back to a good blop, blop boil. Then, add another third and bring back to a boil.

Finally, do this with the last third. In this way you are not adding a lot of cool stuff at once and it's easier to bring the mixture back to a boil.

OK, you were strong, you endured the blop, blops and, after you added the egg yolks, you got the mixture hot enough to kill those little rascal enzymes -- no soup for you. But, you are not quite home free. There is still one last pitfall.

When your starch cools and your custard sets, it is a firm set. If you stir it after it has cooled and set, you break the bonds in the structure and thin the custard. So, all stirring must be done while it's hot. It can then be poured into the crust, allowed to cool and set, and all is well.

In the recipe below, you will notice that I try to get you safely through these two high-risk situations. This is a really great pie -- well worth the struggle. As Julia Child says, ``Bon apptit!''

WHITE CHOCOLATE BANANA CREAM PIE

A wonderfully rich custard with bananas, a hint of white chocolate and a bite of flaky crust! Wow! What this recipe shows is that heating the custard thoroughly after the egg yolks are added kills alpha amylase, the enzyme that can break starch apart and turn your pie to soup. Any stirring after the custard has cooled and set will thin it. Care must be taken to stir in all ingredients and get the custard into the crust while it is hot.

Juice of 1 orange

2 medium bananas, sliced

1 prebaked pie crust

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 cup cream, heavy or whipping

6 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

GARNISH:

1 cup cream, heavy or whipping

2 tablespoons sugar

1 (2-inch) piece white chocolate

Squeeze orange juice over banana slices to prevent browning. When ready to make custard, drain banana slices and arrange in bottom of pie crust.

In medium saucepan, stir together sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir in milk and cream. Heat over medium heat with gentle stirring until mixture thickens and just comes to boil.

Remove from heat. In medium mixing bowl, stir 1 cup hot mixture into egg yolks. Return saucepan to low to medium heat and reheat mixture to boil, scraping bottom of pan steadily with flat ended spatula. Pour about 1/3 egg yolk mixture into saucepan. Bring mixture in saucepan back to boil. By now it is probably very thick and boils with big bubbles, blop, blop, and is threatening to stick on bottom. Keep scraping bottom and continue adding egg yolk mixture. (You must get entire mixture hot enough to kill enzymes in egg yolks that can wreck starch and turn pie to soup overnight in refrigerator.)

After custard has been thoroughly heated, stir in vanilla and chocolate chips. Pour custard immediately into crust with bananas. Refrigerate at once.

When pie is well chilled and ready to serve, garnish with whipped cream. With cold bowl and cold beaters, whip 1 cup cream until very stiff. Gently stir in 2 tablespoons sugar. Fill large pastry bag with big star tip and pipe swirls around outer edge of pie. If you do not have pastry bag, make swirls with spoon.

With vegetable peeler, peel curls of white chocolate or grate white chocolate shavings to garnish. Serve cold. Makes 8 servings.

(Food scientist Shirley O. Corriher is the author of ``CookWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking,'' William Morrow, 1997.)

(c) 2000, Shirley O. Corriher. Distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate

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Author: Shirley O. Corriher