I had been itching to make this dessert since a couple of months...well finally got around making it over the weekend...I had it for the first time as a part of my HR management class diversity project. For the project, we had to pick chits which had names of our classmates and then the classmate would tell us to buy/ make a food item belonging to his/ her ethnic background...Our professor too took part in this project, and she made this for the entire class....From there I learnt that this pie is of african origin.....then next time my roomie made it coz we both loved this dessert...well so now finally I gave a shot at making it, and it was worth a try...this ones for u roomie :)
There are two versions of this recipe, Bake and No Bake...i liked the idea of no bake recipe, so I made that one (i didn't want the dish to have cooked bananas)....the method of making both of them is the same, the only difference is, in the baked version you make a meringue from egg whites and cover the pudding with the meringue and bake it..... in No Bake you top it off with whipped cream...
you can try the either one..and the recipe for meringue is here as well :)
If you wish to have a short cut for this recipe, you can just use vanilla pudding mix available in stores, and if you are in India you can use vanilla flavoured custard powder...
But if you wish to make it from scratch, you can make the pudding just as easily at home too :)
I referred this recipe from Leite's Culinaria
I did make some small changes to it, so this is how I made it...
Ingredients: (for 12- 15 people)
- 6 egg yolks
- 3/4+1/2 cup sugar
- 7 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 cup creamer*
- 5 cups milk 1 %
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 bananas
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 3/4 packet nilla wafers
- 2 cups whipped cream (Coolwhip)
Method:
- Basically, you need to make the pudding, and then arrange pudding, nilla wafers and bananas in layers in a glass bowl.
- Take egg yolks in a saucepan and keep it over flame using double boiler method, add sugar, and cornstarch to it and mix them well.
- once you feel that the mix is smooth, add creamer and milk...add salt, cook it over medium flame till it comes to boil...let it boil for 10 min or till it thickens..stir constantly during this entire time, so that the pudding doesnt stick to bottom or sides and begins to burn...also by stirring you ensure that pudding is nice and smooth and not clumpy..
- once you feel it has thickened, turn off the flame and let it cool...add vanilla and butter and mix it well....cool it by placing in cold water tub...
- slice bananas in 1/2" thickness, add lemon juice and toss it so that lemon juice covers the bananas.
- once the pudding has come to room temperature, make the layers...put two cups pudding at bottom arrange a layer of nilla wafers (whole or crushed), place bananas over the wafers....pour rest of pudding over it, arrange wafers and bananas, then cover it with cream and decorate some more with wafers and banana...
- let it set for couple of hours...ENJOY!!!!
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| step 2 |
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| step 1 |
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| final result :) |
Notes:
I added coffee creamer because the original recipe required whole milk....and I used 1% milk...if you are using whole milk, you can just add 6 cups milk..
if you feel the pudding is not getting thickened enough, you can add some more corn starch...do NOT add corn starch powder to the pudding, dissolve it in cold water/ milk and then add the solution, else it will clump..
if you are in India, I think great substitution for nilla wafers would be parle G...you can use Marie as well, its just that it isn't sweet...if u using either of them, break them in smaller pieces...
you may divide the pudding in three 1/3rds and make more layers if you like to have more bananas and nilla wafers in your pudding
if you do not let the pudding cool or if your pudding isnt thick enough, you wont have distinct layers like in Letie's Culinaria pic...I didnt wait for it to cool, and so you can't see the layers...it tasted great, so worries on that front :)
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