Nilla Wafer Banana Pudding

Original homemade nilla wafer banana pudding recipe that is easy to pull together and delicious beyond words! Fresh pudding, bananas, and Nilla Wafers warmed up - the best!

For another delicious banana recipe, you should try Banana Bread with Sour Cream or Banana Pecan Muffins. In the mood for another pudding dessert idea? You should try our Butterscotch Pudding.

This is the Nilla wafer banana pudding recipe from scratch on the back of the Nilla wafers box.

I wanted to go old school, and just try what has worked for decades. This recipe does not disappoint.

There's something so soothing and familiar about homemade banana pudding with Nilla wafers. My Mom made this for us growing up and, in college, the cafeteria always had a fresh banana pudding ready for us every Thursday.

It was always perfectly warm with just the right amount of pudding, fresh bananas, and Nilla wafers, waiting to be scooped into your bowl.

Ingredients you will need for this Nilla Wafer Banana Pudding:

1. Granulated Sugar
2. All-purpose flour
3. Salt
4. 3 eggs
5. 2 cups whole milk
6. Vanilla Extract
7. 45 Nilla Wafers
8. 5 Bananas, sliced

The photo above shows the Nilla wafer banana pudding before the final layer of pudding is scooped on top. Then, its time to bake it in the oven. It's so pretty, don't you think?

It looks like a Vanilla wafer banana pudding pie after serving it on a plate or in a bowl. With the meringue atop the layers of bananas, pudding and Nilla wafers. So, so good.

How to Make Nilla Wafer Banana Pudding?

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In top of double boiler mix sugar, flour, and salt.
3. Stir in 3 egg yolks and milk.
4. Stir ingredients over boiling water, until thickened for about 10-12 minutes.
5. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla.
6. Layer pudding, then wafers, then bananas in 1 ½ quart baking dish into three repeating layers, ending with pudding.
7. Make Meringue top: Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form, then slowly add ¼ cup sugar, until stiff, but not dry peaks form.
8. Spoon meringue over top of pudding sealing off edges.
9. Place in the preheated oven, in top half of oven for 15-20 minutes, until slightly browned on top.
10. Cool slightly, then garnish with reserved wafers and banana slices. Serve warm. You can refrigerate for later if you'd like.

Tips:

1. When making the meringue, be sure to slowly beat in the ¼ cup sugar after the soft peaks have formed from the egg whites. Do not mix the egg whites and sugar together at the beginning. (I accidentally did this, and my first meringue turned out gummy).
2. Serve immediately out of the oven. It's so delicious served warm. Also, its best to eat immediately as the banana slices begin to brown fairly quickly. We did save a few servings in the fridge for a full day, and it was still good, just not as amazing as the fresh pudding is right out of the oven.
3. Begin the layering with a small amount of pudding, so that you have extra for the final layer of pudding on top. You will need 4 layers worth of pudding and three layers of wafers and bananas.

I hope you enjoy this classic recipe for banana pudding as much as we did.

Recipe