Vermonters are so confused about banana pudding, bless their hearts. They think it is a banana-flavored pudding. Banana pudding is actually a vanilla pudding layered with vanilla wafers and sliced bananas. You must dig down through all the layers and spoon out a whole section like a lasagna to get the full effect. It is a very traditional southern dessert made from sugar, milk, flour, eggs, and bananas that was somehow altered into a weird concoction made from boxes of pudding, cool whip, canned milk, and boxes of 'nilla wafers.

My mother was known for her incredible banana pudding that graced many potluck, picnic, and dinner tables. This is her recipe, and like many of her recipes it is from Bell's Best 2, which is a cookbook that was put together by the Mississippi Chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of America in the 1980s. I cannot even begin to guess what the connection is between telephone pioneers and recipes, but the two volumes of this cookbook are a nice foundation for home cooking in Mississippi.

It is true that you can make banana pudding from the boxed Vanilla Wafers, but I don't know why you would. This recipe is simple and with minimal ingredients and the result is exponentially better than the boxed ones. This recipe is hand-written on a slip of paper that stays in my Mama's cookbook. I don't know who to credit with it because I don't recognize the handwriting.

We're Going to Call This: “Kelee's Mama's Banana Pudding”

Homemade Vanilla Wafers

1 cup sugar

½ cup butter, melted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 1/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Mix butter and sugar. Add in egg and vanilla. When well mixed, add the rest of the ingredients. For use in the banana pudding, I like to make mini-wafers. I split a heaping teaspoonful of dough into four tiny cookies that I flattened with my thumb. Bake them for 5 – 8 minutes at 350 on an ungreased baking sheet.

(Now try not to eat all the vanilla wafers while you prepare the banana pudding part. Ah, the banana, nature's original jokester, with it slippery peel, comedic phallicism, and boatload of potassium.)

Banana Pudding

2 cups milk

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

4 medium bananas, sliced or diced as you see fit

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

pat of butter

vanilla wafers

Put two cups of milk on stove and slowly bring to a boil. Beat the eggs with the sugar and flour in a separate bowl. After the milk comes to a boil, add egg mixture to milk. Stir continuously until the pudding gets thick. Take mixture off the heat and add vanilla and pat of butter. Stir pudding until butter melts. Layer banana slices, pudding, and vanilla wafers in a big bowl or in individual-sized bowls. Refrigerate until cool and ready to serve.

Kelee Maddox migrated from Mississippi to Vermont in the mid-aughts. She is an extremely talented jewelry maker, clay tosser and crocheter. She resides with her husband, two children, two cats and one very chilly dog in northern Vermont. When Kelee isn't creating in her basement, working, making her family laugh, or reading Jack Kerouac, she prepares amazing southern food in her kitchen. And in her off-time Kelee blogs here about her design ideas with her friend Alison.

(Photos by Kelee Maddox)

Pin It