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Banana Pudding Pie

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Banana Pudding Pie

Before my wife Molly and I even started dating, we discovered we share a love for reading Carolina Country magazine, a monthly publication of North Carolina’s electric cooperatives. Since we married we’ve looked forward to receiving the latest magazine each month from our parents, who are members of a cooperative while we are not. We settle side by side into the couch and spend 30 minutes to an hour digesting the entire magazine.

Each magazine’s back page shares a set of recipes, many of which we’ve tried and saved in our personal collection. We recently read about this Banana Pudding Pie recipe in Carolina Country and knew we had to try it!

The buttery vanilla wafer crust, which we’ve tried on another pie or two, is a delicious take on the more common Graham cracker crust. The filling is rich and flavorful on top of the layer of bananas. And the whipped cream and crushed wafer topping sets this particular pie off right!

Banana pudding is a staple of American South desserts. When you take a pudding to a gathering, it can get quite messy as family members and friends dip into the dish and dig out servings. This pie is a nice way to control the mess and consolidate a serving into a slice. To take that a step further, we recently made this recipe and modified it to fit mini pies, one of which is pictured above.

As a #FoodieScore Pro Tip in that direction, just make the recipe with the quantities listed in the original, but use small pie tins instead of a full-size pie plate and divide your crust, filling and topping mixtures.

Any way you make it, this Banana Pudding Pie is delicious!

 

Banana Pudding Pie

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups crushed vanilla wafer cookies

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling

3 medium bananas, thinly sliced

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups milk

4 large egg yolks

4 tablespoons butter, cubed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping

Whipped cream

While vanilla wafer cookies

Crushed vanilla wafers for sprinkling

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together crushed vanilla wafer cookies, butter and salt. Press mixture into pie plate or mini pie tins to cover bottom and up sides. Bake until light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool.

2. Place sliced bananas on top of cooled crust(s). Set aside.

3. In a medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, cornstarch and salt. Whisk in milk and egg yolks until combined. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla.

4. Spoon filling mixture over bananas in crust(s). Let cool 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap directly on surface of filling and refrigerate until firm, about 2 to 3 hours.

5. Spread whipped cream atop filling and garnish with whole cookies around edges and crumbs on top.

Nutritious & Flavorful Two-Ingredient Pancakes

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These are the most flavorful pancakes I’ve ever eaten. That includes homemade and restaurant varieties…and I’ve enjoyed more than my share of “flapjacks.”

I’ve been seeing a lot of recipes for simple, flourless pancakes lately. We’re not really the most healthy-recipe conscious household, but I was intrigued by this two-ingredient option.

It’s so simple that there’s not really a recipe. You mash up a banana, and you whisk it well into two eggs. Then you pour it into a skillet and resume the normal pancake-making process.

That’s it.

No flours or oils or other ingredients. Simple pancakes. (Though I will say that I started with a small banana and found I needed an additional small banana to get the right “batter” consistency, so watch for that.)

You might say, “Are these going to taste too much like bananas?” That was my concern, too, but I found they were not overly banana at all. Just enough, and just the right moist texture.

I was also worried this would turn out like some kind of horrible banana scrambled egg, omelet or frittata dish. Not in the least. Wowed by the results, I topped a short stack with a few blueberries and a little syrup, and I had a delicious breakfast. For people on the go, I could see topping a pancake with a little peanut butter, rolling it up and taking care of breakfast on a busy morning.

A lot of recipes sell “simple” and “healthy,” and many don’t deliver. This one does. For their simplicity, their nutrition and their delightful flavor and texture, I highly recommend trying banana pancakes.

10-Minute Super-Sweet Bananas Foster Dessert

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Banana Pudding is a legendary dessert favorite in the South. But it’s not the only sweet way to serve up bananas. In fact, there’s an even better way to plate bananas for dessert, especially for those of you who aren’t big fans of fruit in your sweet dishes.

Bananas Foster truly takes about 10 minutes to make, and it offers you flexibility to make it your own way. Alcohol, for example, is a big part of Bananas Foster for many, but it was an unnecessary ingredient for our house.

Whether you add rum to yours or not, Bananas Foster, like other caramelized fruit dishes, provides a glimpse into the science of cooking. As you heat your sauce in the pan, you truly see the sugars coming out as the ingredients mix.

Here are the ingredients you will need to make your Bananas Foster for four people:

2 under-ripe bananas

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon or cinnamon sugar

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

pinch of salt

four scoops of vanilla ice cream

Directions

  1. Slice your bananas into thin pieces.
  2. Heat your burner on medium heat. In a pan on the heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Stir to mix your ingredients and thoroughly combine all of them. Turn your heat up to high and continue to stir. You will see the sugary mixture almost pulsing in the pan.
  3. When you mix your ingredients well, add your sliced bananas to the pan, and thoroughly coat the bananas in the sauce. Don’t stop stirring to make sure that your mixture does not have time to solidify, stick or burn in the pan.
  4. Scoop vanilla ice cream into four separate bowls. Use a spatula or spoon to scoop your bananas and sauce onto your ice cream. Serve quickly before the ice cream melts.

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Molly’s Take: I’m not a huge fruit dessert person, but this simple recipe blew me away. The sweet, caramel-coated bananas literally melted in my mouth and the vanilla bean ice cream proved a creamy, delightful companion to the occasional caramel crunch. I loved this and I’m the person who usually picks the bananas out of her banana pudding. It’s quite easy, quite simple and definitely something you can – and should – try. For me, a caramel or vanilla or simple sugar dessert is always my favorite. Add this to the list of favorites for the Tessnear household.

Matthew’s Take: If you’ve been reading the blog faithfully, you’ll know that I enjoy caramelizing fruit. This is a different way to do it because it includes more than the natural and juicy sugars in a peach or blueberry. You don’t get juices in a banana, so you make your own sweet sauce to complement the banana flavor. You get a very sweet banana dessert that outdistances banana pudding in decadence. You also get the best of both worlds: You feel like you’re eating healthy because you’re eating fruit, but you also feel like you’re getting something incredibly rich because of the sugary coating that tops your ice cream. This take on Bananas Foster gets an A+ for taste, an A+ for ease and an A for cost. If you already keep the pantry ingredients in your home, then all you need to do is pick up bananas and ice cream at the grocery store.