July 18, 2008

Banana Pudding



Today I am feeling particularly joyful! I have been in the market for a new job for a few months and accepted an offer late yesterday afternoon. TLMM cooked up a celebratory dinner which included phenomenal grilled shrimp along with my favorite dinner, steak and artichokes! Complete with champagne! It was a fun night, I don't change jobs often so when I do I see it an an excuse to celebrate. Anyhoo, have you ever tried to make the banana pudding recipe on the Nilla Wafer box? I did it the other day and the result was rich and downright delicious.

3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Dash salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
45 NILLA Wafers, divided
5 ripe bananas, sliced (about 3 1/2 cups), divided
Additional NILLA Wafers for garnish


Mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water, stirring constantly for 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.



Reserve 10 wafers for garnish. Spread small amount of custard on bottom of 1 1/2-quart casserole; cover with a layer of wafers and a layer of sliced bananas. Pour about 1/3 of custard over bananas. Continue to layer wafers, bananas and custard to make a total of 3 layers of each, ending with custard.



Beat egg whites until soft peaks form; gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff but not dry. Spoon on top of pudding, spreading evenly to cover entire surface and sealing well to edges.



Bake at 350°F in top half of oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned. Cool slightly or refrigerate. Garnish with additional wafers and banana slices just before serving. Makes 8 rich, custard-y servings...and the eggs.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I made this last week, and it didn't look as good as yours!
(:

Suzanne said...

I have some odd "food rules." One of them has to do with fruit. My general rule is to just leave fruit as it is - don't cook it, don't mix it with other fruit, don't douse it in liqueur, don't dip it in warm chocolate. There are a few (a very few) exceptions and one of them is banana pudding/banana cream pie. I just love it and yours looks amazing.

The whole dinner sounded great. Congratulations again on the new position!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the new job! This dessert looks tasty and delicious. Can't wait to try it.

C

Arties32 said...

Thank you Suzanne and C :)
The banana pudding was SO good- it was gone in a few days and we already want it again. It's so rich and creamy. I won't make it again until I have a reason like company or a picnic or something because it's just SO tempting, it was calling my name from the refrigerator!
:)
J