Papaya, or pawpaw as many of us call it, is a delicious fruit that is most often eaten raw and fresh. Caribbean food is ever-evolving and we are happy to share with you our recipes as we get creative with local ingredients!
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Read on for some delicious fun! Feel free to ask any questions, and make sure you let us know how your pie comes out when you make it – pop us a message in the comments section!
Papaya Banana Pie
Caribbean food makes the best of local fruits – and we have a deliciously fruity dessert for you- we've reduced the sugar to make this Papaya Banana pie bursting with flavour but a bit kinder on the calories.
- 3/4 cup plain flour (use a good quality four )
- 1/4 cup plantain flour
- 1/4 cup breadfruit flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 90 g butter (use cold butter)
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1/4 cup water (Use ice cold water and add as much as needed)
- 450 g firm, ripe papaya (peeled and sliced or chopped)
- 450 g firm, ripe banana (peeled and sliced )
- 2 tbsp lime juice (sub any sour citrus such as lemon or sour-orange)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg grated
Make your pastry first – mix all dry ingredients in a bowl using a whisk to ensure they're well combined
Chop in your cold butter and pour in the oil, then either use your hands or any preferred method to rub the butter into the flour until you can't find any more lumps of butter. I love doing this by hand…there's something therapeutic about it 🙂
Add in about half of the ice cold water and mix in with a wooden spoon – keep adding water until your dough forms a nice ball. There may be a few cracks at the edges, that's fine. Don't add too much water – the dough is ready to set aside once there are only a few cracks at the edges.
Flatten out the dough to a round patty that's about 1" thick (2.5cm)
Set aside in a plastic bag and keep in a cool place for at least 2 hours. You can use it straight away if you're in a hurry, but let it rest while you prepare the filling.
Preheat the oven to 375°F / 190°C
Peel your papaya(s) and depending on your style preferences, cut in chunks as you go, or slice the fruit lengthways into roughly equal sections, then slice each to make small relatively evenly sized pieces
Peel and slice your bananas
Place both sets of sliced fruits in a large bowl and sprinkle the lime juice, sugar and spices on top, then mix with the wooden spoon until everything is well combined.
Prep a 9" / 23cm baking dish – if it's not non-stick, butter and flour the dish.
Roll out the pastry on a floured surface, to about 1/2 cm or a thin 1/4 inch. Try to keep it round in shape 🙂
Drape the rolled pie crust into your baking dish and cut off the excess.
Pop your fruit filling in on top the pie crust and level out.
Re-roll the excess dough and use it to decorate in whatever way grabs your fancy 🙂
Pop in the oven – middle or low shelf. Use a larger tray under the pie to catch any spill.
Bake for about 1 hr 10 minutes or until the crust is starting to turn golden
The recipe that inspired this pie called for twice as much sugar and half as much citrus juice, but we in the islands know that papaya and banana are already deliciously sweet and that citrus juice brings out the flavours beautifully without the need for sugar. So you could even try this pie without any sugar, in which case I’d say you could reduce the citrus juice by half…unless you like a truly tangy taste, then keep all that lovely citrus juice!
We also added in extra spices – the two we chose are perfect companions for this fruit combination. If you can, always get nutmegs that are still in their shell or at least are still whole and grate it just before you use it – the flavour is so much better this way! 
If you don’t have access to any of our delicious local flours, you can just make the pie base / crust with plain flour. Or add your choice of alternative flours such as oats, barley, almond or coconut. And if you don’t have papaya, substitute mango or even peach…get creative and let us know what you use and how it came out!
The pie is great served alone or with your choice of whipped cream, vanilla icecream or plain yogurt. Serve piping hot, room temperature or chilled from the fridge (where it will keep for several days) – any which way you serve it, it’s delicious! You can even eat it for breakfast!
We hope you enjoy this recipe and would love to hear about it!
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