Friday, July 10, 2015

Chocolate Banana Pudding

It's no secret that my family and I are huge fans of banana pudding.  I remember my grandmother making it during my childhood years (from scratch -- no box mixes here!), and then when I reached adulthood, I took over making it for family occasions and holidays.  I've already shared with you my grandma's original banana pudding recipe (man, I need to update those pictures!), but for today, I decided to twist it up a little bit!

Mr. L's favorite dessert is chocolate.  He loves chocolate anything.  His birthday cakes are always double chocolate -- chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  Needless to say, he is slightly obsessed!  So when I suggested to him the idea of a chocolate banana pudding, the "yes"es would not stop falling out of his mouth!

I kept the homemade part of my grandma's recipe and made the chocolate pudding from scratch.  I replaced the Nilla wafers with chocolate graham crackers and, of course, kept the bananas just like the original recipe.  And instead of meringue on top (since I didn't use egg yolks in the pudding mixture), I went with Cool Whip, an old standby.

It was cool, creamy, sweet, and delicious!  The chocolate punched up the banana flavor and was a great complement.  This recipe would be great for a party, a weekend, or just a yummy dessert after dinner.  Just make sure you have a crowd to feed it to.  Thankfully I can send ours to Mr. L's work and get it out of the house before I eat it all ;)  Give this recipe a try immediately -- you won't regret it!



Ingredients [6-8 servings]
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 3 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 1/4 cup milk
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 8oz tub Cool Whip
  • 4 to 6 medium bananas, sliced into 1-inch pieces
  • Half a box of chocolate graham crackers (or chocolate wafers if you can find them!)

Directions

In a medium-sized pot, combine the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt.  Gradually drizzle in the milk while stirring constantly until full incorporated.


Cook mixture over medium heat until it reaches, making sure to stir constantly as to not scald the milk.  Boil for one minute while still stirring.  Then remove from the heat and stir in butter and vanilla.


Press plastic wrap on top of pudding to prevent a skin from forming; set aside.


In a glass bowl, break apart graham cracker pieces and layer on the bottom of the bowl.  Add a layer of banana pieces on top and then pour half of the pudding mixture over the bananas.  Then add another layer of graham cracker pieces, then banana pieces, and finally the rest of the pudding.  Spread the Cool Whip on top of everything.


Chill for about two hours.  Then serve and enjoy!


Are you a chocolate lover like Mr. L?


Follow

No comments:

Post a Comment