This Homemade Banana Pudding recipe is a classic Southern dessert made with layers of sliced fresh bananas, an easy homemade custard, Nilla wafers, and topped with a light and fluffy meringue! It’s the perfect way to finish any Southern meal!
This is a recipe that’s been handed down from my grandmother. My whole family loves it and we all grew up on it! Hope you enjoy it!
Grandmother always made hers with a towering meringue on top of the pudding that was light as air and the perfect combination with the rich pudding. She would ask my sister and me to help make her recipe for dessert so many times when we were young girls. It was a request I don’t remember ever tiring of hearing. She would ask one of us to carefully line the glass bowl with the vanilla wafers while the other sliced the bananas. We each had an important job and the pudding just wouldn’t work without both of us completing our tasks with care.
This no-bake banana pudding recipe reminds me of the banana pudding my grandma used to make. It’s sweet, creamy, and thick with abundant vanilla. The pudding itself has no bananas in it, but they’re layered in the pan with Nilla wafers, making the pudding quite universal for non-banana desserts.
Ingredients
4 Bananas
Pudding
3/4 cup sugar
4 Tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 whole egg
3 cups milk
4 egg yolks (save the whites for meringue)
1 tsp. vanilla
Crust
45-50 vanilla wafers
Meringue
4 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400-degrees. Grease 13″ x 9″ casserole dish.
Pudding
Add the sugar, flour, salt, one whole egg, and milk to a saucepan. Mix together well.
Add the four egg yolks and mix well.
Cook over medium-low heat until thickened, stirring frequently. The sauce takes about 10-15 minutes to thicken.
Once the sauce is done cooking, add the vanilla and stir.
The Crust
Line the bottom and sides of a casserole dish with vanilla wafers.
Slice two bananas over the vanilla wafers, just before the pudding is done, so they do not brown.
Pour half of the pudding over the wafers and bananas.
Slice two more bananas over the pudding.
Pour the remainder of the pudding over the bananas.
Meringue
In a large bowl, whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
Add the sugar and mix until blended.
Spread over the pudding mixture and bake for 8-10 minutes or until meringue is golden brown.
Let cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.
Notes
You can eat the banana pudding right out of the oven, but it will not be as thick. It will thicken in the refrigerator.