Last summer my brother got married and while the reception food wasn’t your typical wedding reception food, it was a crowd pleaser. It was Smithfield’s Chicken and BBQ, a North Carolina classic. This meal also introduced my kids to a new food, banana pudding. Yes, banana pudding.
So I may not be a southern girl that makes all the classic southern foods. It’s ok. I could blame my parents, darn northerners. Oops, i’m technically one of those. Then again it could be i’m just not a huge fan of bananas. Yes, a runner that doesn’t really like bananas. I buy them all the time, my husband and kids devour them. I even make banana bread and on rare occasions I will eat a slice of it. I just don’t know why i’ve never had banana pudding especially with all the opportunities i’ve had growing up in the south, yet alone made it.
The only possibility I could come up with is I thought it was made with banana pudding and well, I can’t stand that fake banana flavor. I will happily give you every banana Runt or Laffy Taffy I have. You can have it all. I just don’t like it. So my son telling me he liked it, while overjoyed my pickest of eaters liked it I wasn’t sure what to think when he said he wanted to learn how to make it.
Of course i’ll teach you how to make it, I said. All the time saying I really don’t want to make it. I would look up recipes from time to time but, we never made it. I was able to put off making banana pudding for just over a year. Yep, we finally made it and I was surprised.
I picked one of the “easy” recipes from Allrecipes, a no cook recipe for his first time making banana pudding. I figured it was a good starting point. Looking at the ingredients I knew this was going to be something sweet and rich. My son went to work with minimal help from me here and there all the while singing about Nilla Wafer Top Hat Time. Before I knew it my son had whipped the pudding mix, while I sliced the bananas and then he layered it and put it all together. I even made a smaller ramekin for myself with gluten free vanilla wafers. All we had left to do know was wait. Banana pudding is similar to an ice box cake and all the ingredients need to chill out in the fridge for a few hours and meld together and get happy.
So we waited and it was worth the wait! Like I expected it was super rich, my little ramekin was more than enough for me. My family loved theirs too!
Am I glad that I finally made it? Both yes and no. How could I have gone so long in my life without trying Banana Pudding? I want to try the entirely scratch made version now complete with meringue topping. I will in time despite my son’s constant asking when are we going to make Banana Pudding again? Is it Banana Pudding time? Oh dear son with that can still eat whatever he wants without worry and have a 6-pack. One day that will catch up to you. For the rest of y’all, I will warn you this is not the dessert to eat while you are on a diet. It has a ton of those evil calorie things. Save it for your long run day when you have plenty of calories to spare. Then again you could pretend that this is a healthy dessert, it does have bananas after all and well bananas are good for you. Yeah, that’s it. See, Banana Pudding is good for you. You have to make it!
What is your favorite Southern Dessert?
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
- 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 3 cups cold milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
- 4 bananas, sliced
- ½ (12 ounce) package vanilla wafers
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk and vanilla until smooth. Fold in ½ of the whipped topping.
- Line the bottom of a 9x13 inch dish with vanilla wafers. Arrange sliced bananas evenly over wafers. Spread with pudding mixture. Top with remaining whipped topping. Chill 4-5 hours or overnight.
Recipe is Banana Pudding IV from Allrecipes.com