Banana Pudding

 

There's 294824 different banana pudding recipes on the internet, so I took 2 and made a Megan version because I was worried that one would be too sweet for Teh German (and it also contained Cool Whip, which I don't eat) and the other wouldn't be sweet enough for me.  Soooo I fixed it!

Fret not, I was supervised.

Ingredients

Pudding, step 1:

2 cups cold milk

1 (5 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Pudding, step 2:

1 pint heavy whipping cream

4 tablespoons confectioners/powdered sugar

Assembly:

1(+) box vanilla wafers

10+ bananas

Directions

1. Mix sweetened condensed milk and milk together.  Adding pudding packet and continue mixing for 2-3 minutes.  Mash 1 banana and mix into pudding.  Cover and refrigerate for 3+ hours.
2. When ready to assemble pudding, after pudding has set: beat heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar (and vanilla extract, if using) together until stiff peaks form.
3. Mix pudding and whipped cream together until there are no streaks left.
4. Slice bananas (I did one banana at a time because I wasn't sure how much I needed).
5. In a container of your choice (I used a 9x13 dish), place a layer of vanilla wafer on the bottom of the dish.  Then add a layer of banana on top of the wafers.  Add a layer of pudding mix.  Repeat this step until dish/container is full/ingredients are used/you are satisfied.  You could also make this in individual portioned containers.
6. Cover and refrigerate 4-8 hours.
7. Serve!

Megan Tips

• Mixing a mashed banana into the pudding mix was a delight.
• I used ripe but barely bananas to avoid them turning brown.  I don't like green bananas, so not green, but definitely no spots.  Also, my recipes called for 14 bananas and I bought that many and didn't end up using them all.
• I don't use Cool Whip.  I'd much rather make my own whipped topping and it's super simple if you have a mixer (it's quite tedious by hand, but doable with enough dedication (yes, I have hand mixed whipped cream before because there weren't mixers in 1792).
• I was worried the whipped topping wouldn't be sweet enough for me so I added powdered sugar.  I would consider skipping this next time to see what a difference it makes.
• I sliced my bananas as I layered them in the dish because I didn't want them to turn brown.  There are ways to help slow oxidation (which causes the bananas to turn brown), but I was too lazy for all that.  I just made sure to quickly add the pudding on top of the layer.  My slices were not too thin (I didn't want them to just fall apart) and not to thick (I wanted to be able to recognize a chunk of banana in my bite).
• I like A LOT of bananas and A LOT of vanilla wafers.  Obviously, you can use how ever much you want.
• Crush up some vanilla wafers (less than you would expect) and write on your pudding!  Just place some wafers in a ziplock bag, crush the wafters so there are minimal chunks, then cut the tip of the bag off and use like an icing piping bag.  This was the most fun part!
• I made the pudding mix the day prior to serving and let the mixture set overnight because I didn't want runny banana pudding.
• I assembled my banana pudding at 9am on the day of serving it, knowing I was going to be serving it after 7pm. I wanted to give it time for the flavors to mingle and the wafers to soften.  I'm sure that you could prob serve it immediately, but would recommend at least a few hours of flavor melding.
• Make sure to let your dogs help with clean up, since they've probably been fastidiously supervising, by letting them do the dishes.  Pax and Meri were both super dedicated to cleaning the pudding and whipped topping bowls.