A close cousin to our Vanilla Wafer Homemade Banana Pudding recipe, our Vanilla Wafer Pudding With Pineapple is just as delicious with a sunshiney sweetness to boot.

But also in this post, you’ll learn:

How easy it is to make a pudding custard from scratch
How to make a perfect meringue with ingredients you have on hand

Substitute for Bananas…

Crushed pineapple is an excellent substitution for banana and the light sweet flavor is perfectly complemented by the homemade custard. This is great when folks don’t care for bananas or if you don’t have any on hand since canned pineapple is nice and shelf stable. Banana pudding aficionados don’t skip a beat when you place this before them, either. My kids can attest to that – and they usually don’t like pineapple but they love this pudding!

Now let’s make some Vanilla Wafer Pudding with Pineapple

The Ingredients You’ll need for this Vanilla Wafer Pudding are:

Vanilla Wafers, Flour, Milk, Sugar, Crushed Pineapple, Eggs, Salt, and vanilla.

What Vanilla Wafers should I use?

My mother says you have to buy name brand Nilla wafers and I do agree with her, they really are the best. However, if my budget doesn’t allow, I have no problem with buying generic at 50% of the cost of name brand. Once you drown them in this yummy pudding, no on will know the difference unless you tell them.

To begin making your custard, crack and separate your eggs, whites in one bowl and yolks in the other.

Don’t let ANY of those yolks slip into your whites

It is important that you not get any yolks in your whites because we are going to whip those up into a meringue later and if they have yolks in them, it won’t work. However, if you do get yolks in them, you can just go ahead and leave the merginue off and serve it plain or with a whipped cream topping as well.

In a medium saucepot, combine your milk, flour, sugar, and eggs.

Put this over medium heat and stir constantly until it is smooth, creamy, and thickened.

This will probably take 10-15 minutes so you can use this time to call your Mama!

Once that is all thick and creamy and delicious, pour in your vanilla.

Yum diddly custard pudding!

Place half of the vanilla wafers in the bottom of an 8×8 baking dish.

Spread half of the crushed pineapple (undrained) over this.

Pour half of the custard/pudding over.

Add the rest of the wafers.

The rest of the crushed pineapple…

and the rest of the custard/pudding.

How to Make Your Meringue

Place egg whites in a perfectly clean mixing bowl.

Tips About Making Your Meringue topping for Vanilla Wafer Pudding

Your mixing bowl has to be totally clean because if there is any greasy residue it will keep the meringue from setting up.

The last time I showed some cracked eggs there was a whole long conversation in the comments about whether or not folks should leave that little white part in. This is an easy one for me – I’m too busy cooking supper to fret over a natural part of the egg but if it bothers you, by all means fish it out. When you find something so easy to change that will just right your world in some way, by all means, change it! 🙂

And remember NO egg yolks in here or the meringue won’t work.

To make meringue:

Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. This means, when you pull the beaters out of it, there is a peak of meringue sticking up where the beaters were and it collapses down a little after you remove the beaters.
Add sugar. Beat until still peaks form. This means, when you pull the beaters out of it, there is a peak of meringue sticking up where the beaters were and it stays sticking up.
You can see photos of making a meringue on this post.

Spread the meringue over the top of your pudding, taking care to make sure it touches the sides of the pan on all sides.

This prevents it from pulling back from the sides while it bakes.

Place in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or just until the meringue is browned. Check it often while cooking.

I prefer to serve this immediately while it is still warm but you can wait a bit or even serve it cold later, but please try warm and fresh first 🙂

Before you dig in, take a moment to close your eyes, bow your head, and give thanks for all of your blessings.

Enjoy 🙂