Home Made Love: Super Blasting Banana Pudding

By MARI and LILA CHILES

This has to be the easiest, yummiest dessert to make, like, ever! The vanilla pudding smells so good while it's cooking on the stove, you'll want to scoop it into a big bowl and eat it all by itself. But when you add the vanilla wafers and the bananas, it gets even better. Imagine that! We love it warm, but it tastes just as good after it's been refrigerated for a day, when the wafers are soft (but not soggy!) and the bananas have settled into the pudding. If Mommy's in a good mood, she lets us have it for lunch which, of course, makes it taste even better. One bowl is never enough!

Ingredients

5 ½ Tbsp. all purpose flower
1 pinch of salt
2 cups milk
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
2 large egg yolks
½ Tbsp. vanilla extract
3 large bananas sliced
30 vanilla wafers
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
¼ cup sugar

Directions

1. Combine the flour and pinch of salt in a saucepan. Heat on medium on the stove and add the milk, condensed milk, and egg yolks, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. Put a piece of plastic wrap over the custard to prevent a thick skin from forming. Let custard briefly cool.
2. Slice bananas and arrange half of the slices on the baking dish. Top with 15 vanilla wafers and then smooth half of the custard mixture on top. Repeat with remaining bananas, wafers, and custard.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
4.Beat egg whites in mixing bowl until foamy. Slowly add sugar to the egg whites while still beating the eggs. Continue to beat until soft peaks are formed. Spread the meringue over the pudding mixture, making sure to seal the edges.
5. Bake until the meringue is brown on top, 5-8 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes, and then chill before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

This recipe is from the MyBrownBaby series, “Home Made Love: From The Chiles Girls’ Kitchen To Yours,” the cookbook in which Mari and Lila share special memories behind the beloved dishes they create in our house.

This Home Made Love series is sponsored by The Young Chef’s Academy of Sandy Springs, GA, a cooking school for children. Learning food preparation skills is the main ingredient at YCA, and each class adds a heap of kitchen safety, a scoop of etiquette, a handful of table setting, a pinch of menu planning, and laughter to taste. To find out about classes, summer camps, and more at The Young Chef’s Academy of Sandy Springs, click HERE.