Southern Banana Pudding
KCaulder@CalhounTimes.com
Banana pudding is the epitome of a Southern dessert. Simple and uncomplicated, it has long been the featured guest at church functions, birthday parties, Thanksgiving dinners, and Easter tables. In my house, it is the recipe everyone begs for over and over again. No holiday is complete until my brother digs into layers of vanilla pudding, sliced bananas, crispy vanilla wagers, and piles and piles of fluffy homemade meringue.
Yes, you read that right. Everything in this recipe, save for the wafers, is made with love and a little elbow grease. Don’t worry. It’s easy enough that you won’t even want to reach for that premade vanilla pudding packet at the grocery store.
Granny always made her banana pudding for Thanksgiving. We could count on it every year like clockwork. She would ask me and my brother to help make it so often that by the time we were in our teens, we knew to block out some time on Thanksgiving morning to get it done. It’s funny — no one else could ever get my brother to cook anything (we still can’t), but Granny had a way of making every task more fun than it had any right to be.
I was the oldest, so I was usually put in charge of slicing bananas, as if the butter knife I used for the task might’ve hurt someone. My brother was responsible for layering the wafers. And Granny, well. She got to work on the custard.
We’d spend way longer than was necessary making sure each and every wafer lining the bottom of her large glass bowl was covered with a banana slice. While we worked, she’d chat with us about our day and how school was going, and tell us stories about how she used to help her mother make this same banana pudding recipe.
Once our vanilla wafers and banana slices were layered exactly right, Granny would tell us to step back so she could pour the hot custard mix over top of them. Then, she’d whip up her egg whites until they reached perfect peaks and spread them out over the top of the pudding in fluffy dips and valleys. Once she was satisfied with the look of it, it’d go into the oven to brown.
Half an hour later, she’d pull it out and we’d yell for Momma to come look at the pudding we made. Granny would just smile and let us take all the credit. She was good like that.
Want to make Granny’s Southern Banana Pudding? Here’s what you need:
For the pudding:
5-6 bananas (slightly brown, but still firm) 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, separated (save whites for meringue) 3 cups milk
1 box vanilla wafers, round
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
For the meringue:
3 egg whites (reserved from pudding recipe) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar
How to make it:
Preheat oven to 325ºF. While it heats, combine flour, sugar and salt in a large, heavy-bottom saucepan.
Separate the eggs. Lightly beat egg yolks and combine with milk in a large bowl. Save the whites for use in meringue recipe. Pour the egg yolk and milk mixture into the saucepan with the dry ingredients.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the ingredients are thick and smooth. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in one teaspon of vanilla extract.
To create your pudding layers, place vanilla wafers on the bottom of an oven-safe glass bowl or baking dish. Slice bananas and place on top of the wafers. Then, pour a layer of custard on top of the wafers and bananas. Repeat the layering process until all wafers, bananas and custard have been used, ending with a top layer of wafers.
Once the layers are done, it’s time to start on the meringue. Whip the egg whites you saved during the earlier steps with an electric mixer set on the highest setting. Allow the whites to foam, add cream of tartar and then begin adding in sugar one tablespoon at a time.
Continue whipping as you add in the sugar, until it is all well-dissolved. Add vanilla once stiff peaks have formed. You’ll know the peaks are stiff if they stand on their own when you pull out the whisk or beating attachment. Whip until well-combined.
Spread the meringue over the banana pudding layers, spreading to the edges of the dish. This is where you can get a little more artistic, if you like. Use the back of a spoon to make designs in your fluff that will impress later.
Bake for about 25 minutes until the meringue is lightly browned. Serve chilled.