Bananas started being regularly imported just after the Civil War, and by the end of the 1800s they were arriving in many American ports, with the majority coming to New Orleans. This is when cooks began incorporating the fruit into a variety of dishes, especially desserts. One of the earliest banana pudding recipes in the United States appeared in Good Housekeeping in 1888. The recipe was similar to a traditional English trifle, with layers of bananas, sponge cake, and pudding topped with whipped cream. It wasn’t until around 1900 when the National Biscuit Company, now known as Nabisco, began selling vanilla wafers that the more convenient cookies started being substituted for the shortbread. By the 1940s, Nabisco was printing a recipe for banana pudding on its boxes of vanilla wafers, which weren’t called Nilla Wafers until the 1960s.
Recipe Servings: 6
+ 4 hours resting
Ingredients
- 4 egg yolks
- ¾ cup sugar plus 1 Tbsp, divided
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 cups half and half
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp butter, cut into four pieces
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 box (11 oz) Nilla Wafers
- 3 yellow bananas (that haven’t started getting brown specks)
Directions
- Whisk together the egg yolks and a ¼ cup sugar in a medium-size bowl. Add the cornstarch and continue whisking for about 30 seconds or until well-combined.
- Combine the half and half, milk, ½ cup sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally to help dissolve the sugar, and then reduce the heat to a slow simmer.
- Take about 1 cup of the simmering mixture and slowly add it to the egg mixture while whisking in order to temper the eggs.
- Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and stir for 2–3 minutes, until it thickens.
- Remove the pudding from the heat. Stir in the butter pieces and vanilla. If any egg curdles, press the mixture through a sieve.
- Combine the heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a bowl and whisk it until soft peaks form.
- Peel the bananas and slice them into ¼-inch thick pieces.
- Cover the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish with a thin layer of the pudding.
- Add a layer of the Nilla Wafers and then a layer of banana slices.
- Repeat the layering of pudding, wafers, and bananas until all the pudding is used.
- Top the dish with whipped cream and then chill it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving.
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