How To Make Homemade Banana Pudding
I LOVE and adore banana pudding, real banana pudding. By real I mean the kind where you make the pudding from scratch and pour it warm over a bowl of yummy Nilla wafers and fresh cut bananas. That stuff with boxed pudding mix cannot even come close to how this tastes. If you think you’ve had banana pudding before and it involved a boxed pudding mix…THAT was not banana pudding! THIS is Banana Pudding!
The complete recipe is listed at the bottom of this page. I always insist on Nilla brand wafers. I am not a big brand person (alright, I do have a thing about White Lily flour), but if you’re going to make banana pudding, might as well do it right. For my Banana pudding, we won’t be doing a meringue. I like meringue but know far too many people who don’t. Plus that adds an extra step, which may be a wee bit complicated for someone who has never made it before. If you want to make a meringue and don’t know how, just visit my Lemon Meringue pie tutorial for complete instructions along with pictures!
I just want you to make the pudding, I don’t want you to feel you have to sit through an entire culinary class. That having been said, if you put Cool whip or any type of refrigerated dairy topping on this divine concoction after we are done making it, I will personally hunt you down and haunt you for the rest of your life. ~sweet smile~ We’re going to do this right
Put a layer of Nilla wafers in the bottom of a medium sized mixing bowl. Slice a banana over the top. Repeat these layers until you’ve used up all your Nilla wafers and bananas. It really is important that you put Nilla wafers first, by the way. These are going to soak up all the yummy pudding that settles at the bottom of your bowl.
I use a mixing bowl because that is what my mother always used. She had this Corning green glass mixing bowl, it was enormous. She must have made at least two recipes of banana pudding each time she made it. Seeing that bowl on the counter was always a welcome sight!
Crack your three eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. Since we aren’t making a meringue, we won’t be using the whites. You can save them for another use or throw them away (which I did because….I just care about my banana pudding right now.)
Place 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar (or Splenda), and a dash of salt in a saucepan. You can use a double broiler for this and not have to fret over it so much, but I just like living on the edge. Muhahaha! My trick for substituting Splenda for sugar in this is to always use just a wee bit less than the recipe calls for. If it calls for a cup of sugar, I might do a cup minus two tablespoons of Splenda. To me, that keeps it from tasting artificial.
Add milk to saucepan.
When you are done stirring it up it will look something like this.
Now settle in and BE PATIENT. You need to stir the pot constantly, scraping the bottom so none of it gets a chance to stick and scorch. This will take about fifteen minutes so I usually get something to read while I stand there and stir because I don’t think I’ve ever “just” done one thing for fifteen minutes straight.
Today I read a few articles from the new issue of PopSci. I love that magazine. This one shows you how you can turn your iPod or even iPhone into a projector that will project movies onto your wall up to 5′ x 7′! All you need are a small cosmetic mirror, a cardboard box, some tape, and a lense from an old slide projector. I actually want to do this. Anyone have an old slide projector? ~grins~
Seriously, be patient, keep stirring, don’t turn the heat up past four. This is going to take a long time and do nothing, but then ALL OF A SUDDEN it will be thicker.
Yes, I need to clean my stove. I started to photoshop that out but then decided…..”eh”.
Now, your pudding isn’t going to get super thick, but after about fifteen minutes of stirring, it will suddenly get thicker. The consistency will be about what that boxed pudding is right after you mix it before it sets well. TAKE IT OFF THE EYE! Quick! we don’t want it to scorch or keep getting thicker. Now if you end up with scorched pudding or lumpy pudding, just use it anyway and pay attention to me when I tell you to slow down next time!
Add a teaspoon of vanilla and stir.
Immediately pour over your bananas and wafers.
Let this sit for about five minutes so the pudding has time to soak into the wafers. THIS IS SO GOOD! Eat it warm, then refrigerate leftovers. I prefer to eat the leftovers cold. YUMM!
Homemade Banana Pudding
1/2 Cup Sugar (or splenda)
1/3 Cup Flour
3 egg yolks
2 Cups milk
1 box Nilla Wafers
5 bananas
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
dash salt
Place a layer of Nilla Wafers in the bottom of a medium sized mixing bowl. Slice a banana over the top. Repeat two more times with another layer of wafers and remaining bananas. In sauce pot (or double boiler) on medium low heat, add all ingredients except for vanilla. Stir well with wire whisk. Allow to cook, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until thickened – about fifteen minutes. Add in vanilla and stir. Immediately pour over wafers and bananas. Let sit for about five minutes or so before serving, to allow wafers time to absorb pudding. Top with meringue, if desired.
Enjoy!
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jul 9 2008. Filed under Dessert, FEATURED Southern Favorites!, Southern Classics.
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[...] Homemade Banana Pudding [...]
Thank you so much!:]. i used this for a science project, because my project was about organic foods and i made homemade pudding and the pudding out of the box. my class loved the homemade better than the box! thanks again:].
faythe:]
All i can say is Thank You. I wanted to make Banana Pudding, Homemade that is, (i HATE the kind that’s made with the boxed pudding), but anyways You Instructions were so clear, i looked at about 6 different websites and all of there instructions were confusing. One even told me to heat all the ingredients in the saucepan on High and i totally messed up my pudding. But your recipe helped sooo much. Thank you.
I absolute love Nanner Pudding! I used to make it all the time with my MaMaw (R.I.P.) who was from Tennessee. I lost her recipe and am now going off to school. I dare not use store bought Jello..doesnt even taste nearly the same as homemade! I love your blog! Glad I stopped by
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know about a little inconsistency in the recipe. First it says “add a teaspoon of vanilla” below the picture, but then it says in the ingredients list “1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.”
Which is it?
Thanks,
Myles
Myles,
More vanilla is always better than less vanilla! And while you’re at it, take a little sip for yourself or put a bit in your coffee!
Just made this lastnight! Ate it after I refrigirated it, ate some for breakfast, and just had another bowl. This is some deliciously dangerous stuff! The only thing I did differently was to put the second layer of cookies on AFTER I poured in the filling because I like the firm texture of the cookies on top. We like large servings so if I was making it for more than a few people I would double it! Loved your directions and pics. This was my first time making it and you made it easy! Thanks,
Sam
This was the best banana pudding i’ve ever had. It’s so easy to make and it has now replaced my own recipe.
Thank you soooooooo much!
I like adding sour cream to my custard.
[...] 1. Your First Post. The first post I ever wrote for Southern Plate is what got me all started. Back then I didn’t actually have SouthernPlate.com yet, I was just blogging on a little free blog over at vox.com. I posted a tutorial with step by step photos of how to make homemade banana pudding, with a goal of making it easy for anyone to make, regardless of cooking experience. The very next day Vox featured it on their homepage! I was so excited that I quickly put up two more tutorials and both of them were featured the next day as well. By weeks end I was on the phone with my husband saying “I think if I got my own domain I could get four or five hundred readers…”Here is my very first post, Homemade Banana Pudding. [...]
Thank you sooooooooooooo much! This is my moma’s pudding!!!!! My mother has be deceased since the day after 9-11, haven’t found anyone that could make it like her until now! Brings back so many childhood memories.
[...] However, posting a TexMex recipe wasn’t what got me thinking about border patrol, banana pudding did. [...]
My 18 year old daughter made home made banana pudding the other night. My mom taught ME to put it in a 9×13 baking dish. Once you have made your pudding and layered it…cookies, bananas, cookies, bananas, etc. Then I take the egg whites, add sugar, and whip up meringue to put on top. Bake under the broiler until light golden brown…have to stand there and WATCH IT…DO NOT WALK AWAY; it will burn. My mother-in-law makes the banana pudding with the instant vanilla pudding mix and cool whip. I thought to my self, THIS IS NOT BANANA PUDDING!!!!
I also make my chocolate meringue pies the same way, by cooking the pudding on the stove. YUMMY!!!!!
JUST SOOOO GOOD!!!
i love it
Thanks for the recipe. It is just like my Mother used to make and I have lost mine. So glad I found you and I will be coming back, often. Thanks again!
I looked up several recipes and your was the best! thank you for that,,,very instructional and directional,,,the part about the stirring and not rushing was exactly what i needed….all other recipes just say cook or stir but dont really make it plain how important it is to stir so not to burn and how important it is to be patient and wait for the thickening!!! ive thrown out 5 batches of pudding in my lifetime (finally stopped trying) because it was too thin or i had scorched it…so today i had some banana”s ruining on my counter and decided to see if i could make some pudding out of them…(i know your recipe called for ripe) but i wanted to use these before they wasted. So i start,,,first problem, no wafers,,not a huge deal cause no one in family cares for wafers anyway! Second problem,,out of milk…oh look i have evaporated milk,,hmmm lets try this,,,so i pour that in and then add two cans (5 0z) of water to that along with the egg yolks suger flour and a dash of salt……so i start stirring,,,then it dawns on me that my kids dont care for cut bananas in their pudding either,,(they dig the bananas out and put to the side and eat just the puddingf, but they dont want just plain vanilla pudding they like the banana taste)….so i decided to slice the very soft bananas and smash them to mush….so after my liquid thickened up after 15 mins of stirring,,(just like you said, thank you for that)..i take the mushed bananas and add them to the boiler also..turned all the heat off and stirred longer..then i poured that into my special bowl…so now its in the fridge,,,,because we like ours cold….and i cant wait to eat it later…..i will let ya know how it turned out! i mainly just wanted to say thanks for the great instructions! : )
I pour the milk and about 3/4 of a large can of evaporated milk in a saucepan, turn the burner on low heat , Cook until you can skim the film off the hot milk with a fork or whisk.
I mix my sugar, cornstarch, salt, together in a bowl. In a smaller bowl, I beat my egg yolks, add enough evaporated milk to the yolks to make a thinner mixture which I add to the dry ingredients. Mix well. While stirring the milk pour combined mixture into the milk and cook on low heat ( no higher than 4). Stir constantly until the mixture thickens. Add vanilla and butter or margarine. Stir until butter melts. Pour over the layers of wafers and bananas. True, this takes another step or two, but makes a very good banana pudding.
Most of my family prefers the banana pudding while it is still warm and without meringue. Refrigerate leftover pudding.
I have learned an important lesson at school: if I make this yummy banana pudding for the tech support guy on our campus, I get my computer issues addressed QUICKLY!
So guess what I am making to take him at school tomorrow? Yep, you got it!
I am so glad I stumbled on your recipe! This is the exact same way my mother use to make it. All of my family members make it that pudding way and I can’t stand it just like you. So many memories….Thank you. And its good!!!!!!