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The Dodo Banana Cream Cheese Pie Recipe

A copycat of the Dodo restaurant Banana Cream Cheese Pie. Layers of cheesecake, fresh bananas, homemade custard, whipping cream and topped with a warm caramel sauce. Good at the restaurant, amazing homemade!

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword banana pudding, caramel sauce, copycat recipe, custard, dodo restaurant, holidays, pie
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour
cool time, refrigeration time 7 hours
Total Time 9 hours
Servings 8

Ingredients

Pie crust:

  • 2 cups crushed graham crackers or a combination of Biscoff and Graham crackers see recipe notes
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Cream cheese filling:

  • 2- 8 oz packages cream cheese, room temperature not low fat (the pie will not set up properly)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup granulated (white) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Banana layer:

  • 6-7 medium size bananas, sliced Barely ripe to prevent browning.

Vanilla custard:

  • 3 cups whole milk
  • 1 1/4 cups granulated (white) sugar
  • 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon cornstarch* see recipe notes
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 3 tablespoons butter cut into 3 pieces
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Whipped cream topping:

  • 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Easy Caramel topping:

  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • cup whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

For the Crust and Cheesecake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees set the rack in middle of the oven.
  2. Mix the crushed graham and Biscoff crumbs with melted butter and sugar. Press into the bottom and sides of a 10x2 inch pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

  3. Combine room temperature cream cheese, eggs, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice in a bowl. Mix until smooth.

  4. Pour into the crust.

  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until set in middle.

  6. Remove and let cool completely or refrigerate, covered until the next day when assembling.

For the Custard:

  1. Whisk eggs and yolk in a small bowl, set aside.
  2. Place milk, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a heavy saucepan. Mix together with a whisk.

  3. Turn heat to medium high and place the saucepan on heat. Cook mixture for about 5 minutes, whisking while cooking to prevent milk and sugar from burning. Let the mixture come to a gentle boil while stirring.

  4. After the mixture has cooked for about 5-7 minutes and has thickened, remove from heat. This cooking process may take up to 10 minutes. Do not rush it!
  5. Using a 1/4 cup measure, remove some of the cooked milk mixture and pour a stream of the cooked milk into the beaten eggs while mixing the eggs with a fork. Repeat about 3 times so 3/4 cup of cooked milk is mixed into the eggs.
  6. After the eggs have been tempered*, add the egg mixture to the hot milk mixture in the saucepan. Whisk until milk mixture and eggs are incorporated.
  7. Place the saucepan with the custard back on the stove and cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches a gentle boil again. Cook for about 2 minutes while whisking.
  8. Remove from heat. Add the butter and vanilla to the custard.

  9. Pour the mixture into a bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap onto the custard to prevent a film from forming on the top of the custard. Place in the refrigerator and let cool completely for about 1 hour.

For the Whipping Cream:

  1. Whip the heavy cream until peaks form, then beat in powdered sugar, refrigerate in covered bowl until ready to serve.

For the Caramel:

  1. In a small heavy saucepan combine brown sugar, water and lemon juice. Bring to boiling over medium heat. Reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally until slightly thickened and bubbly.
  2. Stir in whipping cream, butter and vanilla. Cool sauce completely. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

  3. Cover and store in the fridge for up to three days. (I pour into a small jelly jar) Bring to room temperature and warm just before serving.

Assembly:

  1. When ready to assemble the pie, lay the bananas sideways (instead of the traditional way of laying flat) in a tight spiral on top of the cheesecake layer (as shown in the photo).
  2. Spoon the custard over the bananas and smooth gently to edges. The custard will form a bit of a mound. Cover the custard with Saran Wrap and refrigerate for 6 hours to set. It is ok for the Saran Wrap to lay directly on the custard. This will prevent the custard from forming a “skin” on top when refrigerated.
  3. When ready to serve, top the pie with whipped cream and caramel sauce.

Recipe Notes

  • Best to eat this pie within 1-2 days.
  • Make sure to let the cheesecake layer cool completely before layering on bananas. 
  • I purchase banana that are barely ripe to prevent browning. If you are concerned about the bananas becoming brown, brush 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice on the bananas before topping with custard. 
  • I use a 10 inch x 2 inch deep pie plate for the Dodo pie. The standard pie plate is 9.5 inches which is a little small for this dessert. 
  • 1 cup of graham crackers = about 7 graham cracker rectangles. 1 cup of Biscoff = 14 cookies
  • I like to use slightly under ripe bananas to prevent browning. Some prefer to use sweeter ripe bananas.
  • Tips for making custard:

    -Make sure to add the cornstarch to the pan of milk, sugar and salt while the milk is cold. If you try to add the cornstarch directly to the milk after it has been heated, the cornstarch will form lumps in the milk mixture.

     

    -To temper the eggs is to add the hot liquid from the custard to the beaten eggs a little at a time in a slow stream. If you were to add the eggs directly to the hot custard, the eggs would curdle and your custard would be dotted with small pieces of scrambled egg. Slowly adding a bit of the hot custard to the egg will avoid issues with the egg cooking too quickly. When the custard has been added to the eggs slowly, it is safe to add the egg mixture back to the pan of warm custard and continue cooking.

    - Some readers have reported their custard did not set up. I suspect this is because the custard was not cooked long enough, or the heat was turned up a bit too high. If you are concerned about custard not setting up, instead of the 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon, you may use 1/3 cup of cornstarch instead. It is slightly more than the called for 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon and will help thicken the filling a bit! 

  • Shortcut method: Purchase a pre made graham cracker crust. Purchase a cheesecake in the freezer section.. Use one large box of instant vanilla pudding substituting half whipping cream for milk. (See pudding box directions) or follow directions on box for pie filling instead of pudding. Heavy whipping cream for topping. I do not recommend Cool Whip. Mrs Richardson's or another brand of good quality caramel topping.