Banana pudding was a fixture in my mother's family for holiday meals - always prepared by my great grandmother - "Granny". Granny also always made a "cherry salad" (a concoction consisting of cool whip, cherry pie filling, coconut, pecans, sweetened condensed milk, crushed pineapple, mini-marshmallows and maraschino cherries). I can't say that I miss the cherry salad that much, but the banana pudding - I really long for at times. Granny's recipe for banana pudding was actually a recipe for banana cream pie filling - from a 1940s two-volume "Encyclopedia of Cooking." I have those cookbooks now - their pages dogeared and stained. Today I was craving comfort food that reminded me of my childhood.
So I folded and made homemade banana pudding. My recipe, which differs quite a bit from her old stand-by follows. And no, it is not "good" for you - despite the addition of bananas. But it is quite good.
Ingredients
1 cup sugar (cane sugar works best, but plain old granulated white sugar is fine too)
1/2 scant cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups skim milk (1 cup set aside - I'm sure that 2% or whole would be decadently good - but well, we only use organic skim - so that's what I used in the recipe, and it was plenty rich)
1 can evaporated milk (will be about 1.5 cups - do NOT use sweetened condensed milk - it is NOT the same thing)
1 tsp. (or more - I use a little more) of vanilla. Do not use artificial vanilla extract - buy the real thing. I buy mine from a Latin market - imported from Mexico. It's delicious and I'm sorry but the fake stuff just doesn't compare.
1 tbsp. unsalted butter (NOT margarine)
3 egg yolks (throw the whites out, make an omelet, I don't care - but in my family, banana pudding does NOT have meringue on it)
4-5 ripe bananas
1 box of Vanilla Wafers (use the "real" thing - not a knock off).
Tools you'll need: a deep pan, a glass bowl of some kind to serve it in (you can use a 13x9 casserole dish, or any size pan really - but I like the way it looks in a clear glass bowl), a decent whisk, a glass measuring cup or bowl and measuring spoons.
Directions
Open the evaporated milk and pour it along with 2 cups of the milk into the pan and set the heat on the stovetop to a medium high. You want to slightly scald the milk. Once scalded, turn it down just a bit. Add the butter, chopped into little bits. Reserve the other 1 cup of milk for later. Add the 1 cup of sugar and salt and whisk into the warm milk. While the sugar dissolves into the milk, separate the eggs, and put the yolks into a glass measuring cup. Beat until yellow and lightly frothy - and add the vanilla directly to the egg yolks. If the eggs you use are particularly small, you can use four.
Slowly sprinkle in a little bit of the flour at a time into the warm milk and sugar mixture while constantly whisking until all is incorporated. Continue cooking over medium heat until thickened to the consistency of very thick pudding. Take off of heat, and put about 1 cup of the heated pudding into the egg yolk and vanilla mixture. Quickly mix together, and then pour back into the pudding in the pan (this keeps the eggs from curdling or turning into scrambled eggs). Keep off heat and whisk thoroughly every five minutes or so.
In the meantime, open the box of Vanilla Wafers (go ahead and feel free to steal a few to snack on, but don't get crazy). Layer one full row on the bottom of whatever bowl you will serve the pudding in. Peel bananas and slice thinly. Put another layer over the vanilla wafers.
After the pudding mixture has cooled, whisk in another 1 cup of cool milk to thin it a little (as it cools, it will thicken up surprisingly). Pour 1/3 of the cooled pudding mixture over the bananas in the serving bowl. Repeat layers - ending with vanilla wafers. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve with a sprig of mint or a dollop of whipped cream.
It's amazing comfort food - that was present at every church social I can remember. Unfortunately way too many people rely on boxed pudding mix - which is just horrendous. Homemade sounds like a lot of work, but all together it takes about 30 minutes to prepare, plus extra refrigeration time. Apparently the dish doesn't have much of a following outside of Texas and the south - but try it. You'll thank me later. Your hips won't... but your tastebuds will.
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