Southern banana pudding is easy, regal pudding (1971)
Take vanilla pudding, add slices of banana, top with a crown of meringue, and what do you have? It is Southern Banana Pudding, a regal dessert fit for a king and his court.
The knights of your round table ( or square one as the case may be!) will praise the proof of this pudding. Using a package of pudding and pie filling mix plus some fixings you have on hand, it’s easy to prepare. Today, there’s great potential for adventure in dessert dining inside every package. Pudding need not be unglamorous anymore.
Southern banana pudding recipe (1971)
Here is the easy-to-bake banana pudding, made Southern-style with vanilla wafers and a topping of light, fluffy meringue.
Generous servings of banana pudding, a popular dessert especially in Southern states, are easy to provide when you use the larger, family-size packages of pudding and pie filling mix. The content of one package serves six; therefore when used with additional ingredients needed to make a banana pudding, the dessert extends to serve as many as twelve generously — and even more in smaller portions.
Ingredients
1 package (5 oz. size) vanilla or banana cream pudding and pie filling
3 egg yolks, beaten
3-3/4 cups milk
2 dozen vanilla wafers
1 large ripe banana, sliced
3 egg whites
dash of salt
6 tablespoons sugar
Directions
Combine pudding mix, egg yolks, and milk in saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture just comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Cover with wax paper and cool.
Beat cooled pudding with rotary beater until smooth. Arrange layer of vanilla wafers in bottom of a 2-quart baking dish. Cover with a layer of banana slices and pudding. Continue layering wafers, banana and pudding alternately, finishing with the pudding on top.
Beat egg whites with salt until foamy throughout. Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition until blended. Continue beating until meringue will form stiff shiny Beaks. Pile lightly on pudding.
Bake at 425 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes, or until meringue is lightly browned. Serve warm or chilled. Makes 12 servings.
Southern banana pudding recipe (1972)
By Cecily Brownstone, Associated Press Food Editor
All over the South, a well-loved dessert called Banana Pudding has been made for years and years. It’s a layered affair of custard, vanilla wafers and sliced bananas with a topping of meringue. A friend of ours from North Carolina says that in her growing-up years this dessert was standard fare in her home once a week.
Now comes a slightly different version. Mrs. Jessie Tate of Gretna, Virginia, embellishes the classic recipe with gingersnap crumbs, and achieves a luscious and interesting result.
How to serve the pudding? Mrs. S. R. Dull, dean of Southern cookbook writers, says the dessert may be offered hot or cold. But the donor of our recipe disagrees; she makes the custard part ahead, but assembles the dessert shortly before dinnertime and bakes it with the meringue: then she lets the pudding stand at room temperature so it is still warm when served. When tried at our house, the pudding was enjoyed both warm and cold.
MORE: 2 different retro desserts called Banana Boats (1974)
Mrs Jessie Tate’s banana pudding
Ingredients
3/4 cup plus 1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
3 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 vanilla wafers, about 30
5 or 6 ripe bananas
1/2 cup finely crushed ginger snaps
Directions
In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, stir together 3/4 cup sugar, the cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in milk, keeping smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and boils 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
In a small mixing bowl, beat egg yolks slightly; gradually beat in about 1 cup of the cornstarch mixture; gradually stir into hot mixture in pan. Return to low heat and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Cover with wax paper or plastic film and let cool.
In a 1-1/2-quart round glass casserole (7-1/2 by 2-1/2 inches) or similar utensil arrange a layer of vanilla wafers, sliced bananas, half of the gingersnap crumbs and half the pudding. Repeat layers.
Beat egg whites until foamy; add remaining 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition; continue to beat if necessary until stiff straight peaks form. Pile meringue lightly over pudding. Bake in a preheated degree oven until browned — about 15 minutes.
Makes 6 to 8 servings