The Easiest, Stickiest and Yummiest Banana Rum Pie Ever!

This delicious homely sticky mess is part of the "Sweet as Pie" Sweet Adventures Blog Hop - this month hosted by a blogger who I'm very fond of and who I'm exited to hear is making a fabulous and exciting move to a beautiful new place - Heather at The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader. Best of luck to you!

I've been pretty busy myself lately, planning and organising a trip overseas which we are embarking on in about 11 days! It's super exciting, but the result is that I'm often not in the mood to cook up elaborate and fiddly dishes after a long day out doing shopping and an evening spent on the phone trying to book accommodation across a language barrier. Of course, saving money to spend on our trip also means that I'm not keen on spending too much money on fancy ingredients as well! I always try and pull something out for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop though, as the Hostesses are some of my favourite bloggers. 

So, I wanted the easiest, yummiest pie I could whip up in about 10 minutes and not have to buy too many ingredients for. It turns out that the quickest, yummiest and easiest pie here is also probably the best comfort food I've ever invented. Here are my rules of comfort food: 

1) It has to be really quick and easy - because nobody wants to be cooking for ages and doing something hard when they're feeling down, it's just not going to happen

2) If it's sweet then it should also be messy. Nothing makes you feel better than making a bit of mess while you eat something amazing

3) It should involve some kind of alcohol

4) It has to be slightly healthy, but not feel too healthy. Now, I know that a lot of people might disagree with me on this one but really it is true. If you eat something laden with fat and cream and all sorts you will end up feeling worse when you have eaten it then you did before - both physically and mentally. Comfort sweets should be sweet and delicious but not a total binge.

This pie fulfils all these requirements perfectly! It's made of only 4 ingredients and they're ones that you're likely to have around in your freezer/pantry/fruit bowl/booze cupboard anyway. It took be about 5-10 minutes to put together and then baked for 20 while I watched a show on my laptop. Perfect.

I was going for super quick and rustic - so I didn't trim my puff pastry square into a circle which would have made a neater pie. If neatness is important then you may want to do this, but I don't like to waste the pastry and I though it looked fine.

Ingredients

1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry (cheaper brands are generally vegan friendly)

2 tbsp dark rum (I used vanilla rum, but any will do)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 ripe bananas, peeled and thinly sliced (do this just before putting them on the pie so they don't go brown)

To Make
1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C.
2. Thaw your pastry completely and then place it on a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper.
3. Set aside 2 tsp of the brown sugar and mix the rest with the rum to make a thick paste.
4. Spread the sugar paste over the pastry - you don't have to go all the way to the edges though as you will fold these over.
5. Layer the slices of banana over the pastry, leaving a small amount of space around the edges to fold over. One you have filled up the pastry sheet you will still have about half a banana left so just add a second layer around the middle of the pie.
6. Fold the edges over the top of the banana layer, you'll have to fold them over themselves a bit too so that the square sheet becomes a round pie. Sprinkle the brown sugar that you set aside over the top.
7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. I recommend that if your oven as a "bottom only" setting, that you use this setting for the last 5-8 minutes to make sure that the pastry cooks on the bottom as well.
8. When you pull it out the sugary rum paste will have melted everywhere, so spoon any syrup that has run out of the pie back on to the top and then let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
9. Cut and serve warm.

Serves two, perfect with vanilla ice cream or just as it is!