In this old-fashioned icebox pie adapted from Southern Living, sliced bananas layer with vanilla wafer cookies, in a cooked vanilla custard. The topping is a billowy meringue, lightly browned in the oven, and the finished pie chills in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Special equipment: You’ll need a 9-inch pie dish for this recipe.

  • Yield: 1 (9-inch) pie, or 8 servings
  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Total: 1 hr, plus 5 hrs 30 mins for cooling and chilling
  • Active: 25 mins

Ingredients (11)

For the crust:

  • 1 (12-ounce) box vanilla-flavored wafer-style cookies, preferably Nilla Wafers
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the pie:

  • 2 large ripe bananas, peeled and sliced medium thin
  • 4 large egg whites
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Instructions

To make the crust:

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Set aside 20 of the cookies. Add the remaining cookies to a food processor and pulse 8 to 10 times, or until they’re coarsely crushed (you should have about 2 1/2 cups of crumbs). Transfer the crumbs to a small bowl and add the melted butter. Stir until blended. Firmly press the crumb mixture onto the bottom, up the sides, and onto the lip of your pie dish.
  2. Bake the crust until it’s lightly browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cool thoroughly, about 30 minutes. Keep the oven at 350°F.

To make the filling:

  1. Add the sugar, flour, eggs, yolks, and milk to a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan; whisk to combine. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until it reaches the thickness of chilled pudding, about 8 to 10 minutes. The mixture will just begin to bubble, and should be thick enough to hold soft peaks when you lift the whisk from the pan.
  2. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Set aside.

To assemble and bake the pie:

  1. Arrange the banana slices evenly over the bottom of the cooled crust. Spread half of the warm filling over the bananas and top with the 20 reserved cookies. Spread the remaining filling over the cookies (don’t worry if it seems like there’s too much filling—it should rise about 1/4 inch higher than the crust’s top edge).
  2. With a hand-held mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat the egg whites on high speed until they’re foamy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and the sugar has dissolved, to form a meringue. Spread the meringue evenly over the pie filling and all the way to the rim of the crust, making sure there’s no gap around the edges.
  3. Bake until the meringue topping is golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove to a wire rack until completely cool, about 1 hour. Transfer to the fridge to chill thoroughly, at least 4 hours.