A classic recipe for banana pudding, with layers of cookies, homemade vanilla bean custard, sliced bananas, and whipped cream. This is a wonderful dessert to make ahead in the morning, then refrigerate until after dinner.
You might also love these recipes for banana cream pie, no churn biscoff banana ice cream, and easy banoffee pie.
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Ingredients
- Custard. For the custard or pudding, I used my recipe for homemade vanilla bean custard, which uses simple ingredients like milk, cream, sugar and egg yolks. You can customize this recipe with more or less corn starch, depending on what you’ll be using the custard for. This homemade custard is so much better than boxed instant pudding mix! For a banana flavored custard, you might like the recipe I use for my banana cream pie, where bananas are steeped in milk to infuse their flavor into the pudding.
- Whipped Cream. All you’ll need is heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar (no cool whip!).
- Bananas. Make sure your bananas are ripe – not too green, and definitely not brown and mushy.
- Cookies. The classic cookie to use for banana pudding is vanilla wafer cookies. You can also use graham crackers, biscoff cookies or golden Oreos, although I’d scrape the filling out of the Oreos first.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Instructions
Vanilla Custard
- In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, corn starch and salt.
- Whisk in the egg yolks until smooth, then gradually whisk in the milk, cream, and vanilla bean paste.
- Cook the custard over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the custard begins to thicken and bubble – this should take about 8-10 minutes. Once it begins to bubble, continue to cook for 1 full minute while whisking.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.
- Lastly, strain the custard to remove any bits of cooked egg. Set a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and press the custard through the strainer.
- Cover the custard, with plastic wrap resting right against the surface of the custard, and refrigerate for one hour, before assembling the pudding.
Assembly
- With an electric mixer (either stand or hand held), whip the cold heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar until fluffy peaks form that hold their shape.
- Get a serving dish that has at least a 6-cup capacity, but 2 quarts would be best.
- Arrange a layer of cookies on the bottom of the dish. Spread half the custard over the cookies. Peel and slice the bananas, and arrange half the banana slices over the custard. Spread half the whipped cream over the bananas.
- Repeat again, with layers of cookies, custard, bananas, and whipped cream.
- Finish by decorating the top with a few crushed cookies.
- Before serving, refrigerate the pudding for at least 4 hours, until the cookies have started to soften.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
I used homemade brown sugar shortbread cookies, which I liked in this pudding, but I do prefer the texture and classic flavor of “nilla” wafers. You can also use graham crackers, biscoff cookies, or even golden Oreos (without the cream filling). If you don’t want whole pieces of cookie in your pudding, you can crush or crumble the cookies first.
Banana pudding is best eaten within 1-2 days, before the bananas start to turn brown.
Yes, to fill a large trifle dish with a 4-quart capacity, you can double this recipe.
Yes, you can get my banana custard recipe in this post for banana cream pie.
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Banana Pudding with Homemade Custard
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Serving Dish (minimum 6-cup capacity)
- Electric Mixer (Stand or Hand-Held)
Ingredients
Vanilla Custard
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp corn starch
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 3 large egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
Whipped Cream
- 1 ¼ cups cold heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
Other
- 3 ripe (not brown) bananas
- 1 package (11 oz) vanilla wafer cookies (see notes)
Instructions
Vanilla Custard
- In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, corn starch and salt.
- Whisk in the egg yolks until smooth, then gradually whisk in the milk, cream, and vanilla bean paste.
- Cook the custard over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the custard begins to thicken and bubble – this should take about 8-10 minutes. Once it begins to bubble, continue to cook for 1 full minute while whisking.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.
- Lastly, strain the custard to remove any bits of cooked egg. Set a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and press the custard through the strainer.
- Cover the custard, with plastic wrap resting right against the surface of the custard, and refrigerate for one hour, before assembling the pudding.
Assembly
- With an electric mixer (either stand or hand held), whip the cold heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar until fluffy peaks form that hold their shape.
- Get a serving dish that has at least a 6-cup capacity, but 2 quarts would be best.
- Arrange a layer of cookies on the bottom of the dish. Spread half the custard over the cookies. Peel and slice the bananas, and arrange half the banana slices over the custard. Spread half the whipped cream over the bananas.
- Repeat again, with layers of cookies, custard, bananas, and whipped cream.
- Finish by decorating the top with a few crushed cookies.
- Before serving, refrigerate the pudding for at least 4 hours, until the cookies have started to soften.
Notes
- I used homemade brown sugar shortbread cookies, which I liked in this pudding, but I do prefer the texture and classic flavor of “nilla” wafers. You can also use graham crackers, biscoff cookies, or even golden Oreos (without the cream filling). If you don’t want whole pieces of cookie in your pudding, you can crush or crumble the cookies first.
- Banana pudding is best eaten within 1-2 days, before the bananas start to turn brown.
- Other optional add-ins to layer into your pudding are toffee bits, salted caramel sauce, or chopped chocolate.
- To fill a large trifle dish with a 4-quart capacity, you can double this recipe.
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