Who's Bringing Banana Pudding?
Summer’s favorite big batch dessert is a breeze
Issue 45: From Dana
“What can I bring?”
If you’re lucky, you find yourself asking this question a lot. Maybe it’s a barbecue or block party you’ve been invited to; a relative’s birthday celebration or a casual dinner with friends. Many hosts will tell you not to bring a thing. I have it covered! I’ve been cooking and baking for days! But others will tell you like it is, and if they say they need you to make a dessert, do everyone a favor (yourself included) and make banana pudding.
I came late to the banana pudding appreciation club, but now I make this classic southern dessert so often, I buy Nilla Wafers in bulk. Growing up in an Italian-American family where most big meals ended with cannoli and cookies from the bakery, I might not ever have crossed paths with banana pudding had I not started dating a guy from a small town in eastern North Carolina who counts it among his favorite foods.
The first time I went to one of his large family gatherings, I was relieved to know that his grandmother’s beloved banana pudding was not, in fact, just pudding flavored with bananas. (Because, really, who wants that?) It’s good old fashioned vanilla pudding layered, trifle-style, with sliced bananas, wafers and either whipped cream or meringue. After sitting in the fridge for a spell, the wafers soften just enough and all the flavors meld together so each bite is rich, creamy and a little cake-like. So simple and so incredibly good.
You can find the “original” recipe, which calls for meringue, on any box of Nilla Wafers: and while I appreciate how the eggs get divided so the yolks can enrich the pudding and the whites can get frothed into an airy meringue, I prefer the creaminess and stability of whipped cream. There’s nothing worse than a wilting meringue at a picnic on a hot summer day.