Classic Banana Pudding

Made with a luscious vanilla pastry cream, ripe bananas, and vanilla wafers, this simple banana pudding is the very best version you can make at home.

By
Genevieve Yam
Headshot of Genevieve Yam
Culinary Editor
After graduating from the International Culinary Center, Genevieve cooked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Per Se. Prior to joining Serious Eats, she was an editor at Epicurious. She grew up between Toronto and Hong Kong and is a graduate of the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She currently lives in New York with her husband and two cats.
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Updated October 23, 2024
Side view of banana pudding

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Why It Works

  • Using vanilla pastry cream instead of commonly used boxed pudding mix makes for a silkier, richer filling.
  • Allowing the custard to bubble for a full minute deactivates amylase, a starch-dissolving enzyme in egg yolks, which helps prevent the custard from weeping as it sits.
  • Chilling the pudding for at least eight hours allows the flavors to meld and gives the wafers a chance to fully soften.

The week after I gave birth to my son, my sisters kept my kitchen stocked with an assortment of fun snacks and beverages. While our baby slept, I ate my way through New York City without even leaving my bed, chowing on a whole box of sweet, briny uni sushi, pizza slices from my favorite local joint, Mama’s Too, and many other delicious foods. One day, my youngest sister, Alexis, showed up with Magnolia Bakery’s famous banana pudding. Despite having lived in New York for eight years, I had never eaten it. 

The banana pudding was pretty good, but I was, frankly, underwhelmed. Some of the wafers were still bone-dry, the custard didn’t have the hit of vanilla I wanted, and I knew it had the potential to be better. As I ate the last of it, I made a mental note to develop a more delicious version when I returned to work. After many rounds of testing and tasting, my coworkers and I are confident that the recipe below for banana pudding hits all the right texture and flavor notes, and is the very best version you could make at home.

Overhead view of banana pudding

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

There are as many approaches to the dessert as there are opinions on it. Some swear by instant pudding mix, and some, including Dolly Parton, serve it baked with a meringue topping. Some people even go so far as to make their own wafers. Ultimately, the dessert can be as fussy or easy as you want it to be—but my ideal pudding is one that’s made with a luscious pastry cream that’s strong on the vanilla, tastes of ripe bananas, and has chilled long enough so the wafers soften and the flavors meld. Read on for my full banana pudding recipe and tips.

Tips for Making Stellar Banana Pudding

Use Real Vanilla—and Make Your Own Pastry Cream

Many banana pudding recipes call for instant pudding mix, which is a quick and easy option for those who don’t want to make custard from scratch. There are some downsides, though. Most of what’s available in stores tastes like artificial vanilla and, because the mix comes formulated for ease, it’s difficult to adjust its flavor or texture. While instant pudding mix is convenient, it’s not that much harder to make custard from scratch, which allows you to customize it to your liking. 

At the beginning of my banana pudding saga, I wondered if a filling like crème legere, which is equal parts vanilla pastry cream and whipped cream, would be ideal. After experimenting with different ratios of vanilla pastry cream to whipped cream, I found that the pastry cream on its own was the most flavorful. Steeping the milk used in the pastry cream with real vanilla—in this case a vanilla bean split and scraped or a teaspoon or pure vanilla paste—helps to infuse the pastry cream with subtly floral notes that complement the banana’s sweetness. And as with many desserts, a touch of salt helps to highlight all these flavors.

Side view of scooping pastry cream

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

In addition to having a better flavor, pastry cream is much silkier than pudding. While some pudding mixes can be stodgy, the pastry cream is simultaneously light and just thick enough to be spoonable and sturdy enough to withstand the weight of the bananas. 

A common pitfall of pastry creams and custards is that they start to weep once they’re made. In this recipe, I’ve avoided that disaster by adequately cooking the pastry cream on the stove and allowing it to bubble for a full minute. This deactivates amylase—an enzyme in egg yolks that dissolves starches and can result in watery sauces—and ensures that the custard for your banana pudding remains rich and silky even after it sits for an extended period of time.

Don’t Shy Away From Store-Bought Nilla Wafers

Mention banana pudding, and chances are someone will bring up Nilla Wafers. Today, the cookie has become such an intrinsic part of banana pudding that it’s rare to come across a recipe that calls for something else. A quick look at the history of the dish, though, tells us that sponge cake was once the norm. While using cake is fine and dandy, what I want is banana pudding—not trifle—complete with wafers and all.

Which brings us to the question: Is it worth making your own wafers for banana pudding? Unlike custard, where there’s a tangible difference between store-bought mix and homemade, the difference between homemade and store-bought cookies, especially when they’re stacked between layers of pastry cream and bananas, is negligible. Unless you want a true baking project where you’re making every single component from scratch, store-bought vanilla wafers work just fine.

Keep the Topping Simple

Listen, I tried topping my banana pudding with meringue and baking it, as well as folding a portion of the pastry cream into whipped cream for a topping. These variations just weren’t for me. I much prefer a cold banana pudding with lightly sweetened soft whipped cream. Sometimes simple is best, and in my tests I found that keeping the whipped cream relatively neutral helps to balance the sweetness of the pastry cream and ripe bananas and adds a pleasant lightness. You could top the banana pudding with crushed up wafers for extra crunch, but the dessert really doesn’t need any garnishing.

Side view of scoop of banana pudding

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Chill the Banana Pudding for at Least Eight Hours

For the best banana pudding, I recommend allowing the assembled dessert (minus the whipped cream topping) to chill for at least eight hours. This gives the vanilla wafers adequate time to soften and allows the flavors to meld, resulting in a more cohesive dessert. If you’re feeling impatient and decide to dig in sooner, you may encounter some dry cookies. A handful of wafers with bananas, pastry cream, and whipped cream is tasty enough but it does not make a banana pudding—the dessert is more than the sum of its parts. Let time do the hard work for you and you’ll end up with what my colleagues—including Megan, our associate editorial director, who’s from the South!—say is the best banana pudding they’ve ever had.

Recipe Details

Classic Banana Pudding Recipe

Prep 35 mins
Cook 20 mins
Chilling Time 10 hrs 30 mins
Total 11 hrs 25 mins
Serves 8 to 10
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 4 cups (960ml) whole milk

  • 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

  • 226g granulated sugar (8 ounces; 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)

  • 60g cornstarch (2 ounces; 6 tablespoons)

  • 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, divided; for table salt, use half as much by volume

  • Yolks from 8 large eggs, straight from the fridge (5 ounces; 140g)

  • 56g unsalted butter (about 2 ounces; 2 tablespoons)

  • One 11-ounce box Nilla Wafers or other vanilla wafer cookies

  • 5 medium bananas (about 27 1/2 ounces; 775g), peeled and sliced in 1/2-inch rounds

  • 2 cups (480ml) heavy cream

  • 1 tablespoon (8g) confectioners sugar

Directions

  1. In a 4-quart stainless steel saucepan or pot, combine milk and scraped vanilla bean along with its seeds or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste. Bring to a bare simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat, cover to prevent evaporation, and let steep for 30 minutes.

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  2. In a large bowl, set up an ice bath by partially filling it with a combination of cold water and ice. Set aside.

    20201210-pastry-cream-vicky-wasik-water-bath-1
  3. In a medium heatproof mixing bowl set on top of a dampened towel (this serves as a stable base), stir together sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Whisk in egg yolks until mixture is pale yellow, smooth, and fluffy, about 1 minute.

    20201210-vanilla-pastry-cream-vicky-wasik-7
  4. Uncover infused milk and remove vanilla bean. While whisking continuously, slowly pour milk into egg yolk mixture in a thin stream, until all of it has been added.

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  5. Return mixture to the same pot. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until pastry cream begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Once it thickens, continue to whisk, pausing every few seconds to check for bubbles, about 1 minute. When it begins to bubble, set a timer and continue whisking for 1 minute. (This step is important to neutralize amylase, a starch-dissolving protein found in egg yolks.)

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  6. Off-heat, whisk in butter until melted and thoroughly combined. Strain pastry cream through a fine-mesh sieve set over a heatproof medium bowl. Immediately place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Transfer bowl to prepared ice bath to chill for 30 minutes, then refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours.

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  7. When ready to assemble banana pudding, whisk pastry cream until smooth. Using a flexible or offset spatula, cover bottom of trifle bowl with about 1 cup pastry cream. Top with a layer of Nilla Wafers. Arrange banana slices on top of cookies. Repeat until you have 4 layers; cover top layer with remaining pastry cream. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pastry cream and refrigerate until wafers have softened and the flavors have melded, at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours. (You may have remaining Nilla Wafers; set aside to garnish, if desired.)

    Four image collage of assembling banana pudding

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

  8. When ready to serve, prepare the whipped cream: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip heavy cream, confectioners sugar, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt until soft peaks form. (Alternatively, in a medium bowl, whisk cream by hand or using a hand mixer until soft peaks form.)

    Overhead view of whipped cream

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

  9. Remove plastic wrap from pudding and top with whipped cream. Garnish with crushed Nilla Wafers, if desired. Serve immediately.

    Side view of banana pudding being topped iwht whipped cream

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Special Equipment

4-quart saucepan or pot, whisk, fine-mesh sieve, plastic wrap, flexible or offset spatula, stand mixer

Make-Ahead and Storage

The finished banana pudding can be made up to 1 day in advance. To make the banana pudding ahead of time, follow recipe through to step 8, then top dessert with whipped cream when you’re ready to serve. To store leftovers, loosely cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
635Calories
35gFat
76gCarbs
9gProtein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8 to 10
Amount per serving
Calories635
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 35g44%
Saturated Fat 19g95%
Cholesterol 225mg75%
Sodium 315mg14%
Total Carbohydrate 76g28%
Dietary Fiber 3g9%
Total Sugars 49g
Protein 9g
Vitamin C 7mg35%
Calcium 165mg13%
Iron 1mg4%
Potassium 495mg11%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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