A couple of weeks ago, we went to that Finnish pop-up restaurant, Hel Yes, and it inspired me to throw a Finnish meal together. It wasn’t like I was going to spear a reindeer and forage for lingonberries, but try my very darn-est I did. I browsed through my Moomins Cookbook (because every novice Finn cook must start with Moomins simple instructions) and came up with this pleb menu:

No starter because I’m a pleb
Meat & macaroni bake, served with beetroot salad
Apple pie for dessert

But then, somewhere along the line, my apple pie plans were foiled by Panu bugging me to make a banoffee pie instead, but that’s not all bad 😉

The beetroot salad was a bit of a no brainer because I’d made this before, using Panu’s mum’s recipe. It’s the easiest salad ever to make but be warned the resulting RSI from chopping up 3 carrots, 8 beetroot and about 6 gherkins into teeny tiny cubes. Oh, and I topped the salad with dill this time, which is what any good Finnish person would do 😀

The Moomins meat & macaroni bake is a pretty traditional Finnish recipe, mixing beef mince, onion and garlic with a delicious egg and milk mixture, paprika, all spice and dill. Chuck the whole thing in the oven and it comes out gorgeously brown!

Top it with cheese or breadcrumbs and nom nom nom nom nom!

The innards of the macaroni bake isn’t really the prettiest thing you’ll see, but look at the creamy goodness. Taste wise, I was ever so tempted to add more something to the simple recipe, like more spice or sauce or whatever, but I appreciate that this is how the Finns do it and this is how I shall leave it!

Now, moving onto the culprit that hijacked my Finnish meal. The Banoffee Pie.

“Banoffee” because it’s made of toffee and banana, but there’s cream too, so shouldn’t it be creamanoffee? Yes, yes it should. But it isn’t.

I blatantly stole this recipe directly from the Nestlé site but WARNING! The site also tells you how many calories are in each slice of this holy-mother-of-EVIL pie and trust me, none of you actually want to know this information.

Ok ok I’m gonna tell you. But look away if you don’t want to know!

This one tiny slice of pie has more calories than a Big Mac. 499 calories per slice to be precise. FML I ate three slices.

But how could I not? It is sooooooo fracking delicious, the gooey toffee mushed up against the butter-soaked biscuit base and all that cream! and banana! and as if we weren’t fat enough, topped off with chocolate! Wait, at least the banana is healthy, right? Right.

Anyway the creamanoffee pie totally hijacked my Finnish dinner. I’m still going to try the apple pie out of the Moomins cookbook though, so stay tuned for that! For now, if you feel so inclined to exceed your daily recommended calorie intake in one sitting, feel free to follow the recipe below to glutton hell…

ps. recipe for beetroot salad can be found here.

pps. the Moomins cookbook is awesome fun, with loads of simple recipes for kids.

ppps. a Big Mac has 490 calories.

pppps. Charmaine also just gave me The Scandinavian Cookbook like yesterday so lots more Scandi treats to come!

Banoffee pie (from Nestlé)
Base:
100 grams butter, melted
250 grams digestive biscuits

Filling:
100 grams butter
100 grams soft dark brown sugar
397 grams can of Carnation Condensed milk

Topping:
4 small bananas
300mL double cream, whipped
grated chocolate

  1. To make the base, process the biscuits into fine crumbs then tip into a bowl. Stir in the melted butter.
  2. Press the mixture into the base and about 4cm (1½in) up the sides of the tin. Chill the base while you make the filling.
  3. To make the filling, place the butter and sugar into a non–stick saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
  4. Add the condensed milk and bring gently to the boil, stirring continuously to make the caramel.
  5. Spread the filling over the biscuit base, let cool, then leave to chill for about 1 hour, until firm. I left it overnight.
  6. To serve, remove the pie from the tin and place on a serving plate. Slice the bananas and fold half of them into the whipped cream and spoon over the toffee base.
  7. Decorate with the remaining bananas and finish with the grated chocolate.
Serves 12 (well… this is relative, isn’t it?)
Meat & macaroni bake
I followed the Moomins recipe but multiplied by 1.5

Filling:
150 grams macaroni
300 grams minced beef
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
a knob of butter

Egg milk:
3 eggs
500 mL milk
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon paprika
pinch of pepper
pinch of ground all spice
dill

Topping:
Breadcrumbs or grated cheese

  1. Place the macaroni in boiling water and cook without a lid for 10 minutes. Strain and discard the cooking water. Heat the oven to 200°C/390°F.
  2. In a frying pan, brown the minced beef, garlic and onion. Add the cooked mince mix to the macaroni.
  3. Grease an oven dish. Mix the meat and the macaroni and place in the dish.
  4. Prepare the egg milk by whisking all the ingredients together. Pour the mixture into the oven dish so that it covers the mince and macaroni.
  5. Bake in oven for around 30-45 minutes.
  6. Sprinkle breadcrumbs or grated cheese over the top a few minutes before removing it from the oven.
Serves 6.

27 Thoughts on “the banoffee pie that hijacked my Finnish dinner

  1. Ooooooh yummy!!! I so feel like some banoffee pie now. Its been years since I had some..yours looks totally divine!

  2. Moomin meat looks DEEEEEEEEE LISHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOUS!!

  3. So entertaining to read! We would have burned off a few calories in tilting our heads to read your post, so that’s a few less anyway. Am going to try out the macaroni bake for the sprogs. Great one! Thank you

  4. Oh, I’m all over that meat and macaroni bake! Yum yum yum, love casserole-like dishes.

  5. i think im in love. that banoffee pie is totes calling my name.

  6. Colleen: You *need* to go make one now! It’s not even that hard and ooooh the decadence…

    Old Cow: really?! It looked SO plain to me I desperately wanted to dress it up but I controlled myself!

    Brockhallfarm: Ah the bake is perfect for sprogs!! They will love it.. and thanks for visiting! 😀

    Su-Lin: It’s one of those bung it in a pot and bake it dishes – so easy!

    chocolatesuze: “suuuuuzzzzeeeee… eat meeeee”.

  7. this beetroot salad looks great and it seems so easy that maybe even I could prepare it. I surely would fail with the banoffee pie, I leave this to the expert, looks amazing and I envy Panu!

  8. Peh, calories are good for you – don’t eat enough nd you’ll die girl. It looks truly spectacular and love this “…because I’m a pleb” bahaha.

  9. The banoffee pie looks super delicious! I showed it to my colleagues and they were all drooling over my computer…

  10. rofl… “fml i ate three slices” that line cracked me up – but I’m sure it was worth it, right?

  11. Ute: the beetroot salad is EASY – just lots of chopping and then mixing in a big bowl hehe, and yes lucky Panu indeed 😉

    Sasa: I know! Hence I try and consume lots of calories to be as alive as I can possibly be.

    Hsiu Pin: Haha, seriously, it was SO delicious.. you should make one for work they will give you a pay rise 😉

    jenny: Haha, glad you liked that, and it was worth it!

  12. i love banoffee pie! and i always tell myself that the bananas DO make it healthy.

  13. nicola d on October 13, 2010 at 6:16 pm said:

    I love that you have given me an excuse to make banoffee pie for Christmas dinner!! It was a Finnish dinner at which it was served, therefore it has become Scandinavian, therefore it is a traditional Norwegian Christmas desert!! (of course, I may have to practice a few times in the lead up to Christmas….)

  14. The macaroni bake is something all Finnish mums make for their families, it’s such a classic!

    If possible I love Moomins even more now thanks to the cookbook! 😀

  15. Coming from someone was lucky enough be invited to share in this dinner, can I just tell the world (or even just the people that read this blog) that the macaroni bake and beetroot salad were AMAZING and the banoffi pie was OUT OF THIS WORLD…I would definitely pay alot of money for this and thats saying alot 🙂 I think the fact that we ate 3/4 of the pie between 3 of us AND wanted to save a slice for breakfast is proof enough that this pie was frikken unbelievable! Thanks for dinner babe xxxx

    ps. What happened to Ethan’s finger?!?!?

  16. haha yes Moomins are so cute, I had no idea that there was a cookbook. I must get a hold of it somehow! 😛

  17. THAT PIE looks scrumptious! So does that beet salad AND the cheesy delicious number. What a phenomenal meal!

  18. oh ma days. BANOFFEEE. love. this looks very hearty.

  19. mc: and there are like FOUR bananas in that thing, that’s really healthy!

    nicola: TOTALLY! It’s totally a Scandi dish now, and would be absolutely perfect for a Norwegian Christmas 😀

    Maria: I know, the cook book is soooo cute 🙂

    Mel: Hehe you are so sweet, lucky I don’t charge for the banoffee pie 😉 ETHAN CUT OFF HIS FINGER! Nothing’s happened, he just has one less finger 🙁

    Lorraine: Can you get it in Oz? Need me to send you a copy? Lemme know!

    Caitlin: Yeah it was quite a good meal, loads of carbs and sugar 😀 Beetroot salad is healthy though!

    diva: oh your days 😉 You’re so cute!

  20. I didn’t know dill was used so prominently in Finnish food! You learn something new everyday. 🙂

    Am gonna pretend I didn’t see the bits where you tell us how many calories each slice contains… I probably had 1000 calories worth. LOL. It was scrumptious though, and therefore totally worth it. *licks lips*

    • Although someone just told me that calories in sweets and dairy don’t count, so actually, it’s fat free! (I just mistyped “fart free” and unfortunately, as much as I kid myself, it isn’t that either).. 🙁

  21. Hi Catty – thanks for the idea for tonight’s moomin-dinner! In a very un-Hemulenish way, I decided to break from tradition and spice up the mince a little bit (like you, I felt that just onions and garlic didn’t quite cut the mustard). If it’s any good with the spices, I’ll let you know 😉

  22. Banoffie pie is one of my favorites, so is it a Finnish food?

  23. Hemulen: I was sooooo tempted to do that too because I like food with more flavour, but I can see where they’re coming from, especially if it’s a dish aimed more at kids!

    My Restaurants Melbourne: well… technically no but you know what, every cuisine needs a revamp once in a while so, YES! 😀

  24. Oh wow, I cannot move now and I’ve only LOOKED at it.

  25. You are so sweet Catty! I can’t believe I’m holding a copy of the Moomin cookbook from you! 😀

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