BANANA PUDDINGfeatured

Pudding might be the first dessert I remember. Chocolate pudding to be exact. Mom would set the table for dinner and I knew if we had an extra spoon set out, that meant pudding was coming. At that point, it basically became a race to eat just enough on my plate to qualify me for dessert. 2 more bites of vegetables? Done. Bring on the pudding. I just earned it with 2 bites of mushy frozen vegetables.

Every once in awhile Mom would stray from the standard chocolate flavor. The worst was the rare time it was banana flavored. I’m not much of a banana person truth be told. Which makes no sense considering I eat a banana for breakfast everyday. But it has to be perfect. Completely yellow with zero brown spots. As soon as it gets even slightly mushy, I’m out. Can’t eat it. Banana desserts? They are fine, not usually my first choice, but like all things, when you add sugar to it, I’m usually in. But I’m not a fan of the boxed banana pudding with the artificial flavor. Nope. However, I could eat this pudding all day, everyday. It’s that good. And if bananas really and truly aren’t your thing, swap them out and use berries instead. Equally awesome.

This recipe comes from the famous Magnolia bakery in New York and now in LA. If I hadn’t made the recipe myself I would swear it was laced in crack because I genuinely can’t stop eating it once I start. And the fact that this recipe is beyond easy to make creates a real problem when I’m craving something sweet.

Recipe: Banana Pudding  |  Soundtrack: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2/3 cup instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 (12oz) box vanilla wafers
• 4 large bananas sliced

Directions:
1. Mix together the water, pudding mix and sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight until it’s set up.

2. Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Put 1/3 of the whipped cream into the pudding mixture and fold in to incorporate. Do this 2 more times until all the whipped cream is incorporated.

3. Using a trifle bowl if you have it, or just a deep serving bowl, layer pudding, sliced bananas and vanilla afters. Keep going until you’ve used all of your pudding mixture. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

You can add other things to change this up: toasted coconut, marshmallows, berries, chocolate, etc. I also use individual mason jars to serve this for parties or showers. If you do this, look for the mini vanilla wafers; it will make layering in a jar easier.

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