I think I mentioned recently that we moved to Louisiana 4 years ago in January. What I didn’t tell you was that our move here was part of a much bigger life transition, both in ways that we expected (we meant it when we said we’d go just about anywhere when my husband graduated from college) and ways that we didn’t expect (the months leading up to his graduation were much more tumultuous and stressful than we ever anticipated). On top of that, there were so many general unknowns: the economy was crashing and my husband and I had no idea how that would affect us (other than the fact that one day we were qualified for a home loan and a week later we weren’t because the housing market had fallen apart). Once we’d had a few months to get settled in our new location, reality started setting in: we were far from our friends and family. Real life was expensive. We had a baby and a toddler in a completely unfamiliar place. The economy was getting worse. I felt so lost.
Sara and I had talked about starting a cooking blog for awhile. Cooking blogs were in their very baby stages and we had very modest expectations for what we hoped it would be–mostly a place to organize our recipes for ourselves and share our recipes with our friends and families. A fun hobby. Something to keep us busy. So four years ago tomorrow, we launched our humble little blog with a few of our favorite recipes and hoped that maybe someone would come and read them.
Imagine our surprise when, after a month or so, we started getting comments from people we didn’t know. It was kind of terrifying and exhilarating and fun all at once. We changed our look, we changed our name, we changed our look a few more times. We learned as we went along and suddenly…we had all these readers, all these friends, people who actually kind of cared about our recipes and our stories and the things we were sharing. And, slowly, I started finding myself again.
We get lots of emails and comments that bring us so much happiness (don’t get me wrong, we get a lot that make us want to write a book about crazy people, too!), from the little things like finally showing up your mother-in-law with your homemade dinner rolls to stories so emotional and personal that we feel like it’s an undeserved honor to be considered a part of them. But we rarely get to genuinely thank you guys for what you’ve done for us. We could take pictures and write recipes until we went crazy, but if there was no one reading them, there wouldn’t be any point in it. Thank you for taking this wild ride with us, for letting us tell you our stories and for helping us re-discover who we are. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that this has been one of the greatest, most unexpected blessings in our lives in so many ways and we don’t have the words to thank you.
So I’ll try to do it with pie. Naughty, naughty pie that should only be eaten once a year.
You’ll need a packaged chocolate cookie crust (think a graham cracker crust, only made with Oreos), bananas, sweetened condensed milk, whipping cream, brown sugar, powdered sugar, cream cheese, and toffee chocolate bars (like Heath) or chocolate-covered toffee bits.
Using one can of sweetened condensed milk,
prepare the Dulce de Leche according to these directions.
Yes, I know this picture has two cans–although math was never my subject, I am a fairly competent counter. But I doubled the recipe for evil purposes.
When the Dulce de Leche has cooked, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool slightly. Spread it over the bottom and up the sides of the cookie crust.
If my Dulce de Leche looks a little…clumpy, that’s because it is. When you look at the instructions and they say that it takes about an hour for the Dulce de Leche to cook, it may not be in your best interest to use that hour to take a nap, even though you’re six months pregnant and tired and you were up half the night with allergy-ridden children. It’s okay. It was hidden under layers of awesomeness and still tasted fabulous.
Cut your bananas into 1/4″ slices and lay them on top of the Dulce de Leche…
Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of crushed chocolate toffee bits on top of the bananas and set it aside.
In a medium bowl with electric beaters, mix together the cream cheese and brown sugar until light and fluffy. In a large bowl, beat the whipping cream and powdered sugar together until medium peaks form. Add the cream cheese and mix until well-combined, light, and fluffy.
Gently spread the whipped cream mixture over the toffee bits and then sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of toffee bits. Chill for several hours before serving.
Edited to add: Apparently, everyone else in the world calls this Banoffee Pie. That’s what I get for living under a rock. 🙂
Dulce de Leche Banana Toffee Pie
Recipe by Our Best Bites
Ingredients:
1 8-serving chocolate cookie pie crust
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 bananas
1 cup crushed chocolate-covered toffee bars or Heath bits
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
8 ounces cream cheese (light is fine)
1/4 cup brown sugar
Instructions:
Prepare Dulce de Leche according to these instructions. When done, allow to cool slightly and then spread onto the bottom and up the sides of the cookie crust.
Cut the bananas into 1/4″ slices. Lay the slices over the Dulce de Leche. Sprinkle with about 1/2 of the toffee bits and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Beat with electric beaters until medium peaks form. In a medium bowl, beat the softened cream cheese and the brown sugar with the electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the whipped cream and mix with the electric mixer until fluffy and combined. Gently spread over the toffee bits and then sprinkle with remaining toffee bits. Chill for several hours before serving. Serves 8-10.
Questions & Reviews
I knew there was a reason that OBB is one of my favorite food blogs…my oldest son’s birthday is also tomorrow! Happy birthday to Our Best Bites! I have really appreciated your recipes and all the little extras you don’t find on other food blogs…like all the how-to posts and practical advice in every recipe…the questions that most of us have, but don’t want to ask, for fear of looking dumb in the kitchen (that’s me!). Love your blog and thanks for all the effort you put into it!
You are my favorite food blog EVER! Thanks for what you do here!
We use your recipes all the time! Thanks for sharing and all the work that you put into your website and cookbook!!!!
I am so going to make this next month for Girl’s Night Out! It will be at my NEW house, so the theme is make a NEW recipe.
By the way, Happy Bloggy Birthday! My husband got me your cookbook for Christmas and I’ve already tried over a dozen recipes from it and EVERY one has been a HUGE hit with all five of us. That means you are awesome — or my kids are not picky eaters. I think I’ll go with the first option there.
Thanks! Keep up the spectacularness that is your cooking (and I don’t care if that isn’t a word).
Happy Blog Birthday! Your blog is the first food blog that I started to follow about three years ago and I cook from it and your cookbook at least three times a week. Thanks for all the yummy recipes!
I’m so glad you started your blog! From someone who has read your blog from the beginning (I was also on the bulletin boards where you made the connection), I continue to faithfully read your blog, make your recipes and share your blog and cookbook with many others! I also like to think that if we lived in the same neighborhood we would be friends, as I love your sense of humor! Congratulations on your success!
Happy Birthday! I use your cook book and/or blog at least once a week (some weeks a lot more) and my family thanks you for the yummy food they eat. And this pie? Oh, my goodness…can’t wait for a reason to whip this up – I think being nearly 8 months pregnant is a good enough reason 🙂
Happy Birthday! I have loved and will continue loving your blog for years to come You are inspiring. I have little thoughts running around upstairs of how to get my own cooking blog to go somewhere someday. Thanks!
This is a fun spin on Banoffee pie. I’ll have to try your version next time I make it! Banoffee pie is a graham cracker crust, caramelized sweetened condensed milk, bananas, with whipped cream on top.
I had literally never heard of banoffee pie before today, hahaha! I’d eaten it, just never heard it called that. Apparently I live under a rock.
I hope that the rock you’ve been living under doesn’t have the same friends involved there as what you experienced last week with the sewer guy.
I’ve been with you since your name was The Daily Bite, and have loved you since I watched you work your magic at Macey’s in American Fork.
Happy Birthday/Anniversary, and thanks for the pie! Love you!!!
oh.my.goodness. i was just dreaming about that banana caramel thingy they used to have a haagen dazs. but they closed and i was heart-broken. not anymore!!
Ladies,
Happy Birthday! I have been following you for about 1.5 years now and I love everything that you do! As I was finishing with the kids’ bedtime routine last night, I started thinking about how nice it would be to have an app for my iphone and ipad from you, so that when I’m at the store and need an ingredient and can’t remember what, I can bring the recipe up quickly. Also, cooking would be awesome, I’d never have to print recipes. I would pay for that!! Do you have that already?
We have the idea in the works…but apps can be super expensive, so we’re working on it. 🙂
In the meantime, they could use the Ziplist App since your site supports that service, and all their saved recipes from your site pull up on that.
If you have access to a e-reader or can download books from your phone you can download the cookbook.
Oh my! I’m 7 months pregnant myself, and all I’ve been craving is sweets. But not candy. I want cakes and cookies and pies. This looks amazing! I kind of laughed at the link on how to make the carmel. When I was in YW, a sister from our ward from Argentina came and taught us how to make a jelly roll dessert filled with Dulce De Leche. And she taught us to make it using the simmering the can of milk in boiling water for 3 hours method. Nice. I’ll have to try this method with the pie.
I found your blog a couple of months ago and it has been such a blessing! I have prepared so many wonderful meals and desserts because of you both. My family and I are very grateful for all of the new recipes! I have especially loved your beef stew, lemon scones, chicken alfredo bake, fudge and last night I made Sara’s tuna noddle casserole. Everything has been totally delicious! Thank you so much! My mom loves Banoffee Pie, so I’m going to make this for her!
Your recipes are delicious, and your stories are very funny, real, and relatable! It’s like having a good friend in my computer. 🙂 Thank you for all that you do, and the stuff we don’t know about, too.
um ya, that is a really evil recipe! I will definitely have to make it something. It looks delicious! I love your blog, and especially the back stories to recipes, they make the blog very unique and enjoyable!
And to think that I’ve been reading you since day two! (I think I started reading the blog a couple of weeks after you started it.) Both of you are awesome. And thank you for this sinfully delicious pie recipe! Mmmmmmm….
Happy birthday and thanks for taking your precious family time to share your recipes and lives with us. It’s great that two young mothers in the “eat-out” generation love to cook. My daughters and I love to read and share your recipes. You’ve really made an impact on a lot of families.
Yes indeed, Happy Anniversary! It’s always good to find what you love to do and be able to do it:) Thanks for sharing it all with us.
So *that’s* why I love this blog so much…We share a birthday! :o)
I agree with whomever said that the reason y’all are so well-liked is that you are “real”. It feels like you both are a friend or sister and it’s comfortable. Not to mention that all your recipes are fantastic but realistic to make at the same time. Keep up the great work and I know I’ll keep coming back for more! Here’s to many more years, recipes, and cookbooks!!
This is hands-down my favorite food blog. I brag about you guys to everybody when I talk about recipes and cooking. I think both of you are wonderful cooks/bakers, but I also love your stories too. Thanks for sharing them every week. Happy Birthday!
This seems very familiar to Banoffee Pie. Was that an inspiration for this? That is one of my favorite English desserts ever. Unfortunately, here in the states, we can’t really get our hands on the amazingness that is double cream. Thanks for posting this! Congrats on 4 years!!! Love your blog 🙂
I’ve never heard of Banofee pie, but I’ve had something similar in a restaurant here in the South. I used the cream filling from our Strawberries and Cream pie because it’s my fave. 🙂
http://www.hungrymonk.co.uk/banoffi_pie/
Such an amazing dessert! I will have to try yours out 🙂
Congrats and Happy Anniversary!! This is fabulous website. I have shared your site with sooo many that asked “where did you find this???”. Your stories are fun and always makes me smile and the recipes and endless ideas – need I say more…
PS – Love you cookbook 😉
Wow. That looks decadent and delicious. Did you know that chocolate animal crackers make fantastic pie crusts? They taste just like oreo wafers but don’t cost as much. We’ve used them to make chocolate crusts, to top ice-cream, and sometimes just to dip in chocolate.
Great tip! I used to be able to find Oreo cookie crumbs, but cannot anymore.
I SO miss those chocolate Oreo crumbs. I wish they would bring them back!
Happy Anniversary!! I can only hope my blog will be like this one someday. Your blog is what inspired me to start my own… I read every single post & love every minute of it. Keep doing what you’re doing!!
Happy Blogger Birthday! So glad y’all started this thing because it’s my favorite food blog! 😀
Also… OMG THIS RECIPE!! <3<3<3
You guys are loved because you are REAL. Who of us doesn’t, at 6 mos. pregnant (or even NOT pregnant) steal those precious opportunities to nap when we can? I love seeing a clumpy Dulce de Leche…and reading your “it’s okay…don’t worry” comment. It’s sort of an analogie for life…our lives…”it’s okay…don’t worry…the bad is hidden under layers of awesome greatness”. Thanks, Best Bites!
Oops…I meant to spell it “analogy”! hee!
Yes, this. You’ve seriously done an amazing job here. Congratulations on all your success, Happy Blogiversary, and most of all, thank you for sharing tips, tricks, procedures and RECIPES that have enriched my family’s food life and my cooking experience. I’ve started to sound like a broken record when I get compliments on food, treats, and gifts: “Yeah, I got this from OBB, too.” Love it. And I squealed when I saw the pie recipe. Now I’m jut lookin for an excuse….
Happy Blogiversary you two!
This looks awesome and heck, I want to take a nap every day and I don’t have any babies or toddlers and I’m certainly not pregnant!
can’t wait to make this!
You two are so amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your time and talents. I love the blog and cookbook and, well everything! You have changed my life for real, and inspired me! 🙂 HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR BEST BITES! Best wishes for many wonderful years!
Sounds divine!!!!! And, yes, this website is awesome!! So glad you branched out. Your cookbook is my new cooking bible!
Happy Birthday Our Best Bites!! My family is happily fed homemade delicious meals thanks to you two wonderful ladies!