Old-fashioned Southern Banana Pudding

A vegan twist on a classic Southern dessert casserole with layers of vanilla wafers, vanilla pudding, bananas, and meringue.

Have you ever had a meringue-topped banana pudding? If not, you are in for a real treat. Instead of either whipped cream or cool whip, a time-honored southern banana pudding is topped with meringue. This dessert looks and tastes decadent. Though this recipe does contain some sugar and fat, it is minimal and necessary.

This Old-fashioned Southern Banana Pudding has four traditional parts: the quintessential vanilla wafers, from-scratch homemade vanilla pudding, sliced bananas, and a golden meringue to top it off. See? Nothing fancy. Just scrumptious banana pudding that looks spectacular.

The first tasty component are the infamous vanilla wafers. Have you tried to find vanilla wafers that don’t contain a lot of junk? Yes, I realize it’s a treat and cheating for holidays or birthdays is good for the soul. I love a delicious treat; hence this post. But that does not mean I want to eat any product containing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

And besides, my husband says that HFCS gives him headaches. I’m not sure if that’s the ingredient that causes him his headaches; but I want him to enjoy an indulgence, not dread it…. So, I did the only plausible thing I could do: I made vegan vanilla wafers! You can find the full Vegan Vanilla Wafers recipe post here. For your convenience, I’ve included it in the banana pudding printable recipe card so that you have all of the ingredients and instructions all in one place.

So now you have a tried and true recipe if you can’t find vegan vanilla wafers with out the junk.

Next up is the vanilla pudding. I love all forms of pudding. But I love homemade from-scratch vanilla pudding the most. When I was a kid, my mom cooked a bunch of vanilla pudding in a big pot and tossed in some cooked rice and raisins; and then she put it in one of those huge green Tupperware bowls. I’m probably dating myself. I haven’t seen Tupperware in years.

Anyway, we had this delicious homemade vanilla rice pudding for breakfast on Sunday mornings when she had choir practice. Hey, no judging. It was a great way to get all of her kids fed without any cooking or mess before church. And we ate it up! Literally. It was delicious.

This version tastes just like hers but does not contain any eggs. So, the pudding itself will be a little pale in color since there are obviously no yellow egg yolks in it. If you like, go ahead and use a teeny bit of turmeric (teeny!!) or 1-2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast. I don’t care that my pudding is pale. Nope, not one bit.

I do recommend trying a bit of cake batter flavoring if you have it in your pantry or can find it at your local grocer. I only use half a teaspoon because it elevates the flavor while keeping the essence of the vanilla. If you don’t have it, no problem. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize McCormack’s cake batter flavoring contains red food dye. And since I don’t care for artificial colors, I recently found and ordered this clear cake batter flavoring on Amazon.

When your pudding is cooked, cover your pudding with a lid or plastic wrap to prevent it from forming a “skin” on top. If this occurs, it isn’t a big deal – simply whisk the pudding smooth again. It doesn’t affect the flavor or anything, it just looks lumpy if it starts to set on top. Not pretty, but still very tasty. But you really do want to have a nice smooth velvety pudding like this photo illustrates.

This next part is the easiest and most natural – sliced bananas! And just in case you were wondering, bananas are the key ingredient that makes this banana pudding. You will use six to eight bananas, depending on how big or small your bananas are. It also depends on how thick or thin you slice them, as well as how close together you layer them in your pan.

You’re the boss here. If you want to load it up like I do, you may use 8 bananas. If you slice them thin and not so close together, it may be 6 bananas. In this case, more is definitely better!!

The last component can be a bit tricky if you have never made vegan meringue before. Whipping egg whites is one thing – it can be a little daunting. But whipping up aquafaba, that just brings us to a whole other level of wow. I wrote all about aquafaba on my Lemon Meringue Pie post. You can read about aquafaba here.

Aquafaba is the liquid from cooked garbanzo beans. The stuff works; but it can be a bit tricky. Follow these fool-proof instructions and you should be okay. You can use the aquafaba from a can or soaked and cooked garbanzo beans. I soak and cook mine, as illustrated in the lemon meringue pie post.

The trick is to keep some of the beans in the bean water after you cook them. This helps gelatinize the aquafaba and makes it thicker. I have no idea how it works, I just know that it truly does work. You need one cup of aquafaba for this recipe, but if you get it from a can and you only have 3/4 cup, that should be just fine.

Once you have all the components locked down, you can preheat the oven and start layering your Old-fashioned Southern Banana Pudding. There are two layers of vanilla wafers, two layers of pudding, and two layers of bananas. Then you cover it all up with meringue and bake it until your meringue is a nice golden hue.

At this point, you can practically smell delicious banana pudding calling to you from inside your oven.

I’m pretty sure I hear mine now….

Southern Banana Pudding Ingredients

• 44 vanilla wafers
• Vanilla pudding
• 6-8 Bananas, sliced
• Meringue

Southern Banana Pudding Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Layer vanilla wafers on the bottom of a casserole dish (about 22 wafers).
3. Pour half of the vanilla pudding on top.
4. Lay sliced bananas on top of pudding.
5. Place another layer of wafers on top of the bananas and cover with remaining pudding. 
6. Gently spread meringue on top of the pudding.
7. Bake for 25 minutes, until meringue is golden.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool about one hour.  
9. Serve warm or cool in refrigerator to serve chilled.

Isn’t it fascinating how the edges of the meringue grow so high in the oven? I was so tempted to see if the entire meringue would inflate; but I didn’t want to chance burning it. That would be a terrible shame. So, alas, we will never know. But isn’t that meringue’s color absolutely gorgeous?

Vanilla Pudding Ingredients

• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 4 cups plant milk
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp cake batter flavoring or ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 Tbsp butter

Vanilla Pudding Instructions

10. Combine cornstarch and sugar in a sauce pan.
11. Add in half a cup of milk and stir until smooth and cornstarch is fully absorbed.
12. Add remaining milk.
13. Bring to boil, while stirring occasionally (about 10 minutes).
14. Turn heat to low and continue stirring until it coats the back of the spoon (2-5 more minutes).
15. Remove from heat.  
16. Stir in vanilla, flavoring, and butter.

Meringue Ingredients

• 1 cup aquafaba
• 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp xanthan gum

Meringue Instructions

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
2. In a mixer, combine aquafaba and cream of tartar.
3. Mix on low speed until fully incorporated. 
4. Increase speed to medium (5) for about ten minutes.
5. Add 1 Tbsp of powdered sugar at a time.
6. Continue to mix until fluffy white peaks form (10 minutes).
7. Slowly add in vanilla and xantam gum and mix another 5 minutes or so, until stiff peaks form.

Vanilla Wafer Ingredients

• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1-2 Tbsp plant milk
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• ½ cup cake flour
• 1 ½ Tbsp baking powder

Vanilla Wafer Instructions

8. Preheat oven 300 degrees.
9. In a mixer, cream butter, coconut oil, and sugar.  
10. Add in vanilla and milk and mix until smooth, about a minute.
11. Sift together the flours and baking powder. 
12. Add sifted dry ingredients to the creamed butter-sugar bowl.
13. Mix on low speed until combined.  
14. Increase speed to medium low until the mixture forms a dough.
15. Form into ½ Tbsp balls and place on parchment or baking mat on baking sheet.
16. Bake for 10 minutes.
17. Makes about 5 dozen vanilla wafers.

Notes

• You can use all butter or all coconut oil. I prefer half and half. 
• Please feel free to use commercial vanilla wafers – I can’t find vegan ones that don’t have high fructose corn syrup or other crap in them. So it only seemed logical to make them.