Banana Pudding Recipe

The Neelys are one of my favorite cooking couples. If you watch the Food Network then you know why. Their cook book Down Home with the Neelys: A Southern Family Cookbook is a must have for your kitchen. It's filled with a variety of meals that not only a southern belle like myself enjoy cooking, but no matter where you are, you'll want to try.

Here's one of the recipes they shared with the Wendy Williams audience:

Momma Daisy’s Banana Pudding

Ingredients:
2 12-ounce cans evaporated milk
2 1/2-cups granulated sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
5 large, ripe bananas, sliced
One 14-ounce box vanilla wafers

Directions:
Combine the evaporated milk, sugar, flour, and salt in a 3- quart saucepan. Heat over medium- low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes.

Lightly beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Add a ladleful of the milk mixture to the eggs, and whisk together to temper the eggs. Place the tempered egg mixture in the saucepan, and continue to whisk and cook until incorporated, 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, and stir in the butter and the vanilla. Transfer the pudding to a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap (laying the wrap directly on surface of pudding so a skin doesn’t form); cool in the refrigerator for 2-hours.

Place 11/2 cups of vanilla wafers in a Ziploc plastic bag, seal, and use a rolling pin to crumble them into coarse pieces. Place layers of sliced bananas in the bottom of a large glass trifle dish. Top with a layer of vanilla wafers and half of the vanilla pudding; repeat with another layer of bananas, wafers, and the remaining pudding, then top with whipped cream and garnish with the crumbled wafers.

Serves 6 to 8

Whip Cream Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Beat the cream in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until it becomes frothy. Add the sugar and vanilla; continue beating until the cream holds soft peaks. Do not over beat. Refrigerate the cream, covered with plastic wrap, for no more than 1 hr of not using immediately.

Try out the recipe and come back and let me know how it turned out.