Banana Pudding

This is my grandma's banana pudding recipe. She used to make this for major family gatherings, like Easter Sunday or a reunion. As you can see from the ingredients list, this is not for anyone counting calories as it uses a frightening amount of heavy whipping cream and an entire can of sweetened condensed milk. When I was newly married, my grandma mailed me the recipe so I could make it whenever I wanted.

Banana Pudding

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 1/2 cups of cold water
small package of instant vanilla pudding (4 serving size)
1 pint heavy whipping cream (this measures 2 cups)
3-4 bananas
vanilla wafers
juice of half a lemon

In a large mixing bowl, combine water, sweetened condensed milk and the vanilla pudding. Mix until well combined. Place pudding mixture in the fridge to chill for five minutes.

Meanwhile, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.


Peel and slice the bananas into uniform slices. Squeeze the lemon juice all over the banana slices.
Take several vanilla wafers and carefully place them along the sides and bottom of a large bowl.
place a layer of sliced bananas over the bottom of the bowl.

Remove the pudding mixture from the fridge, carefully fold in the heavy whipping cream. The mixture should feel light, almost like a mousse. Place about one-third of the pudding mixture over the bananas. Continue layering the vanilla wafers, bananas and pudding until you've made three or four layers. Save enough pudding to make a final layer and sprinkle some crumbled vanilla wafers on top.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours. I like to make this the day before serving or at least 8 - 12 hours in advance. The pudding tastes better when the vanilla wafers have time to soak up the pudding and get soft.

This makes about 8 - 10 servings. It probably keeps 3-4 days but it never lasts that long at my house.