Name: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie with Pretzel Crust
Prep time: 4 h
Yield: About 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups half-and-half; ½ cup granulated sugar, divided; Pinch salt; 5 egg yolks; 3 tablespoons cornstarch; ¼ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces; 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract; ¾ cup creamy peanut butter; 1½ cups crushed pretzels; ⅓ cup granulated sugar; 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted; 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped; ¼ cup unsalted butter; ¼ cup heavy cream; ½ teaspoon vanilla; 1 tablespoon powdered sugar; 2 bananas, sliced about ½-inch thick; 1½ cups heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream); 4½ teaspoons granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Why it works: Vanilla and banana are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,430 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Vanilla + bananatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,430 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Peanut + chocolatetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,279 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,6-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Peanut + bananatop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together308 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, vanilla, chocolate, cream, banana):

Almondfits better
Hazelnutfits better
Pecansfits about as well
Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, vanilla, chocolate, cream, banana. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Peanut	1 oz (28g)	161
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Banana	1 medium (118g)	105
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie with Pretzel Crust