The original and best Banana Pudding recipe. Layers of luscious vanilla custard, crunchy vanilla wafers, and sliced bananas topped with a golden meringue.
I was perusing food blogs today, as usual, and I came across one where someone who grew up in the Midwest was extolling the virtues of southern cuisine. Pimento cheese specifically. This blogger talked about how he grew up on a diet of pretty bland fare and only discovered the wonders and variety of southern cuisine after he had reached adulthood.
This got me thinking that I really need to get back to what I know and do best. What I call Southern Farmhouse cooking.
Just What is Southern Cooking?
There are, of course, all kinds of different southern cuisines…creole, cajun, tex-mex. Then there’s the whole coastal thing from the Carolinas right on around through Key West and New Orleans and more. Southern cuisine is so varied and complex, it’s even thought of by Southerners in regions of its own.
Now, when I was growing up things were even more regionalized than they are today. People didn’t travel as widely nor did we get exotic ingredients on a regular basis in the grocery store.
Additionally, people grew a large portion of their food. Our summers were as much a time for playing and enjoying being out of school as they were for “puttin’ up.” For those of you who have not yet reached a certain age, that means freezing and canning fresh produce to last through the year until the next gardening season.
One of the things that shows up at every church dinner-on-the-grounds (if you don’t know what that is, you really aren’t from the South) and family reunion in the southern states is Banana Pudding. I’m talking about the real deal. Not any instant jello pudding with bananas, either. A banana pudding with creamy vanilla custard, sliced bananas, vanilla wafers and a meringue piled high on the top. And, would you believe, this from scratch version is almost as quick to make as the instant pudding kind.
Go ahead and make one for your family. Y’all are going to love it!
The original and best Banana Pudding recipe. Layers of luscious vanilla custard, crunchy vanilla wafers, and sliced bananas topped with a golden meringue. Click To Tweet
How to Make The Real Deal Banana Pudding
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Make the Custard:
Mix 1/2 cup of the sugar, flour, and salt in the top pan of a double boiler. Into the sugar and flour, blend 3 egg yolks and the milk.
Cook while stirring constantly over gently boiling water for about 6-8 minutes or until thickened. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Layer the Banana Pudding:
Spread a small amount of the custard (just a few tablespoons) on the bottom of a 1 1/2-quart casserole or other oven-safe dish. Make a layer of wafers and top the wafers with a layer of sliced bananas. Pour about 1/3 of the custard over the bananas.
Make two more layers of wafers, bananas, and custard for a total of 3 layers, ending with the last of the custard.
Make the Meringue:
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until the meringue is stiff but not dry.
Spoon the meringue on top of the pudding, spreading evenly to cover the entire surface and sealing to the edges of the casserole dish.
Bake the Custard:
Bake in the top half of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the meringue is golden. Cool slightly or refrigerate until serving. Garnish servings with additional wafers and banana slices if desired.
Enjoy!
More Pudding Recipes on Never Enough Thyme:
- Slow Cooker Bread Pudding
- Old-Fashioned Butterscotch Pudding
- Lemon Pudding Cake with Cherry Coulis
- Biscuit Pudding
- Tapioca Pudding
- Baked Rice Pudding
- Bread Pudding
pudding recipes from Other Bloggers:
- Chocolate Pudding from RecipeGirl
- Rocky Road Pudding Parfaits from Half Baked Harvest
- Warm Sticky Toffee Pudding from David Lebovitz
- Easy Vanilla Pudding from Dinner: A Love Story
- Best Butterscotch Pudding from Brown Eyed Baker
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The Real Deal Banana Pudding
The original and best Banana Pudding recipe. Layers of luscious vanilla custard, crunchy vanilla wafers, and sliced bananas topped with a golden meringue.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar, divided
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- Dash salt
- 3 eggs, separated
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 45 vanilla wafers, divided
- 5 ripe bananas, sliced (about 3 1/2 cups), divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Make the Custard:
- Mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top pan of a double boiler. Into the sugar and flour, blend 3 egg yolks and the milk.
- Cook while stirring constantly over gently boiling water for about 6-8 minutes or until thickened.
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Layer the Banana Pudding:
- Spread a small amount of the custard on the bottom of a 1 1/2-quart casserole or other oven-safe dish. Make a layer of wafers and top the wafers with a layer of sliced bananas. Pour about 1/3 of the custard over the bananas.
- Make two more layers of wafers, bananas and custard for a total of 3 layers, ending with custard.
Make the Meringue:
- Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
- Slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until the meringue is stiff but not dry.
- Spoon the meringue on top of the pudding, spreading evenly to cover the entire surface and sealing to the edges of the casserole dish.
Bake the Custard:
- Bake in the top half of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the meringue is golden.
- Cool slightly or refrigerate until serving.
- Garnish servings with additional wafers and banana slices if desired.
Notes
Original recipe courtesy of The Nabisco Co.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 313Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 75mgSodium: 164mgCarbohydrates: 58gFiber: 2gSugar: 35gProtein: 7g
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Lana Stuart is the author, photographer, cook, and occasional traveler at Never Enough Thyme. A former IT professional, she enjoys time in the kitchen and the art studio.
Miss P says
I make this when I am nostalgic (or when there’s a gathering of older folks, or kids, or teens, or young adults…..). The only person that I know that does not like banana pudding is Pete, because he doesn’t like bananas. But he’s pretty spectacular in every other way, so I think we can overlook his unfortunate position related to bananas. Go figure.
I add 2 tablespoons of butter at the end of the pudding stage, after it has thickened and is off the heat. Give that a try the next time you make this, and tell me if you like that little addition.
Thanks for reminding me of how much I really like our memories.
Miss P
Ira Jean says
Hi Lana,
I really like your recipe for banana pudding. I’ve made it a lot, got a request this week for two. I always double the recipe.
gloria patterson says
This is REAL BANANA PUDDING! I am so tired of people mixing a cold pudding and pouring it over wafers and bananas. The wafers stay hard and its just not good.
THANKS
Lana Stuart says
You’re right, Gloria! It’s nothing like the real thing. Nice warm custard and a golden meringue … can’t beat that!
Stella says
So often in using meringue on pies, etc., I end up with a watery mess on top resulting in a failed effort. An aunt of mine used the cornstarch recipe, which I have somewhere in my files, and always seemed successful. What is your secret, Lana?
Lana Stuart says
No secret, Stella. I just beat the whites until stiff and plop them on top. I’ve never used starch or cream of tartar in mine at all and they always turn out great.
Beverly Gillies says
Thank you for the Delish Recipes, k have searched the supermarket for these Nilla Biscuits to no avail here in Oz, what other biscuits would/could you reccommend for this Banana Pudding, it looks awesome and so much want to try it
Lana Stuart says
Hi Beverly, I’m surprised you can’t find the cookies since I thought Nabisco was distributed globally. The “nilla wafers” are a vanilla flavored crisp cookie. Anything similar should work well. I’ve seen banana pudding made with the Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies as well. Perhaps you’d have better luck finding those. I would also think that the British digestive biscuits might work in this recipe. I’m not positive about that, but it would seem like a possible alternative.
Traci says
Just made this and I had to make another batch of custard to cover the called for layers of bananas and vanilla wafers. I didn’t use it all, but it definitely needed more to cover. Has anyone else had that problem?
Lana Stuart says
Never had that problem in the 40+ years I’ve been making it! This is the original recipe from Nabisco with their original measurements.
Traci says
Thanks for the quick reply. I must have used too much on the bottom before the first layer of bananas and wafers. I was using the same recipe, but from another site. I found your site when I was searching the issue.
Sharon says
My family was from Oklahoma and Arkansas and banana pudding was the thing, pudding, bananas and vanilla wafers, but never meringue, that must truly be a Southern thing and I’m sure it is great, ours were topped with the cookies. Love lemon and chocolate meringue pies vs whipped topping.
Lana Stuart says
Sharon – this is the original recipe from Nabisco which calls for a meringue. We love it this way, but without it would be just as good :-)
Megan says
My hubby recently asked for a banana pudding after visiting Tennessee and I mad a Paula Dean recipe. It was delicious but this is more of the recipe I was looking for. I’ll have to try this recipe too!
Lana says
Megan – I know people think Paula’s cooking is authentic southern food, but it’s not. She takes our basic recipes and really goes over the top with the butter, cream, etc. Give my banana pudding recipe a try and I think you’ll like it even better.
Risaeats says
This looks amazing. I love banana pudding. The best I had was at The Lady & Sons in Savannah, GA. That Paula Deen makes a mean Banana Pudding. This looks sooooo good. I want some right now.
Lana says
Well, this is the original recipe from Nabisco, the makers of the vanilla wafers. It’s very easy and always turns out perfectly for me.
ceecee says
Oh my goodness, my kids (5 and 3 yrs old) are going to love this recipe!
Lee says
Dear Lana, a funny story I thought you might appreciate…
Right after discovering your blog I showed it to my boyfriend whose mom lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, of which he has fond memories. He immediately went crazy, particularly over banana pudding (which I had never heard of) and decided one day recently to make for me (as a treat, for when I stepped through the door after a long day at work) banana pudding, gormet chocolate chip cookies and perfect gin and tonics – he gave himself an hour and a half for all of this.
Naturally, when I stepped through the door I found my entire kitchen covered in flour, sugar, sliced bananas, containers of milk, eggs, raisins and butter, kitchen appliances, oven trays, a laptop set up next to the stove, custard failing to thicken on the stove and chocolate on the floor.
To cut a long story short, I did not freak out and after a few trips to the store he returned with some missing ingredients, including a litre of freshly made custard (the custard on the stove met with an unfortunate accident), ALL of which he used in the pudding so that the result was islands of biscuit, banana and meringue swimming in custard.
The pudding turned out ok – you can’t put those ingredients together and not end up with something good – but I have a technical question. Is the banana meant to taste raw or cooked? In the version we had it was uncooked, even though it had been in the oven for over 20min. I would imagine that it should taste cooked..? Stephan (the boyfriend) can’t remember and enjoyed it too much to care :)
Lana says
Oh, Lee! Thanks for the best laugh I’ve had in quite a while. I can just imagine what your kitchen looked like! Tell Stephan that the bananas should be ripe but still firm, some little specks of brown on the peel but not too dark, for the pudding. The end result will be raw bananas, but they will be warm (from the warm pudding) and somewhat soft. Sort of a cross between raw and cooked, actually. The oven time is only for browning the meringue, not cooking the pudding. If you didn’t use a meringue you wouldn’t put it in the oven at all. After thinking about it I suppose you could almost call this a trifle. It should have a similar consistency.
Hope you and Stephan will give it another try. So funny…
duodishes says
It’s all about those nilla wafers! We made a banana pudding cake not too long ago that knocked the socks off. Everyone loves nana pudding.
Erin says
I love your commentary on southern cuisine. It reminds me of my childhood in a small town. That MOST CERTAINLY looks like the “Real Deal”. YUM. Thanks for sharing.
And I instantly knew what you meant by “putting up”. :)
bree1972 says
I loved your comments today about past cooking and shopping routines. My mom was always looking at new recipes, but she hardly ever tried them because “I don’t have that in my cabinet”. If it wasn’t made with eggs, flour, sugar, milk, cornmeal, or “grease”, it meant an extra trip to the store, where she swore she could never find what the recipe called for. I have about mastered “lacy” cornbread like hers, and it has only taken 61 years.
This was MY mom’s banana pudding recipe also, Lana. What great memories it brings back.
Danica says
Anything with bananas and vanilla wafers has my vote – this looks awesome!
Marge says
This is just like Mom’s! Thanks for sharing!
Miss P says
Was it Aunt Margie that always made banana puddin’? I can’t remember exactly which aunt, but I certainly remember the wonderful taste. It is worth the small amount of extra effort. Thanks for the memory.
Miss P
s. Stockwell says
Oh my, this is such a “keeper”…i have never had this version before but be sure we will test this one out this weekend! Love it that ou are do what you know best!! that is always a winner. best, s
lailablogs says
Looks really delicious .. Laila .. http://lailablogs.com/
Bread + Butter says
Looks like the real deal to me. I love bananas!!