Southern Banana Pudding
Source: Southern Plate
Click here to read about my experience making this recipe for my state meal challenge!
Servings: 8
Total time: 45 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- 1 box vanilla wafers
- 5 bananas, sliced and tossed with 2 Tbs lemon juice to prevent browning
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 ¾ cups sugar, divided
- Dash of salt
- 3 eggs, yolks and whites separated
- 3 cups milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract, divided
- ⅛ tsp cream of tartar
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- In an oven-safe bowl or deep baking dish, arrange the vanilla wafers and sliced bananas in distinct layers–vanilla wafers on the bottom, sliced banana on top, repeated twice more until all the bananas are used.
- In a sauce pot or double broiler, whisk together the flour, 1 ½ cup sugar, and salt. Add the egg yolks and milk, beat to combine, then cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for about 15 minutes until thickened.
- Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp vanilla.
- Pour the pudding over the layers of vanilla wafers and bananas.
- In a medium bowl, use hand beaters to whip the egg whites until foamy.
- Add the cream of tartar and ¼ cup sugar, then continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Mix in 1 tsp vanilla.
- Spread the meringue over the warm pudding, making sure it reaches the edges of the bowl.
- Bake until the top is golden, about 10 to 15 minutes.
NOTES
- The pudding itself obviously isn’t banana flavored–if you want to make banana-flavored pudding, here’s a recipe by Serious Eats!: https://www.seriouseats.com/warm-and-creamy-banana-pudding
- Also, it’s highly recommended to eat this pudding fresh. Mine didn’t keep very well. If you want to make it in smaller portions to eat over time, you could easily keep the vanilla pudding separate and just spoon it over sliced bananas and Nilla wafers when ready to eat. The meringue is optional!
