Banana Pudding with Vanilla Wafers Recipe

I lived in New York right around the time
when the whole cupcake craze started. I lived there when Magnolia Bakery just started
and we would wait hours in line just to get cupcakes from there. So, I would go for the cupcakes in the beginning
and then one day they ran out of the cupcake that I wanted, so I tried their banana pudding
and it was just mind-altering. It was so good, it just brought back every
single piece of nostalgia from your childhood that...

I mean, I grew up eating this banana pudding,
so I wanted to show you kind of my updated version that you can make with your family. So, first step is we're gonna steep some milk,
get two cups of milk and we're gonna steep a vanilla bean. If you don't have a vanilla bean, you can
use vanilla extract. Instead I would just warm up the milk slightly,
take it off the heat and then add the vanilla extract.

The vanilla extract has alcohol in it so when
it hits heat, it tends to evaporate. So I've got one vanilla bean that you could
just get at the grocery store in the spice aisle. I'm gonna split it in half before I steep
it. That way I can get all the bean flecks out
of it before I steep it.

So just with a paring knife, split it in two,
and with a knife just take out all that filling and just put it right on into the milk. I have the milk over low heat. You wanna be careful not to boil the milk. So just put the whole bean in there, the flecks
as well as the seed as well, and we're just gonna let that steep for about 15 minutes.

Okay, so I have vanilla bean and milk steeps,
I'm gonna make the rest of the pudding. I've got five egg yolks in the bowl here,
to this I'm gonna add half a cup of sugar, a pinch of salt and then a quarter cup of
cornstarch. Make sure not to let the sugar sit too long
on your egg yolks otherwise you'll get something that's called burned egg yolks. So just when you put the sugar on, make sure
to whisk it right away.

Okay, my milk and vanilla bean mixture has
been steeping and now I'm just gonna put it right into the egg yolk mixture. You're gonna want to use a sieve that will
catch any of those vanilla beans. Give it a big whisk to make sure everything
is incorporated. Okay, now we're gonna add the egg yolk and
milk mixture back into the pot that you warmed that milk in and we're gonna cook over medium
heat.

Okay, so my milk and egg yolk mixture is over
medium heat, I'm gonna whisk constantly for about two to three minutes until it becomes
really thick. And the thickening will happen really quickly. One minute it will go from a loose liquid-y
texture and then it'll all of a sudden be thick and pudding like and that's because
there's cornstarch in there. And one of the reasons I love using the vanilla
bean is because there's vanilla bean flecks throughout this pudding.

But again, vanilla extract is totally fine,
or if you wanna get a little crazy, you could put some bourbon in there and just make it
a bourbon banana pudding. Okay, so my pudding has gotten really, really
thick, we are almost there, but I'll show you how thick it really gets. And it's pretty much... It goes from being
really liquid-y to thick almost instantly.

See, you can tell that it's like almost that
pudding texture. And then we're gonna put it into a bowl and
fold in some butter. Okay, so let's put our pudding mixture into
a bowl and if it looks a little chalky right now, or kind of not smooth, it's totally fine. We're gonna put in some butter which is gonna
smooth everything out.

Okay, so I'm gonna add two tablespoons of
butter and just put it right on in, perfect. So, my butter is whisked in. We're gonna put this in the refrigerator for
at least four hours or if it's easier just overnight. But before we do that, we're gonna put some
plastic wrap right on top, and the plastic wrap's gonna help prevent the pudding from
forming a skin on top.

I know that sounds really gross, but trust
me, just do it. So, the plastic wrap's gonna go right on,
but we're actually gonna put the plastic wrap directly on to the putting and then into the
refrigerator for four hours or up to overnight. I do overnight just because it's easier. I've got my pudding and it's been chilled
overnight, so it's nice and cold, and then I've got some whipped cream.

I whipped the cream until soft peaks and then
I'm gonna fold three-fourths of this cream into the pudding mixture, and we're gonna
save that final fourth for the top and then just gently fold it in. And by adding the whipped cream, this is gonna
lighten the pudding and make it really velvety and smooth in texture. Okay, so let's assemble our banana pudding. I'm just using a glass bowl today.

You could use a casserole dish, you could
use a trifle dish, the glass bowl works just as well. And even if it's not glass, it's totally fine. I like using glass because then you can see
the different layers of the pudding with the bananas and the Nilla wafers. Okay, first let's add a layer of Nilla wafers.

So, and vanilla wafers, it's a little bit
controversial, I think you have to use like the Nilla Nabisco kind to get that flavor. I don't know what...I've tried it with vanilla
wafers from Whole Foods or from kind of like generic brands, and there's something about
this brand that just like the nostalgia is wrapped up in it. But, if you can't find this one, just regular
vanilla wafers will do too. And then we're gonna add pudding on top of
that and it doesn't have to be perfect, that's the beauty of this dessert, is that it's a
little bit messy, but totally amazing.

And then on top of that, we're gonna add sliced
bananas. So just thinly slice the banana and then just
place it right on top. So, we had this recipe a lot growing up, but
it wasn't really until I lived in New York that I really, really loved it. I remember just getting huge tubs of it from
Magnolia Bakery and just walking home snacking on it.

No shame, right? And then we're gonna repeat this process a
couple more times depending on how big your dish is, okay? And then the final banana pudding right on
top. And then to this, we're gonna top with the
remaining whipped cream and then kind of final garnish, we're gonna take a couple Nilla wafers
because obviously,we don't have enough already and just break them right over it. And there you have it, you have this delicious
banana pudding. And I love that the glass bowl you can see
the layers, you can see definitely that there's banana in there, there's pudding and then
the Nilla wafers.

So, you could let this sit in the refrigerator
until you're ready to eat, but I'm ready to eat right now. The only difference if you eat it immediately
is that the vanilla wafers are gonna be a little more crispy. That's not a bad thing it's just preference. So, I'm just gonna dig right in because this
is just all for me anyways, right? Let's go.

I'm just...It's so amazingly nostalgic. I love when food kind of transports you back
until like a time in your life, and this transports me right back to New York. It makes me miss it a little bit. I love this recipe, it's banana-y, it's vanilla-y
and it's totally delicious.

So you should make it for your next family
occasion, for Easter coming up or just any old day you want the banana pudding. Thanks so much for watching. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up
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