Strawberry season is here!

I get so excited when my local strawberry farms start selling big, juicy, SWEET strawberries. A good strawberry can make any day brighter. Strawberries aren't as versatile as many other fruits, but it seems there is one perfect reason why the strawberry exists in my book...fresh strawberry pie. Add some bananas and banana cream to it and you've got yourself a perfect wedding of flavors.

I wanted to make a pie, but for some reason, I couldn't find my pie pan. Maybe I don't have one in my house. Who knows with all the pans I have purchased over the past few years. Anyways, I decided to make a strawberry banana cream TART to welcome spring.



I used Ellie Kreiger's recipe for Banana Cream Pie, then added strawberries with glaze on top. I didn't use the graham cracker crust, but used a pie crust instead.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 12 graham cracker squares (6 full sheets)
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 3 tablespoons boiling water
• 1/3 cup, plus 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups 1 percent lowfat milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups sliced banana (3 medium bananas)
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. In a food processor, process graham crackers until finely ground. Add butter and 1 tablespoon of water, and process until the crumb clumps together. Press crumb mixture into bottom of pie plate and about 1/2-inch up the sides. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then let cool.

In the meantime, make the filling. Put the gelatin in a small bowl; add 3 tablespoons of boiling water and stir until gelatin is dissolved. In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1/3 cup of sugar and the flour. In a medium bowl lightly beat the milk and eggs together. Add the egg and milk mixture to the saucepan and whisk so the flour and sugar dissolve. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes, until mixture comes to a boil and has thickened. Stir in the vanilla extract and gelatin. Set aside to cool slightly.

Arrange the sliced bananas on the graham cracker crust and pour the pudding on top. Place in the refrigerator until the pudding has set, about 3 hours.

Whip the cream with an electric beater. When it is about halfway done, add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, then continue whipping until fully whipped. Put the whipped cream in a plastic bag, concentrating it in 1 corner of the bag. Snip that corner off the bag and squeeze the whipped cream out of the bag in a decorative pattern around the pie.