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Banana pudding

In the absence of Blue Bell…Banana Pudding ice cream!

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I LOVE Banana pudding. If you gave me the choice between plain old banana pudding and oh, I don’t know, double chocolate whiskey bread pudding with caramel sauce, I’d choose the banana pudding every. d*mn. time. Even if it was just the cold jello-pudding version and not the warm homemade baked custard kind that my mama and grandmother always made… if it’s on a menu (or the buffet), I’m going to eat it…  Which is why it’s ALSO one of my mostest favoritest flavors of bluebell ice cream.
Which is ALSO why I’ve been more than a little heart broken that I haven’t been able to lay my hands on Blue Bell since April.  So, I figured I needed to attempt my own batch of Banana Pudding ice cream just to, you know… tide me over.

Well y’all. This stuff is dynamite. heavenly. as good as the Blue Bell kind (if not a teeny bit better…but probably only because I made it with my own two hands and eggs from friends). If you find yourself in the same fix I’m in without Blue Bell..or you just want to knock the sock off of a guy or gal with an amazing homemade dessert, this is your recipe. for serious. Also, it’s basically homemade banana pudding (the boiled custard kind) thrown into an ice cream freezer. What could be better than that?

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Warm Homemade Banana Pudding (light!)

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Warm Homemade Banana Pudding
Weight Watcher’s Points: 5 per serving
One batch: 8 servings

Warm banana pudding… truly, there’s no dessert so sweet, and creamy, and velvety. some people think that homemade banana pudding should be cold, and made with vanilla or banana flavored jello pudding…but once you’ve tasted this, you’ll never go back. It’s not that I won’t eat the cold, jello-based, slightly crunchy kind from buffets or pot lucks, (i mean, it’s BANANA PUDDING. I’ll eat any kind any where…) but the jello version just isn’t as silky, comforting, and refined as the warm homemade kind that my grandmother used to make.

In fact, she taught me that real banana pudding involves bananas, actual nabisco ‘nilla wafers, and baked custard. Not everyone is aware of just how amazing this custardy-kind truly is (which means more for me!)

To celebrate losing 7 pounds, I decided that I could splurge a little with my favorite dessert, BUT I didn’t want to entirely blow it out points-wise, so I made a few substitutions for a heavy-on-taste but lighter- on-fat-and-calories version and took it on over to our friends Ashley and Will. You can ask them if they could tell it was “light” and whether they ate more right out of the serving bowl… (our secret) 😉

What you need:
4 ripe bananas
1 box of reduced fat nabisco ‘nilla wafers (or the regular kind, but that adds more points)
2 cups skim milk (or whole milk..whatever floats your boat)
6 egg whites (tradionally 3 whole eggs)
1 tsp vanilla (oops. i forgot this, but it turned out just fine)
1/6 cup stevia + 1/6 cup sugar (or you can use 1/3 cup sugar if you aren’t worried about calories)
1/8 teaspoon salt

What to do:
getting started is easy-peasy. preheat your oven to 315 (unless you’re using only sugar. then preheat it to 325) thinly slice a banana and layer it with your ‘nilla wafers.

 

in this bowl it took me about 18-20 wafers and banana slices per layer, but i’m not a stickler for perfect layers, so that’s up to you.
once  you’ve got the bananas and wafers taken care of, tackle the custard. separate your eggs, then combine your sugars/stevia mixture, salt, and egg whites into a bowl and whisk together vigorously (you want them frothy)

take the milk and pour it into a small saucepan on low heat. warm it until it steams (under no circumstances should you let it boil..seriously, you’ll get up with chunky milk. so. gross.) then pour it slowly stirring it into the egg mixture.

 

pour the mixture over the wafers and bananas and bake, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes. let it cool for 20 minutes then cover it until you’re ready to serve it!

 

this stuff is bananas. 😉