Recipe: Old Fashioned Banana Pudding

I decided to make this recipe for Thanksgiving. Since M is from Georgia, I always like to incorporate some of his favorites from home to our big event meals. He had mentioned banana pudding a few weeks before, so I added it to the menu. I also made an apple pie, which came out a million times better than the first one I made.

M was my little helper putting it all together. Apparently he loves vanilla wafers because he used the whole box in the pudding, which in my opinion added too much crunch. I also had him help me make the meringue,  and he was just fascinated...he had no idea that eggs did that! I used a disposable casserole pan because I just didn't want to wash another dish, but I would recommend using a glass dish.

It was an easy recipe to follow, and it yields enough for about 8 - 10 servings. Try it and tell me what you think!

Recipe courtesy of www.food.com

Ingredients

•  1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 dash salt
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups sliced ripe bananas
• 45 vanilla wafers
• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 cup sugar

Instructions:

1. Mix flour and salt in a large sauce pan.
2. Add milk and egg yolks to pan slowly, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens, about 7-8 minutes, then remove from heat.
3. Stir in vanilla.
4. Layer enough banana slices to cover the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish.
5. Cover the bananas with 1/3 of the pudding mixture, and layer with 1/3 of the vanilla wafers.
6. Repeat layering, starting with bananas, then using pudding, then vanilla wafers.
7.  Do the layering a third time as usual, except do not cover the pudding with wafers; place the wafers around the edges of the casserole, tucked into the pudding.
8. Beat the egg whites at high speed with a mixer until they foam.
9.  Add the sugar gradually, and keep beating until stiff peaks form.
10. Spread this over the top of the pudding, forming a seal to the edges.
11. Bake pudding at 325F for 25 minutes or until the meringue becomes light golden.
12.  Allow to cool 30 minutes before serving.
13. Refrigerate unused portions.