Grandmother's recipe
After spending the bulk of last week helping the wife and her 3 siblings empty out and make ready for an estate sale all the contents of their parents home, (50+ years of stuff and a huge basement packed tight), a sweet treat of homemade banana pudding sounded wonderful. I noticed that Mike's recipe was a tad different than the one I always used so I thought I would give it a try. Even though the recipe I have comes from a long line of Southern lineage and was basically the same recipe of both my mother's and father's families, however it only called for 3 eggs.
Mike, your recipe wins hands down. My grandmother's recipe is similar but calls for only 3 eggs and a bit of cornstarch in addition to the AP flour and the same number of wafers. Hers was pretty good but I always thought that it was kinda dry or too stiff or "doughy" after refrigeration. After making your recipe Mike, I see her custard to wafer ratio was just not right! All this time I thought I had the best classic banana pudding recipe, but ..... nope. Thanks so much for posting your version of this time honored favorite recipe! I see it is not just about the flavor but the texture of the entire concoction makes all the difference. Now if I can just learn how to make those curls in the meringue that my dad's mother used to make that looked like breaking waves in a wind storm. She made the most beautiful meringue.
After spending the bulk of last week helping the wife and her 3 siblings empty out and make ready for an estate sale all the contents of their parents home, (50+ years of stuff and a huge basement packed tight), a sweet treat of homemade banana pudding sounded wonderful. I noticed that Mike's recipe was a tad different than the one I always used so I thought I would give it a try. Even though the recipe I have comes from a long line of Southern lineage and was basically the same recipe of both my mother's and father's families, however it only called for 3 eggs.
Mike, your recipe wins hands down. My grandmother's recipe is similar but calls for only 3 eggs and a bit of cornstarch in addition to the AP flour and the same number of wafers. Hers was pretty good but I always thought that it was kinda dry or too stiff or "doughy" after refrigeration. After making your recipe Mike, I see her custard to wafer ratio was just not right! All this time I thought I had the best classic banana pudding recipe, but ..... nope. Thanks so much for posting your version of this time honored favorite recipe! I see it is not just about the flavor but the texture of the entire concoction makes all the difference. Now if I can just learn how to make those curls in the meringue that my dad's mother used to make that looked like breaking waves in a wind storm. She made the most beautiful meringue.
