My Homemade Banana Puddin'

I've been making banana pudding for a little while now, and I would make it for my bake sales that we had during the summer time. And nearly almost sold out every time, people really enjoyed it, as well as my family so I thought I'd go ahead and share the written recipe with you! Without further adieu, I present to you(click here to see my video on Youtube)my Homemade Banana Puddin'!

Tools: 1 or 2 square 9x13 foil pans(depending on how many pans you desire to make), Sauce Pot, Whisk, Rubber Spatula, Offset Spatula, Mixing Bowls

Time until consumption: 4-6 hours, or 24 hours

INGREDIENTS

Makes 1-2 9x13 pans of Banana Puddin'

Banana Puddin'

2 cups of whole milk

4 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

1/2 cup of cornstarch or cornflour(don't skip this acts as a thickening agent!)

1/4 teaspoon of salt

4 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1-2 teaspoons of banana extract, or according to taste

2 cups of granulated sugar

1/2 stick of softened butter, room temperature

Half a Family Sized box of Honey Maid Graham Crackers (4 individual packages of graham crackers), crushed

6-8 medium sized bananas, sliced, medium thickness

1. Start by heating your milk and vanilla on your stove in a sauce pot on low heat. You just want to make sure that the milk mixture is heated through, then set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, add in your granulated sugar, egg yolks, banana extract, whole egg, and cornstarch and mix using either a hand mixer or whisk(I used a whisk, but using the hand mixer is fine. :D) and whip the mixture until it turns a pale yellow color and is thick.

3. Take your heated milk and add it to your milk mixture a little at a time. With each addition make sure that you mix it quickly so that your eggs wont cook. But as I stated before you milk should just be heated through not scorching hot. After you have done so, pour the mixture back(make sure to scrape every bit from the bottom of the bowl) into your sauce pot and turn the heat to medium and cook, continually whisking for 17-18 minutes until it has thickened. Set a timer, and once it thickens remove it from the heat then add in the softened butter. Whisk in the butter and until it is completely dissolved into the pudding.

4. Lastly, to make sure that our pudding is completely smooth, pass your pudding through a fine sieve pushing the pudding through. If any bit of egg cooked passing it through the sieve will definitely get out those lumps! Cover your pudding with cling film and place in your fridge for a couple hours until it has completely cooled while you prepare everything else!

Whipped Cream

5 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

small pinch of salt

1. For the whipped cream, shake the carton a few times before measuring out(this helps the cream whip faster! Trust me! :D). Pour in the vanilla extract and small pinch of salt.

2. Choose a direction to mix and began mixing with a handheld mixer(if you have a whisk it'll take longer but it's worth it trust me!) Then, little by little start adding the sugar until it is fully incorporated. Whip up the cream until it reaches stiff peaks. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl down to ensure everything is incorporated.

ASSEMBLING THE BANANA PUDDIN'!

1. Start by folding a heaping cup of whipped cream into the cooled pudding. Then begin layering the graham crackers just until it covers the bottom of the pan, then the pudding mixture(just to cover the graham crackers use the offset spatula to help you spread things out!), bananas(just to cover that layer), and lastly whipped cream(Watch my video on YouTube to see exactly how I do it). You can stop here or you can do another layer for a double layer(this is what I do) if you are making two stop here. My family and I like it double layered! :D

2. Once you have layered your banana puddin', for garnish sprinkle some extract graham crackers. :D Then sit it in your fridge for 4-6 hours, but it's even better once it has set overnight or 24 hours. And as it sits it gets thicker and more flavourful, because the flavours have gotten to know one another well!

3. ENJOY!