Description
Mama’s banana pudding blends Southern comfort with creamy nostalgia. Layers of vanilla wafers, ripe bananas, and silky custard create a dessert that connects generations and warms hearts with each spoonful.
Ingredients
Scale
- 45 bananas, ripe, sliced
- 14 oz (397 g) sweetened condensed milk
- 3 cups cold milk
- 5.1 oz (146 g) instant vanilla pudding mix
- 11 oz (312 g) vanilla wafers
- 8 oz (227 g) whipped topping (like Cool Whip), thawed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pudding Base Preparation: Whisk pudding mix with cold milk until silky smooth, allowing mixture to thicken for several minutes, creating a luscious foundation.
- Flavor Enhancement: Blend sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract into the pudding, stirring meticulously to develop a rich, creamy consistency.
- Texture Transformation: Fold whipped topping gently into the mixture, introducing an ethereal lightness and voluminous character.
- Initial Layering: Construct the base layer in a deep serving vessel by methodically positioning vanilla wafers to completely blanket the bottom surface.
- Fruit Integration: Distribute banana slices uniformly across the wafer foundation, ensuring comprehensive coverage and balanced flavor distribution.
- Pudding Cascading: Pour pudding mixture strategically over banana layer, spreading with precision to reach every corner of the dish.
- Architectural Construction: Replicate layering sequence – wafers, bananas, pudding – building dimensionality and complexity with each successive stratum.
- Surface Refinement: Conclude with a pristine, smooth pudding layer, creating an immaculate canvas for final embellishments.
- Crowning Glory: Delicately spread remaining whipped topping across the surface, generating an elegant, cloud-like pinnacle.
- Flavor Maturation: Refrigerate for minimum four hours, allowing ingredients to harmonize and cookies to absorb surrounding moisture, transforming texture and intensifying taste profile.
- Presentation Flourish: Optionally adorn with additional banana slices or crushed wafers, introducing textural intrigue and visual sophistication just before serving.
Notes
- Prevent Banana Browning: Toss sliced bananas in a bit of lemon juice to maintain their fresh color and prevent quick oxidation.
- Wafer Texture Strategy: Place wafers at the bottom and between layers just before serving to maintain their slight crunch and prevent complete sogginess.
- Pudding Consistency Control: Ensure cold milk is used when mixing pudding to achieve the perfect smooth, thick texture without lumps.
- Chilling Technique: Allow pudding to rest in refrigerator for minimum 4 hours, but preferably overnight, for deeper flavor melding and optimal texture development.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Mixing
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 13
- Calories: 360
- Sugar: 34 g
- Sodium: 210 mg
- Fat: 12 g
- Saturated Fat: 7 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 55 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 5 g
- Cholesterol: 15 mg