Magnolia Bakery Just Launched 3 Cookies Inspired by the Bakeshop’s Famous Banana Pudding — So, of Course, I Had to Try Them

New York City’s Magnolia Bakery created the cupcake craze in the 1990s, but it’s also well-known for its banana pudding cups that have layers of vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, and fresh bananas. I’ve never tried this famous banana pudding (I don’t live in NYC), but my love for banana pudding and banana cream pie runs very, very deep. I love the silky-rich texture of pudding, buttery crust or wafer cookies, and sweet bananas coming together into one creamy, comforting dessert. When Magnolia Bakery announced they were now selling banana pudding cookies that could be shipped directly to me in California, I immediately got my hands on some to see if they were as delicious as they sounded.

Inspired by those famous banana pudding cups, the banana pudding cookies contain butter, bananas, and crunchy vanilla wafers. They come packed in cheerful light green boxes that each hold four individually wrapped large (2-ounce) cookies. The cookies come in three different flavors.

1. Classic Vanilla with White Chocolate Chips
2. Chocolate Chunk 
3. Confetti with White Chocolate Chips (not available individually online, yet)

I recruited my 10-year-old daughter in my cookie tasting because she is a lover of all things sweet, and there was no way she would let me leave her out of trying these cookies. When I first took the cookies out of the packages, I was a bit surprised how they were all shaped differently, looking very home-baked and not as perfect as the photos on the packaging. (Here’s Kitchn’s banana pudding cookies recipe, if you want to try your hand at them yourself.) All the cookies were very soft and you could see visible chunks of the white chocolate chips, sprinkles, or chocolate chunks.

I tasted the classic vanilla first: It had a pleasant fresh banana smell and was very soft and moist, with a great banana flavor. I’m normally not a fan of white chocolate chips, but these actually worked in the cookie here to give it an extra boost of sweet vanilla flavor. Although the cookies claim to have crunchy vanilla wafers, there was definitely no crunch left. The wafers melded into the cookie and were soft, but I honestly didn’t mind that — the wafers softened up in the same way they would in a regular banana pudding.

Next I moved onto the chocolate chunk and confetti, but didn’t love those as much as the classic. The chocolate chunks overpowered the banana flavor, and the sprinkles in the confetti cookie added a crunch that I wasn’t a fan of. They were by no means bad cookies, but the classic vanilla really hit the right flavors I love in a banana pudding and let the bananas shine. My daughter’s favorite was the chocolate chunk, with the classic being a close runner-up.

In a world where chocolate chip cookies usually dominate, these banana pudding cookies were a welcome delight for those who don’t like or want a break from chocolate. While the individual packaging seems a bit wasteful, this does make them convenient to pack in a lunch box or have as an on-the-go snack or sweet. Although I still want to try Magnolia Bakery’s banana pudding cup one day (or perhaps join the Pudding of the Month Club), I’ll happily settle for one of the classic banana pudding cookies in the meantime.

Buy: Magnolia Bakery Classic Vanilla Banana Pudding Cookies with White Chocolate Chips, $27.99 for 3 boxes (4 cookies per box) at Amazon

Have you tried Magnolia Bakery’s new banana pudding cookies? Tell us about it in the comments.