elegant white chocolate banana cream pie

Ingredients

• Servings: 1
• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
• 6 egg yolks, beaten
• 5 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/4 cup sifted cornstarch
• 2 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean, halved
• 2 tablespoons butter, diced
• 3 ounces white chocolate, melted
• 8 ripe bananas
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 pint whipping cream
• 1 fluid ounce white chocolate liqueur
• 1 fluid ounce banana liqueur
• 12 ounces white chocolate
• 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder, for garnish

Recipe

• to make white chocolate pastry cream: in a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow. whisk in cornstarch. in a medium saucepan, heat milk and vanilla bean to just below the boiling point. slowly whisk a small amount of hot milk into egg yolk mixture, then stir egg yolk mixture back into pan. bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly.
• stir in butter, then strain mixture through a sieve. place plastic wrap over the surface of mixture to keep a skin from forming. allow to cool slightly, then stir in melted white chocolate. chill pastry cream.
• slice bananas and toss with the lemon juice to keep from discoloring. set aside.
• in a large bowl, whip chilled whipping cream until stiff peaks form. fold into pastry cream, then fold in bananas and . fill tart shell with banana cream filling.
• top generously with white chocolate curls, then dust with cocoa. serve soon after assembling so crust doesn't get soggy.
• to make white chocolate curls, carefully draw a vegetable peeler across the broad, flat surface of a room-temperature (about 80 degrees) chunk of white chocolate to make large, thin curls. refrigerate until ready to use.