Old Fashion Banana Pudding...Who Doesn't Love It *pic*

[pipoman]

We love homemade puddings as a special treat around once a week. Mrs. pipo tells her friends about not knowing there was any other way to have pudding except from a box when we first got together, now she can't eat box pudding without wishing it was scratch.

Here is everything you will be needing:



Just mix up 4 egg yolks, 2 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 1/2 tablespoons corn starch, 1/2 teaspoon salt in a double boiler and stir it until it gets thick. Once thick add 1 tablespoon butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Layer a pie plate with Nilla wafers then cut up 2 bananas in top of them. Pour 1/2 of the pudding over the bananas. Cut up 2 more bananas on top then pour the rest of the pudding on. Simple!

And this is the finished plate of delicious goodness:

[supernova]

1. Oh my! Positively weak-kneed

over here.

:loveya: banana pudding!

[pipoman]

4. Banana is Mrs. pipo's fav.

I like rice pudding the best and my son is a fan of strawberry bread pudding.

[MagickMuffin]

2. Now you've done it ;=P

I also make my puddings by scratch. It really doesn't take as much time as the box and taste sooooo much better. Then there's the extra benefit of KNOWING what's in your product.

Plus I :loveya: playing alchemist. Measuring all the ingredients together and watching the magick of the ingredients turn into a bubbling mass of creamy puddin' with the additional benefit of getting to eat it.

Yum

However, I skip the double boiler and just cook everything together over very low heat and whisk until it's finished cooking. I usually add my sugar, cornstarch and a little bit of the milk, I whisk the yolks with some milk and add it slowly to the pan.

I've been very successful using this method.

Thanks for giving me the munchies.

[pipoman]

5. I have

skipped the double boiler until I discovered that the Wal-Mart 6 quart stainless mixing bowl fits perfectly into my 10 quart stock pot...the rounded bottom makes it easy. I use a similar method as you describe when I make stove top custard.

I have found there are many things which are easier and just as fast to make from scratch, but the chemists who made the "food in the box" have duped us into thinking we can't make it from scratch...mac and cheese is another great example.

[MagickMuffin]

10. I grew up when the preprocessed food craze started going full steam

Mac & Cheese :puke: Hamburger Helpers same thing. Preprocessed food is BAD for you. But, but, BUT, it sooooooo much faster, and everything I need comes in a box, and all I have to do is add some meat, or eggs, or milk, or, or, or.

I haven't bought a cake mix in probably over 15 years. I guess making things from scratch as a kid and tasting along the way, never could achieve the same results with boxed mixes. I love when I make cookies or cakes and tasting the butter, sugar, and egg combo, before I add my dry ingredients, and of course I always taste some after I add the dry ingredients. Yum-Yum

I grew up having to be the cook in the family since I was about 8, 9, and 10 years of age my mother had me in the kitchen.

I learned how to bake and cook mostly comfort type foods. Not very spicy and rather plain jane in the overall aspect of southern meals. Mom would buy those products I mentioned above, and I would cook it.

I never learned how to make custards until I moved out.

I guess when I'm at the store today I'll have to pick me up some stuff for Banana Puddin' or as we say down in my family "Nanner Puddin'."

[Lugnut]

3. That's beautiful.

I love banana pudding but bananas don't like me.

[pipoman]

6. Thanks, I would have a hard time surviving without bananas..:D

[displacedtexan]

7. A trick I learned in pastry school...

Cornstarch is a formidable enemy in the kitchen. If not
dealt with properly, it can inhibit the sweetness of your
final product and make it lumpy.

We learned that you have to "melt out" cornstarch (press it
with a spatula or the back of a wooden spoon in a mixing bowl with your egg yolks and
a bit of your milk until NO little lumps remain). If you skip this step, you'll likely
get lumps in your pudding. These little lumps also "explode" out of the pot
during the boil, and they can burn you.

Also, before you add the butter at the end, take the pot off the heat and
stir until you can no longer SMELL the starchiness (the cornstarch). This takes a few minutes,
but it's worth it. When you can smell the sweetness (your nose will know),
then add the butter to "silken" the cream, and strain it into a clean bowl.
This gets the chalazae and any cornstarch bits that didn't get melted out.

[supernova]

8. I was taught

to mix cornstarch in with a little bit of water (just a drizzle) to make a liquid to add to your pot.

And yes, you have to cook it to get rid of that raw cornstarch taste.

[displacedtexan]

9. I'm too stupid to use the water slurry method.

I always forget that you have to use cold water to clean
the bowl after you've mixed cornstarch and water; otherwise,
you get this white film coating on the bowl and utensils.

The melting out is tedious, but it works for me.

[pipoman]

12. Great tips

I add my starch by using about 1/2 oz of milk in the measuring cup, I use my finger to mix the starch with the milk then add the rest of the milk to fill the measuring cup. I have never strained my pudding, it usually isn't lumpy. I will pay attention next time to the smell, I have noticed the starchy smell before. Thanks for the expert tips..I would have liked to get some formal training.

[hippywife]

11. That looks fabulous!

I bet it tastes incredible, too. :9

I've made chocolate pudding from scratch before because the DH is a chocoholic. He eats a banana every morning with his breakfast so I don't know if he'd go for the pudding. I'll have to see coz I know I would!

[pipoman]

13. The silky-smoothness of the pudding

is just...well...almost to die for...its just like butta' :D