I wanted to cook something special for my son who was having a less than stellar day. His favorite dessert of all times is banana pudding, and I don’t mind making it for him, but here is the truth – I absolutely hate vanilla wafers. Just saying that out loud seems practically un-American, but I can’t help it. The texture is yucky the sweetness is cloying and even a banana does nothing to improve it – at least in my humble opinion. So when I saw a menu offering a banana pudding served with banana bread I had a revelation! Why not make banana bread and serve it, nicely toasted of course, as a base for a pudding with bananas and NO vanilla wafers. The recipe I always use for banana bread is in a previous blog. It is a favorite in our house because I sneak in a small amount of mini chocolate chips.
Banana bread is an easy recipe and the ingredients are almost always on hand. There is no need to buy a pudding mix for banana pudding, which would most likely have a lot of weird artificial ingredients. Pudding is easy as pie (ha!) to whip up. You just heat up some milk, add flour and sugar – egg yolks – a splash of vanilla and you have pudding. Put sliced bananas in a casserole, cover with pudding and chill in the fridge. To assemble the dessert, I toasted slices of bread in the oven, topped them with pudding and added a dollop of whipped cream since my guys prefer that to a meringue topping. The dessert was a huge success- just delicious and best of all we have banana bread left over to toast for breakfast!
Ingredients
4 bananas, sliced
2 ½ cups of whole milk or a mix of half & half and milk
1/3 cup flour
½ cup sugar
½ tsp salt
3 egg yolks
2 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla
Directions
Put sliced bananas in an 8 x 8 or similar size serving dish.
Heat milk in a sauce pan over medium high heat.
In a small bowl whisk together flour, sugar, and salt.
Reduce heat to medium low and add flour mixture to milk in four additions, whisking to incorporate after each addition.
Beat egg yolks lightly in a bowl and whisk in a small amount of the milk mixture – about ¼ cup – slowly so you don’t make scrambled eggs!
Whisk egg mixture into milk and continue to stir until pudding consistency – about 3 minutes.
Stir in butter and vanilla and pour pudding over the bananas.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill until ready to serve.
For assembly: Sliced and toasted banana bread, topped with pudding, and a dollop of whipped cream. You can dust with a bit of nutmeg for an extra special touch.
