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Banana Refrigerator Cake
2 cups milk 3 eggs 3 tablespoons flour 3/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon butter pinch salt 4 good sized bananas 1 dozen graham crackers, large size Scald milk in double boiler. Beat eggs, add flour, sugar and salt, pour the egg mixture over this, stirring well. Cook in double boiler till smooth and thick. Flavor if desired, and cool. In spring-form cake pan or other large pan place layer graham cracker crumbs, then layer sliced bananas, then one of the cooled custard. Repeat till used. Set in refrigerator 6 hours to chill. Serve with whipped cream.
A stovetop pastry cream layered with crackers and fruit and left to soften in the cold — no baking at all. The only technique that can go wrong is the custard.
- Temper the eggsAs written, the egg mixture (beaten with flour, sugar and salt) goes into the hot milk. The safer route is the reverse: pour the scalded milk slowly into the egg mixture while whisking, then return the whole to the double boiler, so the eggs do not set in lumps on contact.
- How thick is thickCook over simmering — not boiling — water, stirring constantly, until the custard coats a spoon and holds a line drawn through it, roughly 175-180F. With flour in it the custard can take a brief boil without curdling, but the double boiler makes that unnecessary.
- Cool it coveredPress plastic wrap or buttered paper directly on the surface while it cools, or you will be layering skin into the cake. Cool to at least room temperature before assembly or the bananas will go grey and the crumbs will turn to paste.
- Graham crackersA dozen large crackers is the old four-section sheet, so about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of crumbs. Crush them coarsely rather than to dust; some texture survives the six hours better.
- Flavoring"Flavor if desired" means a teaspoon of vanilla stirred in off the heat, or a tablespoon of rum or sherry.
- Pan size and chillingAn 8- or 9-inch springform gives three or four layers. Six hours is the minimum for the crumbs to soften into cake; overnight is better, and the whole thing slices more cleanly cold.
- BananasSlice them directly onto the crumb layer and cover with custard at once so air does not reach them. Ripe but firm fruit holds its shape; anything spotted heavily will collapse into the custard.
- YieldServes eight or so, finished with the whipped cream the recipe calls for.