I had this delicious dessert for the first time at Simha's parents house. My mother-in-law is an amazing cook! She in fact has her own vegetarian recipes blog as well! I have just modified her recipe a bit to save time using my Instant Pot (IP).
Om and I decided to make it for Valentine's day (Om likes to call it Valentimes, haha). In fact today's chef is Om, himself. If you watch the recipe video, you would see those cool Valentine's day themed tattoos on his cute little hands! He was extremely excited to make the video with me. Of course there were fun moments, tense moments, yelling moments, all of them but I would definitely do it all over again with this cutie! :)
And if he can make it, anyone can! Also I will let you know easier options to make it even quicker!
You will need:
Base/crust:
6 mini graham cracker crusts
Other options:
You could use one single large one as well.
Or choose to make it by yourself using crushed graham crackers, butter and +/- sugar.
Caramel:
14oz can condensed milk
Fruits:
1-2 (based on size) bananas sliced
strawberries (optional) cut in heart shape (for Valentine's day)
Whipped cream:
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
food color (optional, I used pink for Valentine's day)
Other options:
You could use store bought whipped cream as well, to make it even more simple!
Method:
Start with the caramel.
Insert a trivet in IP base. Open the condensed milk can and cover it with aluminum foil. I like to do this to avoid opening it when it comes out of IP (too hot and a lot of pressure). You could place it as it but be very careful while opening the lid of the can.
Pour water into the IP base, so that it covers half the level of the can. Close the lid of IP. Set valve to sealed position. Cook at manual high pressure mode for 40 minutes. Wait for natural pressure release. Take out the can very carefully (hot to handle). Uncover the aluminum foil. TADAA!! Your caramel (more fancy term Dulce de leche) is ready!!
Mix this caramel thoroughly to get rid of any curdled texture and make it very smooth.
While IP is getting the caramel ready, work on your whipped cream.
Add heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract (optional) to a chilled bowl. I like to chill my bowl and whisks of the hand blender in fridge/freezer (a tip that I learnt from my MIL). This prevents the hand blender to get heated up too fast. Keep whipping this till it forms a soft peak. At this stage you can mix in color if you wish and blend a little bit more to combine the color uniformly. We chose pink for Valentine's Day!
You could spoon out the whipped cream on top. Or transfer the whipped cream to a piping bag and then pipe it out on top.
Time to assemble the pie now!
Take graham cracker crust. Add in some caramel filling. Top it up with banana slices. Pipe out or spoon out whipped cream. Lastly put strawberry hearts on top!
Other topping options:
nuts
chocolate shavings/chips
ENJOY!
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