Banana Pudding

This pick for the Sweet as Pie menu was a little different – instead of making a specific recipe, we were encouraged to try a new recipe or share an old favorite.  With a southern staple like banana pudding, it was sure to be a nice assortment of similar, but slightly different recipes.  I chose a recipe for Baked Banana Pudding from Alton Brown.  I’ve wanted to try it since catching his Good Eats episode on banana puddings.  Banana pudding is one of those things where it is perfectly acceptable to have a strong allegiance to a particular preparation.  In Phillip’s case, he is strongly entrenched in the cold banana pudding camp.  He might not care whether the pudding was once baked or not, but it definitely has to be cold.  I, on the other hand, really like a warm banana pudding.  I also like it cold.  Basically, I really like banana pudding as long as it’s not full of artificial banana flavoring (think bad buffet banana pudding).  This recipe was really good and not at all difficult to make.  Here’s how it came together:

First, I sliced three bananas and sprinkled them with a little lemon juice to keep them from turning brown.

Then, I combined sugar, flour, salt, half-and-half, and egg yolks to make the pudding.  This required a few minutes of constant stirring.  Once the pudding came to temperature and started thickening, I mixed in some vanilla.

I layered the pudding, bananas, and good ol’ ‘nilla wafers in a glass dish.

The egg whites were whisked in my mixer with a pinch of cream of tartar and a little sugar to make the meringue.  Then, it was into the oven to brown.  The finished product:

I was pretty impressed with my meringue and really loved the taste of the pudding.  Phillip was less impressed with his first helping, which made me sad since I’d been excited to finally make him one of his favorite desserts.  But, his problem was just the temperature – he devoured it once it had chilled!  We enjoyed this one for days.  If you’re looking for a good banana pudding recipe, I think this one is a classic.  Any other favorite banana pudding recipes out there?