Banoffee Pie

When guests are coming over, I always like to have a little something ready for them to eat. Sometimes this means I'm up early on a Sunday morning, baking banana bread so it's fresh out of the oven by the time they arrive. Other times it means creating a buffet-style lunch, and in Winter I like to make soups.

But sometimes I don't have the time to get busy in the kitchen. Either because I have too much to do, or it's an almost unexpected arrival and I've not been able to get to the shops to get the ingredients I need. In these cases, I have a very quick and easy Banoffee Pie to make.

Melt 100g butter in a pan. While the butter is melting, put 250g digestive biscuits into a food processor and and blend until finely crushed (note: you can also do this by putting the biscuits into a plastic food bag and crushing them with a rolling pin).

Add the biscuits to the butter and stir until evenly mixed. Put the mixture into a (greased) loose bottomed cake tin and with the back of a spoon, evenly spread out the mixture and create a crust along the sides. Sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes while the mixture firms up, and get started on your whipped cream!

Whip double (or whipping) cream with an electric whisk and fold in some chopped bananas. Once the base is set, remove from the tin, add a 397g tin of carnation caramel (this is for super time saving - for super penny-saving, get a tin of condensed milk and turn to caramel by boiling for 2 hours or so - follow instructions on tin) and top with the whipped cream and banana mixture.

Dust with cocoa powder and leave in the fridge until guests are ready to be treated!

While not the best Banoffee Pie to have ever been made in the history of Banoffee Pies, it's pretty damn tasty! And credit where credit's due, Matthew's friend regularly goes to the restaurant where the Banoffee Pie was created, The Hungry Monk, here in East Sussex, and he said that my pie was very good!

The best thing about this recipe is that it can be made from things already in the house. Biscuits? In the cupboard. Cream? Generally always in the fridge to be used in some form of pasta dish or with cake. Bananas? Yep, nearly always have those, too! And who doesn't have butter?? Just keep some Condensed Milk or Caramel in your store cupboard and you'll be ready to go whenever you hear that guests are popping around to visit.

Who needs to know it barely cost a thing and took you no time at all? Don't let them in on the secret!