Southern Banana Pudding

Course Dessert

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Chill Time 2 hours

Servings 8 people

Author Christie C.

3 ½ cups (800ml) whole milk
1 cups (200ml) heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
1 cup (200g) cane sugar
2 tbsp (30g) all-purpose flour (sifted), or cornstarch
¼ cup (60g) unsalted butter
2 tbsp (30g) vanilla extract
30 to 40 vanilla wafers I made mine from scratch using the recipe by Allie from Baking A Moment
3 bananas peeled and sliced into ½ inch slices.
Optional: ground cinnamon and nutmeg for topping

In a large sauce pan, mix the milk and heavy cream and bring to a boil, letting it bubble for at least 30 seconds before taking the cream off the heat. Set it aside to cool for 1 minute.
In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk or beat together the egg yolks and sugar until a pale yellow egg mixture forms and the sugar is mostly dissolved.
Temper the egg mixture by pouring a fourth of the hot milk into the eggs in a slow and steady stream, whisking vigorously as you go until you have a milky yellow liquid.
Pour another fourth of the liquid into the egg mixture and whisk vigorously, until well combined. Pour the liquid back into the sauce pan with the remaining cream and place the pan back onto medium-low heat. Stir in the sifted flour or cornstarch.
With a rubber or wooden spatula, continuously stir the pudding for 15 to 20 minutes or until a thick liquid forms. It should be slightly thicker than pancake consistency. Take the pot off of the heat.
Stir butter and vanilla extract into the pudding until fully incorporated. Place the pudding into a large clean mixing bowl and let it chill in a freezer for 2 hours or in the refrigerator for 6 hours.

In a large, clean mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Set aside in the refrigerator until ready to top the pudding.

In a large glass bowl, dish, or eight 8oz cups, layer the pudding in this order: a third of the whipped cream, a third of the wafers, half of the pudding, and half of the bananas. Repeat layers once more and top the pudding with vanilla wafers along the edge of the bowl, whipped cream in the middle, and vanilla wafer crumbs or cookies on top.
If desired, top with ground cinnamon and/or grated nutmeg.

The pudding tastes better after chilling overnight. All of the cream and cookies marinade, taking on each others' flavors.
Flour and cornstarch are both thickeners in this recipe. If using cornstarch, mix it with a tbsp of water before adding it to the pudding. Cornstarch thickens faster and is gluten-free while flour gives the pudding a thicker consistency without being pure starch.