Banana Pudding

Thank goodness for fellow bloggers and tagged recipes. I'm invited to a bar b que and I'm bringing dessert. It's hot and muggy and I don't feel much like baking or heating up the house. I'm kind of loving the air conditioning right about now. I also don't feel like bringing anything too heavy so no cheesecake. Then the lightbulb went off. I found this recipe at Cookie Baker Lynn and said "hmmm, this looks interesting.

So, not only is it an interesting recipe but it fits with this month's roundup for meringue at Greedy Gourmet



Pudding:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar (I used 1 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups 2% milk (I used a combination of 2% and skim milk)
1 (4 inch) vanilla bean, split lenthwise (seeded)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Meringue

4 large egg-whites
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup)

80 vanilla wafers (about 1 box)
5 cups sliced banana (about 6 bananas)


1. Preheat oven to 325 F.

2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine flour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, and salt in a large saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into milk mixture, and drop in the pod too. Cook over medium heat 12 minutes or until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly.



*Note: The stirring constantly is essential so you don't get burned bits infiltrating your creamy looking custard.

3. Place eggs in a large bowl; gradually add hot milk mixture (very gradually) stirring constantly. Pour mixture in pan; cook over medium heat 2 minutes or until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly. Discard vanilla bean.

4. Place egg whites in a large bowl; beat with a mixer (with whisk attachment) at high speed until egg whites are foamy. Add 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tabalespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form.

5. Arrange 33 vanilla wafers in bottom of a 3 quart round baking dish.


Arrange half of the sliced bananas over wafers.



Pour half of the custard over the bananas.



Repeat with another 33 vanilla wafers (I used less than 33), banana slices and custard. Top with meringue. Arrange remaining vanilla wafers around the edge of the meringue.

6. Bake at 325 F for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve pudding warm or chilled. Cover leftovers with plastic wrap and store refrigerated.

Yield: 16 servings (3/4 cup serving size)

In my family you know you landed a winner when at the end of the night everyone's afraid to take home leftovers because they know it'll be calling them all night.