Almost Southern Banana Pudding

While we were living in North Carolina, Ann, a dear, sweet friend of mine showed up at my front door with a beautiful silver and glass serving dish filled with old fashioned Southern Banana Pudding. My taste buds had never tasted anything so delishious! We finished the desert and when I gave back her serving dish I complimented the desert and asked for the recipe. A few days later Ann gave me the recipe. It had been her mothers, I'm guessing from about the 1950's.

Two years went by and while looking through my recipes for a desert to make for my parents visit I came across Ann's mothers recipe. I was a bit intimidated by the recipe as it made the filling, a custard, from scratch. So I waited for my mom to come and help me make it. It turned out wonderful!!

My family wanted me to make it again, but without mom here to help I decided that I would modify the recipe and make it a little easier.

If you want to treat your family to a fantastic desert that they'll think you spent a lot of time on here's the recipe. shhhh, you don't have to tell them how easy it really was to make!

Start with:

1 Box Nilla Waffers any brand will work

1 small box of Vanilla instant pudding

1 small box of Banana instant pudding (Jello brand makes this, but my store was out)

3 cups of cold milk

3 ripe bananas

Empty both packages of pudding mix into mixing bowl

Add 3 cups of cold milk

Wisk together 2 minutes until pudding thickens

Set aside, pudding will continue to thicken
Put 12 Nilla Waffer cookies into a sandwich bag and crush

Place crushed cookies into the bottom of a deep serving bowl

Stand up cookies to create a cookie border
Chop first banana into slices
Layer on top of crushed cookies
Spoon half of the pudding mixture onto bananas
Top with a layer of cookies
Slice 2nd banana and create a banana layer
Spoon the rest of the pudding over bananas
Top with another cookie layer and

Stand up cookies and create a cookie border
Slice 3rd banana and layer over cookies ~ Set bowl aside
Topping:

We are going to make a meringue topping

You will need:

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Separate the eggs whites from the yokes. Be careful not to get any yoke in the whites or meringue will not turn out.
Using a mixer on High Speed, mix egg whites until they become full and frothy.
Add a little bit of sugar and continue mixing.
Add a little more, until the stiff peaks can be formed.
Top your desert and create meringue peaks
Place into a 350 degree preheated oven for 4 - 7 minutes until peaks brown.

Serve now if you like crunchy cookies, or if your kids can't wait.

Chill and serve in a few hours or next day if you like soft cookies.

Enjoy!

Guess who couldn't wait!