Moms' Banana Custard Pudding

Mom’s banana pudding is the proper Southern version, the one made with real custard cooked on the stovetop instead of a box of instant pudding. The recipe scales up to feed a crowd of 20 to 25, which is why it lives in 9×13 baking dishes at every potluck and church supper from Atlanta to Nashville.

The custard technique is straightforward but requires patience. Seven cups of milk warms in a saucepan to 160F, and a quarter of that gets tempered into beaten egg yolks before everything goes back to the pot with a sugar-flour-cornstarch slurry. The blend of flour and cornstarch gives the custard body that holds up under wafers and bananas for hours, instead of weeping like a single-thickener custard would.

The layering matters. Vanilla wafers go down first, sliced bananas on top, then half the cooled custard, and the whole thing repeats. The reserved third of the wafers gets crumbled over the top for visual contrast and a soft cookie crunch.

The wafers soften into something between cookie and cake during the chill, soaking up custard and banana juice, which is why this pudding gets better the longer it sits.

Pro Tips

• Cool the custard fully before layering. Hot custard turns the bananas and wafers to mush.
• Use ripe but firm bananas with no brown spots. Overripe bananas brown the pudding and turn slimy.
• Slice bananas just before assembly. Pre-slicing exposes the flesh and ruins the look.
• Press plastic wrap directly onto the pudding’s top layer during the chill to prevent a skin.

Variations

• Top with meringue made from the leftover egg whites and brown under the broiler.
• Use chocolate wafers instead of vanilla for a chocolate-banana pudding.
• Stir 2 tablespoons bourbon into the cooled custard for an adult version.