Banoffee Ice Cream Pie is a decadent frozen layered dessert with banana, dulce de leche, and vanilla ice creams, crunchy almonds, and toffee bits in a sweet and salty graham cracker crust.
It’s like a salted caramel banana cream pie — in ice cream form.
What is Banoffee?
Banoffee (banana + toffee, get it?) pie is a traditional English dessert made from fresh sliced bananas, creamy caramel-y dulce de leche, and whipped cream in a cookie crust. Sometimes there's even a chocolate layer or a topping of melted chocolate or cocoa powder. It’s ridiculously delicious.
So it’s not surprising at all that the frozen version of this pie makes a killer summer ice cream cake!
Because when the heat rises, we all scream for ice cream, right?
Some of our favorites are No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream or Lemon Blueberry Graham Cracker Ice Cream Sandwiches -- but there's something so special about an ice cream pie.
This Banoffee Ice Cream Pie with graham cracker crust is the perfect summer dessert.
With sweet, nutty crust, layers of banana, vanilla, and dulce de leche ice creams, and sprinkles of almonds and toffee bits throughout -- there's nothing not to love.
Plus, it’s easy to make, you can customize it with your favorite flavors, and everyone will love it.
Just be sure to give yourself plenty of freezing time to let the layers of ice cream firm up.
You’re going to love this
Easy ice cream pie recipe, perfect for cooling off on a hot summer day
This easy homemade ice cream pie has THREE kinds of ice cream!
The buttery graham cracker crust is the perfect sweet, salty, crunchy base for a creamy ice cream pie
It’s like a cross between a salted caramel ice cream cake and a banana cream pie
Dulce de leche, people. Dulce. de. Leche.
Ingredients
Graham crackers make the perfect cookie crust for this ice cream pie that’s not too sweet.
Salted almonds add crunch and rich flavor to the pie crust and layers of ice cream — and amps up the salted caramel ice cream pie vibes.
Ripe bananas. You’re going to make your own banana ice cream with mashed bananas and vanilla ice cream (no ice cream maker needed here!).
Vanilla ice cream is its own layer and also goes into making the fresh banana ice cream.
Dulce de leche ice cream — I used Haagen-Dazs
Dulce de leche sauce is like a gooey caramel sauce, but thicker, and more luscious. Find it with the ice cream toppings or in the baking section in the grocery store.
Toffee bits add even more crunch and more toffee flavor to this banoffee pie ice cream cake
Sea salt. A pinch of salt over the dulce de leche layer breaks the sweetness and turns it into salted caramel
Substitutions
Dulce de leche sauce. If you can’t find dulce de leche where you are, you can make it yourself by reducing sweetened condensed milk down (see how the Pioneer Woman does it here), or use a thick caramel sauce.
Dulce de leche ice cream. You can use any kind of caramel ice cream. If there’s none to be found, you can combine some dulce de leche or caramel sauce with a pint of softened vanilla ice cream and make your own!
Graham crackers. Any cookie will do in your crust mixture. To keep it from getting too sweet, I recommend shortbread cookies, plain chocolate wafer cookies, or even butter crackers or pretzels. Whatever you use, you’ll need 3 cups of crumbs.
Toffee bits and roasted salted almonds. Use your imagination and substitute dark chocolate chips, chocolate covered toffee bits, coconut, pecans, peanuts — use what you love. Whatever you use, I recommend having something salty in there.
Step-by-step instructions
To make this layered ice cream pie recipe, you will need to use softened ice cream to build the layers. There are two ways to go about this: let it rest on the counter for 10-15 minutes or put it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 325.
Step 2
In a food processor, pulse graham crackers, ½ cup almonds, and melted butter into fine crumbs.
Step 3
Lightly press crumbs into a 9" springform pan, using the bottom of a glass to press it into the edges.
Step 4
Bake for 10 minutes and cool completely.
Step 5
With a fork or potato masher, mash the bananas in a large bowl. Add one pint of softened vanilla ice cream to the mashed bananas and stir until combined.
Step 6
Pour banana ice cream mixture into the crust and place it in the freezer for up to an hour or until firm. Because of the addition of room temperature bananas into softened ice cream, this layer may take longer to firm up than the others.
Step 7
Top the frozen banana ice cream layer with ⅓ cup dulce de leche and ½ cup chopped almonds.
You may need to slightly warm up the dulce de leche in the microwave so it's loose enough to spread.
Step 8
Spoon one pint softened dulce de leche ice cream over the banana ice cream layer.
Step 9
Top the dulce de leche ice cream with ⅓ cup dulce de leche sauce, ½ cup toffee bits, and a dash of sea salt. Freeze for up to an hour or until firm.
Step 10
Spoon 1 pint softened vanilla ice cream over the dulce de leche ice cream and top with ½ cup toffee bits and ½ cup chopped almonds.
Step 11
Cover with foil or plastic wrap and freeze for several hours or until completely firm.
Step 12
To serve, drizzle the top of the ice cream pie with warm dulce de leche sauce.
If you're feeling fancy, you can add a drizzle of chocolate sauce or chocolate shavings to the top of the ice-cream cake.
Store leftovers in the freezer, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or in an airtight container.
Expert Tips
Allow plenty of time for each layer to freeze and for the whole banoffee ice cream pie to freeze -- about 6 hours in all.
For the best flavored banana ice cream, use ripe bananas that are just starting to get brown spots on them
Use a glass or measuring cup to press the crumbs into the edges of the springform pan
Give each layer of ice cream about an hour to freeze before adding the next
Adding salted nuts to the graham cracker crust keeps this dessert from being too sweet
Recipe FAQs
Banoffee refers to the flavor combination of bananas and toffee. The toffee flavor usually comes from sweetened condensed milk that’s been boiled down to a thick and creamy caramel-like sauce.
Even though caramel sauce and dulce de leche taste similar, they are made differently. Caramel sauce is made from sugar, cream, and butter, while dulce de leche is made from milk and sugar.
You can let it soften in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes or at room temperature for 10-15 minutes.
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Banoffee Ice Cream Pie
Ingredients
- 18 graham cracker sheets
- 1 stick melted butter
- 1 ½ cup chopped salted almonds (divided) I used roasted almonds
- 2 pints vanilla ice cream
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1 cup dulce de leche sauce (divided) or thick caramel sauce
- 1 pint dulce de leche ice cream or caramel ice cream
- 1 cup toffee bits (divided)
- dash sea salt
Instructions
Nutty Graham Cracker Crust
- Preheat the oven to 325.
- In a food processor, pulse graham crackers, ½ cup almonds, and melted butter into fine crumbs. Lightly press crumbs into a 9" spring form pan, using the bottom of a glass to press it into the edges.
- Bake for 10 minutes and cool completely.
Banoffee Ice Cream Pie
- Mash the bananas in a large bowl. Add one pint softened vanilla ice cream and stir until combined. Pour banana ice cream mixture into the crust and place it in the freezer for up to an hour or until firm. Because of the addition of room temperature bananas into the ice cream, this layer may take longer to firm up than the others.
- Top banana ice cream layer with ⅓ cup dulce de leche and ½ cup chopped almonds.
- Spoon one pint softened dulce de leche ice cream over the banana ice cream layer. Top it with ⅓ cup dulce de leche sauce and ½ cup toffee bits. Freeze for up to an hour or until firm.
- Spoon 1 pint softened vanilla ice cream over the dulce de leche ice cream and top with ½ cup toffee bits and ½ cup chopped almonds.
- Cover with foil or plastic wrap and freeze for several hours or until completely firm.
- To serve, drizzle the top of the ice cream pie with warm dulce de leche sauce.
- Store leftovers in the freezer, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. or in an airtight container.
Notes
- Allow plenty of time for each layer to freeze and for the whole ice cream pie to freeze -- about 6 hours in all.
- For the best flavored banana ice cream, use ripe bananas that are just starting to get brown spots on them
- Use a glass or measuring cup to press the crumbs into the edges of the springform pan
- Give each layer of ice cream about an hour to freeze before adding the next
- Adding salted nuts to the graham cracker crust keeps this dessert from being too sweet
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