Vegan Banana Cream Pie with Blueberries
Here’s how to make vegan banana cream pie! This delicious dessert was inspired by the American classic Banoffee pie!
This vegan banana cream pie is a fully plant-based take on the classic Banoffee pie: a lightly baked coconut-almond crust filled with a silky banana-date pudding and crowned with fluffy coconut cream and fresh banana slices. It comes together in three simple layers, uses no eggs or dairy, and chills overnight into a soft, sliceable dessert. Make it when you want the sweet, mellow flavor of banoffee without the butter, condensed milk, or refined sugar of the traditional version.
Why I turned banoffee into a vegan pie
What I like most about the banana cream pie is the exquisite, yet simple combination of flavors. Banana, a caramel-like sweetness from dates, and soft cream is all it really needs. To make it healthier, I created this vegan banana cream pie, which is just as delicious as the authentic recipe. The traditional recipe is made with a biscuit base, but you can also bake a very simple crust out of coconut flour, almond flour and coconut oil, for example, like I did.
Banoffee pie gets its name from a combination of “banana” and “toffee”, because the traditional roadside-diner version pairs bananas with a rich toffee cream. Here, ripe bananas blended with pitted dates stand in for that toffee note, so the whole thing stays plant-based while keeping that mellow, caramel-adjacent sweetness. If you love American desserts, you can find more of them in the American cuisine collection.
The three layers, ingredient by ingredient
This pie is built from three parts, and each one uses pantry-friendly, plant-based ingredients:
- The crust: almond flour, coconut flour, coconut sugar, melted coconut oil, and a little cornstarch. Almond flour gives richness, coconut flour absorbs moisture and firms things up, and the coconut oil binds it into a dough you can press into the dish.
- The banana-date filling: cornstarch and almond milk cooked into a pudding, then blended with mashed banana and pitted dates. The dates do double duty here, sweetening the filling and giving it that soft toffee-like flavor without any refined sugar.
- The coconut topping: coconut cream whisked with powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy, plus fresh banana slices, blueberries, chopped nuts, and a dusting of cinnamon to finish.
A quick buying note: use fully ripe bananas with plenty of brown speckles, since they mash smoothly and taste noticeably sweeter than firm, under-ripe fruit. For the topping, reach for a can of full-fat coconut cream rather than light coconut milk, so it whisks up thick instead of staying runny.
How to get the filling right
The filling is the one step where a little attention pays off. When you cook the cornstarch and almond milk, whisk continuously so it thickens evenly and never sits still long enough to form lumps or catch on the bottom of the pan. Once it starts bubbling, drop the heat to low and keep whisking for about five more minutes until the mixture is smooth, homogeneous, and thick like a pudding.
Blend the mashed banana and pitted dates until completely smooth before folding them into the warm pudding, so you get a uniform filling with no chewy bits of date. If your dates feel dry or stiff, soak them in warm water for ten minutes first, then drain, and they’ll blend into a much creamier paste.
Why the overnight chill matters
Letting the assembled pie cool in the fridge overnight is not just about serving it cold. As it rests, the cornstarch-set filling continues to firm up and the crust settles, so the slices hold their shape instead of sliding apart when you cut in. The coconut topping also stabilizes as it chills, staying fluffy rather than slumping. Skipping this step is the most common reason a banana cream pie comes out soft and hard to slice, so plan to make it the day before you want to serve it.
Substitutions and variations
- Add a coffee or chocolate note: the flavor of banoffee plays beautifully with a hint of coffee or cocoa whisked into the filling, the same way many American versions do.
- Swap the nuts: any chopped nuts work for the topping. Walnuts, pecans, or almonds all add a nice crunch against the soft cream.
- Change the berries: blueberries are lovely, but raspberries or sliced strawberries work just as well for the finish.
- Firmer crust: if you prefer a sturdier base, bake it a minute or two longer until deeper golden, then let it cool fully before filling.
Storage and make-ahead tips
This pie is a natural make-ahead dessert, since it needs that overnight chill anyway. Keep it covered in the fridge and it stays good for about three days. Add the fresh banana slices, berries, and nuts closer to serving if you can, so the banana on top does not brown and the nuts stay crisp. I would not recommend freezing the assembled pie, as the coconut cream and banana pudding change texture once thawed.
If you enjoy this kind of soft, no-fuss plant-based sweet, you’ll also like these vegan chocolate muffins, this raw vegan chocolate and raspberry cake, or a quick banana breakfast smoothie for using up any extra ripe bananas.
Enjoy my vegan banana cream pie recipe! If you make it, I’d love to know how your layers turned out, so please rate the recipe below and leave a comment telling me whether you kept it classic or added a little coffee or chocolate to the filling.
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Vegan Banana Cream Pie with Blueberries
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 120 g almond flour
- 60 g coconut flour
- 2 Tbsp coconut sugar
- 120 ml coconut oil melted
For the filling:
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 10 dates pitted
- 1 banana ripped and mashed
- 300 ml almond milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the topping:
- 1 banana sliced
- 400 g coconut cream
- 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
- natural vanilla extract
Garnish:
- 1 banana peeled
- ½ cup blueberries
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- nuts chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- In a bowl, mix all the crust ingredients until well incorporated. The crust should be easily shaped as a ball.
- Spread the crust mixture in a pie baking dish.
- Bake the crust about 10 minutes until lightly golden.
- Set aside.
- To make the filling, add cornstarch and almond milk in a small saucepan and place it over medium heat. Whisk continuously while cooking, until it starts bubbling.
- Change heat to low and let it boil for about 5 more minutes, whisking until the mixture is homogeneous and thick.
- Meanwhile, blend the mashed banana with the pitted dates until smooth.
- Combine the pudding-like cornstarch and almond milk mixture with the banana-dates mixture until well incorporated.
- To make the topping, whisk the coconut cream with sugar and vanilla in a bowl, until fluffy.
- Fill the pie crust with the banana pudding, top with a layer of sliced banana and cover with the coconut topping. Decorate with banana slices, berries, chopped nuts, and cinnamon.
- Let it cool in the fridge overnight before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Every layer is plant-based: the crust uses almond flour, coconut flour, coconut sugar and coconut oil; the filling is bananas, dates, almond milk and cornstarch; and the topping is whipped coconut cream with powdered sugar and vanilla. There are no eggs, dairy, or honey anywhere in the recipe.
Banoffee pie is a classic American diner dessert whose name blends ‘banana’ and ‘toffee’, traditionally made with a biscuit base, bananas, and a rich toffee cream. This vegan version keeps the banana flavor and mellow, caramel-like sweetness but uses blended dates instead of toffee and a baked coconut-almond crust instead of butter and condensed milk.
The overnight chill lets the cornstarch-set filling and the crust firm up so the slices hold their shape when you cut in. The coconut topping also stabilizes as it cools, staying fluffy instead of slumping. Serving it too soon is the most common reason the pie comes out soft and hard to slice.
Use full-fat coconut cream rather than light coconut milk, since it whisks up much thicker. Whisk it with the powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy, and keep everything cold. Chilling the assembled pie helps the topping set further.
Whisk the cornstarch and almond milk continuously as it cooks so it thickens evenly without lumps, then blend the banana and pitted dates until completely smooth before folding them in. If your dates are dry, soak them in warm water for ten minutes and drain them first for a creamier paste.
Kept covered in the fridge, it stays good for about three days. For the best look and texture, add the fresh banana slices, berries, and nuts closer to serving so the banana does not brown. Freezing is not recommended, as the coconut cream and banana pudding change texture once thawed.
Can we get Macros on your recipes.
It looks good but is probably high in …
Hi! You can use cronometer to calculate. 😉
One of my favorite desserts ever! Love how you transformed it into a vegan one, delicious! 🙂
Thank you! 🙂