Homemade Banana Pudding Recipe

square image of banana pudding in glass dessert bowl with whipped cream.

Homemade Banana Pudding Recipe

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 15

Chilling time: 4

Total Time: 4 25

Servings: servings

Calories: 297cal

Author: Ashley Fehr

This Homemade Banana Pudding is a nostalgic dessert that layers creamy pudding, fresh bananas, and crunchy vanilla wafers, all topped with sweet whipped cream. It's simple to make and perfect for any occasion!

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Ingredients

3 cups whole milk
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup heavy whipping cream
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4-5 large bananas (sliced)
1 package vanilla wafer cookies

Sweetened Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Instructions

In a large saucepan, whisk together milk, sugar, cream, eggs and corn starch.
Place on the stove and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking, whisking constantly, until thickened.
Remove from the heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve into a large glass bowl. Stir in the vanilla.
Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it to the top of the pudding. Refrigerate until no longer warm.
Arrange pudding in either a large glass bowl or individual serving dishes, in layers with the bananas and vanilla wafer cookies. To prevent bananas from browning too quickly, completely cover them with pudding.
To make the whipped cream, beat the cream and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
Top with whipped cream as desired, Chill for 30-60 minutes and serve.

Video

Notes

Ingredients and Substitutions:

Milk: you can use low fat milk for this recipe, but it won't taste as rich or have as creamy a texture.
Eggs: many pudding recipes use only egg yolks which I find wasteful. As long as you strain the pudding after cooking, there's no reason why we can't use the whole egg. If you prefer to use egg yolks, use 8 instead of 4.
Whipped cream: you can substitute with whipped topping, but this is such a simple dessert, I think it really makes sense to go homemade if you can!
Bananas: eventually the bananas will brown, but we can keep this to a minimum by covering them completely with pudding or by brushing with lemon juice before layering.

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