In this recipe you will find three made from scratch recipes. Vanilla cookies, Vanilla Pudding and Whip Cream topping.
Grandma Donna's style is completely homemade and from scratch. This is my mother's trifle dish and she made many banana puddings in her day. I inherited her dish and so I must keep up the tradition. I am sharing my recipe for homemade banana pudding to fill a trifle bowl.
This recipe may be halved for a smaller bowl
- We start with vanilla cookies
Homemade Vanilla cookies
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 Tablespoons real butter
1 egg
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 & ½ cups all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 & ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoon milk
Place parchment paper over a air bake cookie sheet. A thin flat cookie sheet tends to burn cookies.
In a mixing bowl mix the powdered sugar, sugar and butter together. It will not cream well because there is not enough butter so just mix it together with a beater. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again. This does not take a lot of mixing. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, honey, milk and mix until incorporated.
Snip off the corner of the bag.
Filling a parchment bag or baggie can be a bit fiddly so I place the bag in a small bowl to help stand the bag and I fold the top back to make an outward cuff.
Place mixture into bag, if you are using a zipper plastic bag cut of a corner of the bottom of the bag. Do not cut a lot off, just a small clip.
Squeeze out small dollops onto the parchment paper.
Dip your fingertip into a small amount of powdered sugar and gently pat down the dollop.
Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 14 to 15 minutes. Remove the cookies from the parchment paper and place on a cooling rack and try not to eat all the cookies so you can use them for the pudding.
Moving on to pudding....
Homemade Vanilla Pudding
½ cup of sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
¾ teaspoon salt
3 cups plus 3 ounces whole milk
5 egg yolks separated from the whites
4 & ½ tablespoons unsalted butter cut into small pieces
3 Teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Place a wire mesh strainer over a medium size saucepan and place the sugar, cornstarch and salt and using a spoon sift the dry ingredients through the strainer into the saucepan. Do NOT place the pan over heat at this time
Take your whisk and slowly whisk in ½ cup of the milk into the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the remaining milk and the egg yolks until smooth. (You can fry or scramble the leftover egg whites to make a ham and egg sandwiches or other things because you will not be using the egg whites in this recipe.)
Now place the pan over heat and constantly whisk the mixture so it does not stick on the bottom or lump. Keep whisking and when it starts to bubble turn down the heat. You may have to lift the pan but keep whisking. The mixture will start to thicken and ripple over the top. Cook a minute more. Total time cooking may have been 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and add the butter and vanilla, stir in well. The mixture will thicken more when it cools down.
Whisking the vanilla and butter into the mixture that has been removed from the heat.
While it is still hot, place a wire mesh strainer over the top of a bowl and pour the mixture through the mesh, this is to strain out any lumps that might have occurred.
There is ice and ice water in the green bowl....
To cool the mixture quickly you can put the pan into a ice bath but you will need to stir off and on to help it cool and to keep the top from forming a skin.
If you let it cool by itself place some plastic wrap or parchment paper over the top so it will not develop a skin. Set aside the pudding for later use.
Lets move on....
Homemade Whip Cream
Fresh real whip cream will fall after a short time so we need to make a whip cream to stay up for the banana pudding.
2 cups heavy cream for whipping
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
In a medium to large bowl, enough room to whip.
With a beater, beat the cream until it forms soft peaks then add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until thick and peaky. But remember, do not over beat this or you will make butter.
"The assembly" you will need 4 good size bananas. DO NOT CUT UP THE BANANAS AHEAD OF TIME or they will turn color.
Place a few crumbled cookies on the bottom then place cookies around the sides of the bowl. If this is a trifle bowl place the pretty of the cookie out. Now cut one of the bananas into small slices and place over the cookies.
Spoon a layer of pudding over that, now some whip cream.
Start another layer, cookies around the side, banana, pudding, whip cream until you get to the top and a full layer of whip cream at the top.
I hope you enjoy this wonderful homemade from scratch banana pudding!
