Everyone that I know loves the Original Banana Pudding recipe that’s posted on the side of most Nabisco vanilla wafer boxes and that’s the one that I usually make. It is the one that I used in my classroom for our last lab of the year, but with a deterrents thrown our way I was not sure that we could pull it off. With a fire drill and advisement making the class almost too short to have anything but a glass of milk with vanilla wafers and sliced bananas I had to come up with something or just ditch the lab altogether. At the last-minute I decided to try speeding up the custard by using the microwave. It worked perfectly for me —TWICE! Seven minutes is all it took and that really beats standing over a double boiler for about thirty minutes. Which meant that my classes could get their Banana Pudding in the oven in less than an hour and still have time to enjoy it in the classroom.
To get this perfectly straight I did start the custard in a double boiler for about five minutes until all of the ingredients were very well mixed. Then I popped it into the microwave. My glass double boiler made it even easier. No transferring to another bowl. Now to make a very long story short only four out of the eleven groups had great custard. The rest unfortunately were lumpy. That did not deter them from eating the pudding. In fact after layering the custard with cookies and bananas you could not tell in the least that it was lumpy. The moral of the story – if you choose to shorten the cooking time by using the microwave make sure that all the ingredients are completely mixed. As a backup stop the cooking process every two minutes and stir well.
Now back to the new recipe. My students absolutely loved it. They raved that the Banana Pudding Pie was so much better than the original. The custard recipe is almost the same. Maybe a little richer with a few more eggs. I think that the crust makes a huge difference. It is made from almost an entire box of vanilla wafers with the addition of a stick of butter. Yes, that’s correct an entire stick. It is just over the top!
A few side notes to think about when preparing this recipe:
- Really work the crumbs and butter crust up the side of the pie plate. Your crust will be even and you will need the room for the filling.
- While the crust is cooling make the custard. It took mine 40 minutes from start to finish to thicken. The recipe said 10 minutes.
- Let the pie chill for at least 4 hours before cutting it to get really pretty slices.
- After 1 day the wafers around the edge get soggy. ( My students liked them soggy, though)
- It is really difficult getting each slice out. It is easier if some of the butter in the crust melts. I melted it by placing the pie plate on a hot towel that I warmed in the microwave. First dampen a kitchen towel with water and squeezing out excess water. Place in the microwave for a couple of minutes until it is steamy and hot.
Make the crust first with cookie crushed in the food processor and 1 stick of melted butter. Bake.
This is the crust after baking.
Milk, eggs, flour, and sugar in a sauce pan. Cook over medium low temperature for about 40 minutes or until thick. Your cook top may vary wildly from mine and it could take less time to thicken. I started timing as soon as I put the saucepan on the range. Just be sure to watch this carefully as it will scorch in no time.
Pudding should look like this when ready to remove from heat.
After the crust as cooled for 30 minutes place a sliced banana in the bottom.
Add 1/2 of the custard and 1 more sliced banana.
Pour the rest of the custard on top.
Then add the beautiful meringue.
Here is the meringue piled on top.
Swirl the meringue with the back of a spoon.
Baked meringue.
Banana Pudding Pie Southern Living Makes 8 servings
- 1 12-oz box vanilla wafers, divided
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 2 large bananas, sliced
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 cups milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 egg whites
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Set aside 30 wafers for the filling, decoration, and to sprinkle on top.
- Pulse the remaining vanilla wafers in a food processor 8 to 10 times until coarsely crushed.
- Stir crushed vanilla wafers with melted butter.
- Firmly press on bottom, up sides, and on the lip of a 9-inch pie plate.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Remove to a wire rack and cool 30 minutes or until completely cool.
- Whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 2 large eggs, 4 egg yolks, and 2 cups milk in a heavy saucepan.
- Cook over medium low heat, whisking constantly until it reaches the consistency of chilled pudding. Mine took 40 minutes from the time I put it on the heat to thicken. The heat on my range is measured from 10 being the hottest to 0 being the lowest. I used 7.
- Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Use immediately.
- Arrange 1 cut banana on the bottom of crust.
- Spread half of hot filling over bananas.
- Top with 20 of the vanilla wafers.
- Spread remaining hot filling over vanilla wafers. The filling will be about 1/4 inch higher that the top edge of the crust.
- Beat egg whites at high-speed with an electric mixer until foamy.
- Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and sugar dissolves.
- Spread meringue evenly over hot filling, sealing the edges.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10 -12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven.
- Let the pie cool for 1 hour on a wire rack. Coarsely crush remaining 10 vanilla wafers, and sprinkle evenly over the top of pie. Add some wafers around the edge for decoration.
- Chill for 4 hours before cutting. Dip the blade of the knife into cold water or coat with vegetable oil for a neater cut.
The Teacher Cooks 
This is gorgeous and I am bookmarking this to make ASAP!
You’re going to love it!
Love the hot towel trick! And the pie looks fabulous!
Thanks Lucy for everything 🙂
SO SO PRETTY!!!!
I cannot wait to try this! It looks wonderful and I love the tips you shared here. Thanks!
We make a pie very similar to this in my family, except that we add a layer of melted chocolate right on top of the crust. It’s delicious! We call it summer pie.
This looks absolutely fantastic! I was just talking to my mom about Banana Cream Pie, but now I want to make this instead. This just looks like a good decision.
I really like this blog post, it has some great info. Thank you and keep up good work
This looks delicious! I would love if you shared this in my holiday dessert recipes Blog Hop. We’re giving away a prize from Wilton to the blogger with the most “likes”, come check it out! 🙂 http://www.recipelionblog.com/december-blog-hop-holiday-dessert-recipes-giveaway
Sarah @ RecipeLion
you have to stir throughly while your doing the pudding because if not then it will burn.
Be careful about beating your sugar because you have to make sure your peaks before adding your sugar
there are three different methods to separating the egg yolk and the egg whites: do it with the shell, out it in your hand, or use a clean water bottle.
I learned that it is easier to separate the eggs when they are cold
you can slow down the ripening process by putting bananas in the fridge
If you put bananas in the fridge then if will stop the ripening process.
I learned that you can store bananas in the refrigerator and they will turn black but not spoil
You should always watch the custard or it could burn
If you put sugar & eggs on direct heat in a double boiler they will burn.
I learned that when your making banana stacking the bananas and vanilla wafers correctly is important being you put it in the oven.
You should put the knife in cold water or vegetable oil for a neater cut.
Using skim milk will take a longer time to thicken the pudding, as skim milk is more watery.
this would be a great thanksgiving dessert for the family!
You can substitute the meringue with cool whip.
That looks like a really good pie, i like how the cream is brownish-gold!
I learned that you can put bananas in the refrigerator to stop them from ripening.
you can put bananas in the fridge to stop it from ripening further
If cooking the pudding in the microwave, make sure to mix the ingredients well so that the pudding won’t turn out lumpy.
Don’t cut up bananas too soon before putting together this dessert.
Knowing that before cutting the pie into slices, I have to let it chill for at least 4 hours is really helpful.
Let the bananas get brown then put in the fridge.
if you leave the pie in the oven to long the pie’s crust will be burnt
Apparently a few more eggs makes the recipe richer. which is even better!
I learned that you are able to put your bananas if still light in the refrigerator to get them black and still not be rotten
i learned that you should freeze your bananas to stop the ripening process even and they are good even though when you take out the banana the skin looks dark
I learned that you have to cook the banana pudding because of the raw eggs in the ingredients.