Banana Cream Pie Day

Banana Cream Pie. Brenna / flickr / 2008 / CC BY 2.0

March 2nd is Banana Cream Pie Day.

When’s the last time you had a slice of banana cream pie? If it’s been a while, make today the day you get reacquainted!

Banana cream pie is a relatively recent dessert in culinary history, simply because it’s only relatively recently that sweet bananas were available so affordably to so many consumers. It became popular as bananas became an everyday item on Western supermarket shelves.

Now, it is seen as a very retro dessert, reminiscent of lunch-counter dining from days gone by.

Today you could:

Try a new flavour of banana cream pie, such as peanut butter banana cream pie;
Jazz up the crust, by adding chocolate chips to the crust mixture;
Make a quick cheat one at home starting with a box of instant banana pudding mix;
Try the English version called “Banoffee pie”, which is a mix of banana cream pie and toffee;
If you don’t have time to make one, enjoy a frozen one from the grocery market, or a fresh one from a local independent bakery.

#BananaCreamPieDay

History

The earliest mention that CooksInfo has found of a March 2nd Banana Cream Pie Day in print archives dates from 2010 in South Dakota:

“[Tuesday, 2 March 2010] kicked off with Bible Study with Pastor Cook. After that, we had menu comm. meeting after and exercised with sticks. After dinner we played cards. We visited during coffee time. It was banana cream pie day so we had some pie for snack and boy was it good. In the evening we played bingo.” (Golden Living Center News. Armour, SD. Platte, Charles Mix County, South Dakota: The Platte Enterprise. Thursday, 11 March 2010. Page 3, col. 4.)

Sources

Fleischaker, Emily. 4 Reasons You Should Celebrate National Banana Cream Pie Day. New York: Bon Appetit Magazine. 2 March 2011. Accessed February 2021 at https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/article/4-reasons-you-should-celebrate-national-banana-cream-pie-day

Kennedy, Lesley. Sushi Den’s Infamous Dessert is Bananas. Denver, Colorado: Denver Life Magazine. March 2017. Accessed February 2021 at https://denverlifemagazine.com/2017/03/thats-bananas/

Martin, Riley. Food writer shares recipes to celebrate National Banana Cream Pie Day. Winnipeg, Canada: Global News. 2 March 2015. Accessed February 2021 at https://globalnews.ca/news/1859535/food-writer-shares-recipes-to-celebrate-national-banana-cream-pie-day/

South Florida Reporter. Naples, Florida. Today Is: National Banana Cream Pie Day. 2 March 2016. Accessed February 2021 at https://southfloridareporter.com/today-is-national-banana-cream-pie-day/