Naner Pudding
Kitchen Tested 
- Yield 6 to 8 servings
- Prep 25 mins
- Cook 15 mins
Skip the boxed stuff and make banana pudding from scratch.
Known more eloquently as banana pudding, this dessert was apparently one of Elvis Presley's favorites. A cook in Arkansas shared this version years ago with Jane and Michael Stern.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 can (12-ounce) evaporated milk
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 16 to 20 vanilla wafers
- 2 large ripe bananas, sliced
- 2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
- 4 to 5 teaspoons hot water
- 1 cup heavy cream (not whipped)
Instructions
- Mix together the sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Add the evaporated milk and whole milk. Cook in the top of a double boiler or in a small saucepan set in a larger one filled with several inches of water, stirring frequently, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
- Beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl and add about ½ cup of the warm pudding, stirring, then add the yolks to the pudding, whisking it vigorously. Cook for 3 minutes longer, continuing to stir. Mix in the vanilla. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
- Layer the vanilla wafers and bananas in an 8-inch square baking dish.
- Melt the brown sugar in the hot water, creating a thick paste. Stir the paste into the pudding just enough to create streaks. Pour this over the wafers and bananas. Refrigerate.
- When the pudding is well chilled, whip the cream, spread it gently across the top, and serve. Serves 6 to 8.
Recipe from Jane and Michael Stern’s Two for the Road: Our Love Affair with American Food (Houghton Mifflin, 2006, http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com).
