I hope everyone’s having a marvelous weekend. I’m at my volunteer yoga studio gig trying to speed up time till I get in the car and am headed for Sin City. I haven’t been to Vegas in maybe 9 months or something like that but that city sparks something in me that can only be felt not said. More than anything the amount of culinary genius set in such a small strip of land of course delights my chef mind. I’ll probably sneak away to a fancy dinner on my own. My co partners in crime aren’t the foodie type.  But here i’d like to leave you with a sweet treat and the promise of so many culinary adventures upon my return. I have some really amazing content that I’ve just been so busy with visitors and my niece to be able to write about but I will soon. So here it is.

Banana Vanilla Creme Wafer Pie

I don’t like Banana, a taste so inherited from my dad who doesn’t like banana either. So why would I make this pie? Well I make it because my family adores it. My grandmother used to make this banana pudding from which this pie was so imagined. Its part of my family pudding pies such as the pistachio pie it wrote about here. This pie is a couple of simple ingredients and a lot of beautiful wow factor for a quick sweet treat to an elegant dinner party I’m pretty sure you can get away with this pie. I love pudding pies just for that reason. Simple and ready to go. Layers of waffer cookies, fresh slices of bananas, and vanilla pudding as well as whipped cream line a simple graham cracker crust thats sure to please the pallet of any banana lover. I hope you will enjoy this.

1 graham cracker crust either prepared or store bought
1 large box of vanilla pudding either instant or cook and serve (I think instant is much easier then you don’t have to wait for the pudding to cool and you don’t run the risk of getting a lot of lumps)
2 3/4 cups of milk
5-6 ripe bananas
about 1 cup of heavy cream
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
1 box of vanilla wafers

Prepare pudding by mixing 2 3/4 cups of milk with pudding mix if using cook and serve like pictured here whisk over medium heat continuously till the pudding comes to a boil take off of flame and mix for two minutes then transfer into a bowl whisk to get excess heat out of the pudding then line with plastic and place in the fridge for about 1 or 2 hours till cool

Cook n Serve kind

If using instant pudding just mix the milk in until its completely incorporated and chill

Mean while Add heavy cream and powdered sugar using a hand blender or a mixer till the cream becomes whipped and stiff about 6-7 minutes depending. Make sure your cream has not been sitting out or it will not mix up also that there is no water in the bowl your mixed your creme in as this too will fail your creamy whipped topping

After the pudding has chilled  place 1/4 of the pudding in to the whipped cream you just made fold in with a spatula and set in the fridge

with the other 3/4 of the pudding place about 1 1/2 bananas sliced into the pudding and mix in preserving the banana by mashing only gently. There will still be large chunks of banana in the pudding mixture

Line the bottom of the graham cracker curst with sliced bananas all the way around

then line with vanilla wafers up the side along the crust

add 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the top and smooth out

Repeat this process using bananas in a flat layer and then the cookies in a flat layer then cover with the rest of the pudding mixture

Smooth out the pudding over the top of the pie

Finally remove the whipped cream from the fridge place the whipped cream and pudding on the pie to form a mound and smooth over. If your whipped cream looks too runny you will risk a big runny mess of a pie so make sure its whipped enough to stay in place.

Lastly gently press cookies and bananas on final top layer alternating and you’ve got your pie refrigerate for and hour and serve

You can also make little individual pies as well.

I hope you love this pie as much as my family does. This pie is best eaten quickly so the cookies don’t get too soggy.

Cheers- Kimberly