The Very Best Southern Banana Pudding with Fresh Whipped Cream

A white dish filled with banana pudding and whipped cream

The Very Best Southern Banana Pudding with Fresh Whipped Cream

A from scratch recipe for the very best banana pudding . This recipe doe not use a boxed pudding mixture.

5 from 2 votes

Print Pin

Course: Florida Kitchen, MOST POPULAR RECIPES, Sweet Tooth

Cuisine: dessert

Keyword: southern banana pudding

Prep Time: 45

Cook Time: 15

Servings: servings

Calories: 502kcal

Author: Meggen Wilson

Ingredients

3 cups whole milk
2 large whole vanilla beans - split in half, seeds scraped out OR
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
6 large egg yolks
½ tsp nutmeg
½ cup sugar
2 ½ TBSP corn starch
¼ tsp kosher salt
2 TBSP butter , cut into pieces
12 oz. shortbread cookies , like Lorna Dune, Chessman or "Nilla Wafers
2 cups heavy cream
1 TBSP vanilla sugar
5-6 large bananas , ripe and sliced into rounds

Instructions

Bring milk and scraped vanilla seeds and empty vanilla pods to a simmer over medium low heat in a heavy bottomed medium size sauce pan. After 2 minutes, Using tongs, remove the pods from the warm milk. If using vanilla paste- just add to warm milk-omit the whole beans.
Thoroughly combine the sugar, nutmeg, cornstarch and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add in yolks and whisk well until thick paste is formed.
Add a ladle (about 1/4-1/2 cup) of the hot milk to the sugar/egg mixture to temper*. Whisk the milk in gently to incorporate. Add 3-4 more ladles of hot milk, (whisking in between) until yolks are warmed. Turn the saucepan of remaining milk to down to low heat. Gently pour the now tempered egg mixture into the saucepan of remaining hot milk and whisk constantly until pudding comes to a slow boil and thickens. Small bubbles will form as it thickens. Keep whisking.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in butter.
Transfer the pudding mixture to a bowl, cover the surface of pudding with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. With the tip of a knife, poke a few tiny holes in the plastic, to allow steam to escape. Let rest for 30 minutes until just tepid.
In a decorative glass bowl or trifle dish, ladle one cup of the pudding on the bottom of the dish. Add one layer of cookies, then pudding, then 2 large sliced bananas etc. repeating each layer and ending with pudding. I slide sliced bananas around the inside the bowl so you can see them as well. You can also use small mason jars for individual servings.
Cover the surface of the pudding with plastic so a skin does not form and chill at least 4 hours up to overnight.
Before serving: Whip the heavy cream and vanilla sugar until stiff peaks form- about 2 minutes. Remove plastic from chilled pudding. Spread whipped sweetened cream over pudding mixture.
Crumble additional cookies & banana slices on top of pudding.

Notes

* Tempering- tempering is slowly adding a hot liquid to eggs to prevent the eggs from scrambling. If your eggs curdle, you may need to strain the mixture with a sieve to remove any large egg chunks.

Nutrition