Banana Pudding

As many of you know, if you've been following my blog for any length of time at all, dessert in this house equals chocolate. That's just the way it is. My dad loves chocolate, and does NOT love fruity desserts.

Thankfully, he doesn't mind fruity people.

My grandma used to make banana pudding. I'd never made banana pudding, but I picked up a cooking magazine at TSC a while back, and there was a recipe for banana pudding.

I made it.

It turned out fabulous, yummy, pretty, and incredible.

I never, ever blogged about it. What kind of blogger am I anyway?

Today, Mom and I were going over our Thanksgiving menu. (We just found out not too long ago that we'll have special company, which has us all jumping for joy. We've struggled with "having" Thanksgiving since we moved and don't have family here. We went to GA for a few days last year, but couldn't afford another trip this year.) With our guests in mind, I decided to bring out the banana pudding recipe and look over it, so I could decide if I wanted to make it or not. I pulled up old pictures on my Photobucket and found the pictures of the banana pudding. That's even more terrible, isn't it? I took pictures and never posted! So, I downloaded the pics to the computer, edited them a bit (some too much...oops) and reloaded them. And here I am to finally, at long last, blog about it! Let's see how I do at blogging about something I did a long time ago...

BTW, I'll share more about our menu later on...we're putting on the dog! That's what we southern girls do when we have company. :) It makes us happy.

The magazine I got the recipe from is called "Cook's Country" and I absolutely love it. LOVE it. I need to stop by TSC and pick up another one. The one I have is a September 2010, which is funny...I didn't notice that until just now. I guess I made banana pudding a year ago this month.

So, let's get started! This was a lot of steps, and took a lot of time, but I loved making it, and I'm really looking forward to making it again. This is how I roll. :)

Place 3 not-too-ripe (slightly greenish) bananas on a baking sheet...

And roast them at 325* for about 20 minutes, until they're a strange black...weird, isn't it?

In the meantime, whisk 1/2 cup of sugar, 8 large egg yolks, and 6 tablespoons of cornstarch together in a bowl...

Combine 6 cups of half and half, 1 cup of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a saucepan...

Whisk and simmer...

Whisk 1/2 a cup or so of the simmery milky mix into the egg yolk mixture, slowly...

And whisk the mixture of the mixtures back into the simmery milky pot...

I apparently dropped my whisk with which I was whisking (say that three times fast...) and had to fish it out...

Anywho, whisk this mix until it's thick and bubbly, about 2 minutes...

Remove from the heat and add 1 tablespoon of vanilla and 3 tablespoons of butter...

Now, peel and place the warm, roasted bananas in a food processor...

Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice...

And add the warm pudding...

Like so...

And blend it to kingdom come...

I didn't have a food processor big enough to add all of the pudding, so I blended some of it with the banana and then whisked it back in with the other pudding...

Now, transfer all of that into another bowl, place plastic wrap directly on the pudding surface and refrigerate until slightly cool, about 45 minutes...

Cut 4 bananas up into slices...1/4 inch or so...

Add lemon juice, to prevent them from turning brown...

Now for the fun part...retrieve the cooled pudding from the fridge...



Spoon 1/4 of the pudding into a 3 quart bowl/dish/thingamabobber

Next...a layer of Nilla Wafers. Yum.

Now, a layer of bananas, followed by another layer of Nilla Wafers...

You don't have do put yours upside down and right side up...I'm just a little weird that way.

Now, another layer of pudding, another wafer/banana/wafer layer, and another pudding layer to complete your layery yummy thing. (2 boxes of Nilla Wafers makes for a comfortable amount...with plenty to snack on, if one were snacking.)

Now, place a layer of plastic wrap on top and refrigerate until the wafers have softened to your liking...8 hours to 2 days.

When you're ready to serve it, whip 1 cup of heavy cream, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla...

And spread atop your masterpiece!

Gee...that's purdy.

Viola!

The printable isn't ready yet, and I will edit this to say otherwise when it is. Google the "Cook's Country" magazine, September 2010 issue if you're in a hurry. :)