Ok so you may or may not know but I try not to make desserts very often! You see I don’t like to tempt myself by keeping things like this in the house as I used to be addicted to candy and baked goods as a kid. But occasionally I make desserts for special occasions or for guests and I came up with a healthier version of one of my favorites. Chocolate banana cream pie.
You see plain old banana cream pie doesn’t do it for me… no, no I like to coat the crust in a little melted dark chocolate and drizzle some on top for good measure. But this is a special treat! I don’t eat chocolate every day and certainly not desserts.
Here’s what the final product looks all sliced up and pretty!
I also made a coconut milk whipped creme to top it off with as well, but this is optional. If you are looking for a lower fat dessert you can certainly skip the coconut milk whipped cream. I have never made coconut whipped creme before so I wanted to try my hand at it. Turns out it helps to actually own egg beaters! (which I don’t… hah) So mine ended up being a little flat and not really whipped… but it still tasted great nonetheless. So I recommend using egg beaters (the kitchen tool not the product!) to make whipped cream.
Ok so now I’m going to show you how you can make a basic banana cream pie with fresh ripe bananas, almond milk and vanilla pudding. Then I’ll give you the option of using dark chocolate and/or coconut whipped cream. That means you can totally choose how to build your banana cream pie to your tastes and dietary needs. So if you are on a strict diet don’t throttle me please! This is a special occasions recipe and sometimes you want to blow your guests away with a totally vegan and plant based treat.
Compared to the original non vegan recipe this is definitely “reduced in guilt”. 🙂
There’s a new print function installed on the blog, click the print icon at the top of the post and you can edit the text to print and remove the photos if you like as well.
Vegan Chocolate Banana Cream Pie
Serves 8-10 (depending how big the slices are)
Pie Ingredients:
1 graham cracker pie crust (look to see if it contains honey- if concerned, many don’t)
3 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate (dairy free)
3 bananas, ripe
2 cups almond milk or other non dairy milk
1 package vanilla pudding mix (not instant the stovetop kind)
Coconut Whipped Cream Ingredients *optional
1 can coconut milk (regular, not light)
2-3 teaspoons maple syrup or confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
Chocolate Drizzle Ingredients *optional
1 oz semi sweet baking chocolate (dairy free)
Pie Assembly Directions:
1. Remove graham cracker crust lid. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
2. With a spatula carefully spread chocolate mixture over crust, gently dragging it up the sides. Set crust in refrigerator to harden.
3. When chocolate is firm, slice one of the bananas and place half of it on the bottom of the crust. Reserve the other half banana.
4. Blend 2 remaining bananas with 2 cups almond milk in a blender. Add to a saucepan with vanilla pudding mix and cook as directed on package. This makes the vanilla pudding turn into banana pudding with no artificial flavors. (Bring to a boil over medium to medium high heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils.)
5. When thickened pour into pie crust and cool until chilled and set.
If you want the lowest fat version, stop here and serve as is without coconut whipped cream and chocolate drizzle
6. Garnish top of pie with remaining banana slices. Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours until set.
7. If desired top with coconut whipped creme and chocolate drizzle, or serve as is for a lower fat version. Instructions below.
Coconut Whipped Cream Directions:
1. Place the can of coconut milk in refrigerator for 6-8 hours, or in freezer for 3-4 hours until really really cold.
2. Place metal bowl and egg beaters or immersion blender stick in freezer for a few minutes.
3. Remove the can of coconut milk from the freezer and turn upside down. Open the can and pour off coconut water. (reserve for another recipe such as a smoothie!)
4. Remove the bowl from the freezer and scoop out the coconut cream with a spatula and add it to the chilled bowl.
5. Whip cream until light and fluffy. Add maple syrup or vanilla extract if desired. Whip again until combined.
6. Garnish or serve.
Chocolate Drizzle Directions
1. In a microwave safe bowl melt chocolate (1-1/2 minutes on high).
2. Drizzle over pie or dessert and serve.
 Have you ever had chocolate banana cream pie before? Have you ever made a vegan pie at home?
I went to the store to look for Vanilla pudding. O.M.G. No way am I putting that into my body! Have you seen the additives? There’s nothing remotely “natural” in there. I’m going to make a home-made pudding from scratch. Will report back.
My daughter and I tried to make this and well it didn’t come out right. We followed the directions but the pudding did not set and yes we did use the cooked pudding. Also the coconut whipped cream would not whip. It was in the fridge overnight and I did try and drain it but there really was no coconut water and coconut to scoop out. Don’t know what happen. But the pudding taste great, like banana pudding. Now if we can just find Vegan Vanilla Cookies we could make a great southern banana pudding. The reg ones have egg in them. Thanks for the great recipe will try again to see if it comes out…! 🙂
Did you use soy milk? I did, and mine didn’t set either. Then I read the box and it says not to use it :/
Looks fantastic! Do you suppose a food processor would work to make the coconut whipped cream?
I have ripe bananas perfect for this recipe. I am making it without the chocolate as my wife cannot eat it. I’m wondering if this recipe could be converted to a coconut cream pie, it has always been a favorite but I have not been able to eat it since I became lactose intolerant.
Sounds splendid! One thing, though. If you are into healthful eating, you might want to avoid microwaving anything, ever. Even a bit of once-a-year-chocolate. Can we not just melt the chocolate by placing it in a pot of hot water on the stove? Tks.
Dear Veronica
This looks so yum and I would like to try
your Banana Cream Pie. Never tasted one
before.
Many Thanks as always.
Warmest wishes from N Z.
Spring has arrived too.
Margaret
Thanks Margaret!
All you have to do to make “real” pudding from scratch is add 2 TB of cornstarch to each cup of cold milk and then heat. You can use a good type of sweetener rather than the sugar that is in packaged pudding mixes. I like coconut palm sugar or maple syrup. With the banana in this recipe, you would need very little, if any, sweetener. It seems like using the boxed pudding, which is grossly sweet, would be overwhelming with the bananas.
I wish someone would post a low fat graham cracker crust recipe. I can only have 15 grams of fat a day so this desert is way over my limit.
Hi Bev. I wanted a recipe that would be easy to make for those who hadn’t made pudding before and often people dont use ripe bananas and milk and bananas and corn starch wouldnt make a very sweet pudding. Ive blended bananas with almond milk before and it just taste like banana milk. I didnt find the bananas blended into the vanilla pudding mix too sweet actually.
Also i doubt there is such a thing as low fat graham crust as theres oil in the crackers and then the crust has oil in it to stick the dry crumbs together. Just putting crushed graham crackers in the bottom of the pan is an option but it would make the pie fall apart and I also wanted to be able to serve this easily and take a nice photo.
PS: LOVE this new print option. Thanks!
Yay! I had another website plugin that stopped working so i found this new one 🙂
My husband loves banana cream pie and I remember when I was first attempting to go vegan, I made one for him for Valentine’s Day but I used an instant pudding mix and rice milk. It never set and was a soupy mess that I had to throw away! That was years ago and my poor husband hasn’t had banana cream pie since…but thanks to you, Veronica, I’m going to surprise him with this one on our upcoming anniversary! Thanks so much (and thanks for adding the chocolate…that’s my favorite part 🙂
Hi Betsy. You can’t use instant pudding mix with non dairy milk. There is not saturated fat in it and it won’t set. Saturated fat is solid when cooled in tge frusge and room temperature. You have to use cooked pudding mix like i did in this recipe as it has starch which thickens the pudding without needing the saturated fat. So try this!
Success!! Our 28th Anniversary was Saturday and I made your banana cream pie (without the chocolate ’cause my husband isn’t into the chocolate part). It was (notice “was” — it’s gone) AWESOME!!! The pudding did set up using rice milk since I followed your advice and used the cooking type of pudding mix. Putting the 2 bananas in the blender with the milk was genius! Only problem: Usually I let my husband have the whole pie because I’m not crazy about banana cream pie but this was SO good that I did a lot of “helping” when it came to polishing it off. Thanks so much for adding extra sweetness to our anniversary 🙂
Aww I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it Betsy. So funny. I really love bananas so because it has some healthy ingredients in there it tastes much better than artificial banana pudding. 🙂
This sounds so good as a special treat. I’ll definitely use this when I have more people around so I can’t eat it all! Thanks for another spectacular recipe.
You’re welcome 🙂
This comment isn’t about your pie, but I will try to try it at sometime in the future. This comment is about something you mentioned at another time. Something you said about substituting plant food items for animal products when going to non vegan restaurants triggered an idea in my mind a few days ago. I so wanted some Mexican food, so when I went into a Mexican restaurant yesterday, I ordered a Taco bowl, told the waitress that I was vegan and asked her to substitute refried beans and rice for the meat and dairy. The meal was absolutely delicious. So today I decided to have something similar at home. I opened a can of Eden Foods refried beans, added some bean juice (in order to make the beans more spreadable) that I had left over from cooking up some Garbanzo beans and heated it up on the stove. At the same time I cooked up about a cup of long grain brown rice. After the rice was done I added some Miso to it to give it a little flavor. I also added some vegetarian Better than Bullion to the beans to give them some additional flavor. I took some WW pita pockets that had been laying around in my refrigerator for quite a while, cut them I half and steamed them. When all this was done, I chopped some baby spring spinach, combined the beans and rice and salsa in the steamed pps and ate them. They were good.
Thanks for the idea. And sorry for the long winded comment.
P.S. One question. Why do chefs who used canned ingredients always say to drain the liquid from a can of beans?
William