This guaranteed crowd-pleasing delicious classic Southern Banana Pudding is homemade from scratch and incredibly easy to prepare.
This traditional southern recipe has been around since the early 20th century and some would argue even bore then. Once Nabisco made vanilla wafers in 1898, it became even more popularized. In addition, once trade routes from Southern countries and the Caribbean became more solidified it also opened the doors for an incredibly amount of access to fresh bananas.
Banana pudding is an easy inexpensive recipe consisting of few ingredients which really helped elevate its status as well. While this recipe seems more like a summer dessert, it can be made all year round.
Ingredients for this recipe:
• 6 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups whole milk
• pinch of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 whipped cream recipe
• 1 box of vanilla wafers
• 4 peeled and thinly sliced large bananas
Serves 12
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Cool Time: 45 minutes
Procedures:
1. Add 6 egg yolks, ¾ cup of sugar, flour, and salt to a medium-size saucepot and cook over low heat for about 12-15 minutes while constantly stirring until it becomes very thick.
2. Remove the custard from the stove and stir in the vanilla. Cool completely in the refrigerator, which takes about 45 minutes.
3. Once it’s cool slowly add the custard into a stand mixer with the whipped cream recipe and mix on low speed with the whisk attachment until completely combined.
4. Evenly spread 1/3 of the whipped cream custard to the bottom of a deep 13×9 casserole pan and then layer on the wafers and bananas followed up by adding on another 1/3 of the whipped cream custard.
5. Repeat the process 1 more time until all of the ingredients have been used. Set aside.
6. In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment whisk the eggs on medium speed until soft peaks have formed, which takes about 3 to 4 minutes.
7. Turn the speed up to high and slowly sprinkle in ¼ cup of sugar until mixed in. Continue to whisk until medium-stiff peaks have formed to make a meringue.
8. Spread the meringue over the top of the banana pudding evenly and then using a torch brown the top of the meringue.
Chef Notes:
Make-Ahead: You can make this up to 1 day ahead of time, just keep it covered and refrigerated before serving.
How to Store: Cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. This will not freeze well as it will cause the custard to break when thawing.
If you don’t have a torch you can bake in the oven at 400° for 7-10 minutes or until the meringue is browned on top.
Just in case you are in a pinch you can substitute the homemade whipped cream with 1 tub of cool whip.
Credit: YouTube
