My brother, Todd, always loves anything with banana in it. Of course, his wife doesn’t really cook, so I wanted to make something that HE could make and that was healthy so that he, his wife and kids could eat it without guilt. They live in the south, so they’re hard pressed to find anything that’s not fried or made with white stuff-sugar, white bread, whatever.
Bananas are great for keeping sodium levels in the body in check, as they’re high in potassium and fiber. The ginger cookies are my choice instead of vanilla wafers. I’m not a huge fan of anything vanilla and the ginger gives a nice zing to the dish. I actually don’t have a huge story for this recipe. I wanted something I could bring to my next dinner party and the bananas made me think of Todd-so there you have it. Have fun with this. If you’re not a fan of ginger, try chocolate wafers instead. Just make sure there’s no hydrogenated oil in them.
Banana Pudding
Ingredients
- 6 ripe, unpeeled bananas-about 2 pounds
- 2 cups 1% reduced fat milk
- 10 packets of Stevia
- 2 tbsps cornstarch
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 egg whites
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 oz frozen fat-free whipped topping
- 50 ginger-flavored animal crackers, crushed-I used Trader Joe’s brand
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place bananas on a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil.
- Bake for 25 minutes. Take out 3 bananas and let them cool. Peel them and lightly mash so there are still pieces.
- Bake the other 3 bananas another 20 minutes. Let cool, peel and mash or whisk until smooth
- Combine milk and 5 packets of Stevia in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer.
- Meanwhile, combing rest of Stevia with cornstarch, salt and egg/egg whites in a large bowl. Whisk until mixed well. Then, slowly pour into hot milk mixture, stirring constantly.
- Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly, about 4 minutes. Keep stirring.
- Remove from heat.
- Add mashed bananas, butter and vanilla. Stir until butter melts.
- Place pot into a large bowl filled with ice cubes. Cool until mixture is room temperature.
- Fold 4 oz of whipped topping into pudding.
- In the bottom of an 11 x 7 Pyrex baking dish, spread 1/2 of the custard mix on bottom. Add ½ the crushed animal crackers.
- Spread lightly mashed banana on top of that.
- Repeat with rest of custard, then the rest of the ginger cookies and rest of lightly mashed banana. Spread last 4 oz of whipped topping on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Chill for at least an hour.
That looks totally divine!
It really is. I’m even thinking about adding a touch of crystallized ginger to make it even MORE ginger-y!
I love ginger on anything! Good call.