I Tried 4 Famous Ways of Making Banana Pudding, and the Winner Swept Them All

1.  The Easiest Version: Magnolia Bakery’s Magnolia’s Famous Banana Pudding 

Overall rating: 6/10
Get the recipe: Magnolia’s Famous Banana Pudding

The famous New York–based Magnolia Bakery is beloved for its red velvet cupcakes and banana pudding, which you can order online from their website. I had heard of their banana pudding (as mentioned before, its recipe is very popular online) but never tried it, so I was eager to give this recipe a shot. It’s unlike any banana pudding recipe I’ve ever seen. You start by whisking together (in a stand mixer) a can of sweetened condensed milk with an almost equal amount of ice-cold water. Then you whisk in a package of vanilla instant pudding mix and chill the mixture until firm. At that point, you whip heavy cream to stiff peaks, then gradually incorporate the pudding mixture into the whipped cream. You then layer the pudding mixture, vanilla wafer cookies, and sliced bananas into a few layers in a large bowl. 

This recipe is no doubt easy and requires no cooking — but it simply fell flat. The recipe seemed too sweet, and the vanilla pudding mix gave the whole thing an artificial taste. Most significantly, I missed the differentiation you typically get from saving the whipped component (whipped cream in this case) to top the layers of custard, cookies, and bananas. Basically I missed the custardy pudding part, as each bite was essentially vanilla-flavored whipped cream. 

2.  The Ambitious Cooking Project: Carla Hall’s Banana Pudding with Vanilla Shortbread

Overall rating: 7.5/10
Get the recipe: Banana Pudding with Vanilla Shortbread

Set aside some time if you plan to make this recipe, and make room in your sink for lots of dirty dishes. You’ll start by making vanilla shortbread cookies, a step that you can do well in advance.

As for the custard, first, you’ll whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and egg yolks in a bowl. Next, you’ll blend mashed bananas with milk and half-and-half in a blender. At that point, you’ll heat the blended mixture, mix it with the cornstarch mixture, and cook the combo until you get a thick pastry cream. As that mixture chills, you’ll make a Swiss meringue by whisking egg whites and sugar in a double boiler until it reaches 165°F, then whipping the whites to stiff peaks. You’ll then flavor the meringue with vinegar, vanilla extract, and banana extract. Next, you’ll whip some heavy cream to soft peaks and fold it into the pastry cream along with chopped bananas. Then comes assembly — building layers of cookies and pastry cream in a trifle dish, then topping with the meringue. Finally, you’ll garnish with cookies and banana slices.

As you can probably tell, this recipe is a lot of work. It does turn out stunning, and it’s quite tasty. But I cannot get over the flavor of the banana extract in the meringue. It simply overwhelmed everything else and gave what would have otherwise been a lovely dessert an artificial aftertaste. The cookies are delicious and crisp, the custard is tasty and rich, and the meringue’s texture is dense and swoon-worthy. Although the flavor issue would be simple to adjust (I would either omit the banana extract or decrease the amount from 1/2 teaspoon to maybe 1/8), overall this recipe seems a little too labor-intensive.

3. A Comforting, Old-Fashioned Take: Dolly Parton’s Mother’s Banana Pudding

Overall rating: 8.5/10
Get the recipe: Mother’s Banana Pudding

This recipe feels like a homey, unassuming classic. It begins with a homemade vanilla pudding that you make by combining sugar, flour, milk, egg yolks, and salt in a saucepan and cooking (stirring constantly) until thickened. At that point, you stir in half a stick of butter and a splash of vanilla extract. You allow the pudding to cool slightly, then layer vanilla wafers, sliced bananas, and pudding twice in a baking dish. 

Next, you’ll make a simple French meringue by beating egg whites, sugar, and vanilla to stiff peaks and then spread it atop the banana pudding. You’ll bake the mixture for about 15 minutes to brown and cook the meringue, then chill the finished banana pudding. 

I loved the vanilla custard, which was creamy and extra-rich, thanks to that butter. The vanilla wafers softened nicely after the mixture was chilled so that the dessert had a pleasing, almost homogenous texture; hearty pudding with softened (but not mushy) cookies and soft banana slices. The one issue I had with the dessert was the meringue, which shrunk a bit and seeped syrupy droplets on its surface. I know that this type of meringue is traditional for a lot of folks, but it felt far too airy and foamy for the wonderful dessert below, a textural miscue that was completely incongruous with the rich pudding. A denser Swiss or Italian meringue would have been much better. And if I make this again, that’s what I would use instead.

4. The Most Balanced Recipe with an Emphasis on the Pudding: Rodney Scott’s Banana Pudding

Overall rating: 10/10
Get the recipe: Banana Pudding

As the recipe’s headnote states, Rodney Scott’s time-pressed mother sometimes leaned on instant pudding mix for her banana pudding. So when creating a banana pudding recipe for his barbecue restaurants, he asked for help from his friend Lisa Marie Donovan, famed pastry chef and author.

The recipe starts with a straightforward vanilla pudding made by whisking together sugar, flour, salt, egg yolks, a whole egg, and some cream; you then add hot milk and vanilla to temper this mixture and then cook it until thickened. As that mixture cools to room temperature, you’ll make a chantilly cream by beating together heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until stiff peaks form. Assembly calls for a single layer of purchased vanilla wafers, all of the pudding, the sliced bananas, and the chantilly cream.

What you get when you layer the dessert this way is a thicker pudding zone between one layer of cookies and one layer of bananas — placing more emphasis on the deliciously smooth, rich, creamy custard. While Parton’s pudding is enriched with butter, this one is made richer with cream for a silkier effect. The lightly sweetened chantilly cream is a lovely finishing touch, making the dessert feel more balanced and less cloyingly sweet than some of the other versions. There’s a note at the end of the recipe explaining that this layering strategy is what they use at the restaurant, but you could add another layer of cookies and bananas if you’d like. To me, though, the way it is is perfect, rewarding you with a more pronounced pudding presence in every delicious bite.