Warm Homemade Banana Pudding
Weight Watcher's Points: 5 per serving
One batch: 8 servings
Warm banana pudding... truly, there's no dessert so sweet, and creamy, and velvety. some people think that homemade banana pudding should be cold, and made with vanilla or banana flavored jello pudding...but once you've tasted this, you'll never go back. It's not that I won't eat the cold, jello-based, slightly crunchy kind from buffets or pot lucks, (i mean, it's BANANA PUDDING. I'll eat any kind any where...) but the jello version just isn't as silky, comforting, and refined as the warm homemade kind that my grandmother used to make.
In fact, she taught me that real banana pudding involves bananas, actual nabisco 'nilla wafers, and baked custard. Not everyone is aware of just how amazing this custardy-kind truly is (which means more for me!)
To celebrate losing 7 pounds, I decided that I could splurge a little with my favorite dessert, BUT I didn't want to entirely blow it out points-wise, so I made a few substitutions for a heavy-on-taste but lighter- on-fat-and-calories version and took it on over to our friends Ashley and Will. You can ask them if they could tell it was "light" and whether they ate more right out of the serving bowl... (our secret) ;)
What you need:
4 ripe bananas
1 box of reduced fat nabisco 'nilla wafers (or the regular kind, but that adds more points)
2 cups skim milk (or whole milk..whatever floats your boat)
6 egg whites (tradionally 3 whole eggs)
1 tsp vanilla (oops. i forgot this, but it turned out just fine)
1/6 cup stevia + 1/6 cup sugar (or you can use 1/3 cup sugar if you aren't worried about calories)
1/8 teaspoon salt
What to do:
getting started is easy-peasy. preheat your oven to 315 (unless you're using only sugar. then preheat it to 325) thinly slice a banana and layer it with your 'nilla wafers.
in this bowl it took me about 18-20 wafers and banana slices per layer, but i'm not a stickler for perfect layers, so that's up to you.
once you've got the bananas and wafers taken care of, tackle the custard. separate your eggs, then combine your sugars/stevia mixture, salt, and egg whites into a bowl and whisk together vigorously (you want them frothy)
take the milk and pour it into a small saucepan on low heat. warm it
until it steams (under no circumstances should you let it
boil..seriously, you'll get up with chunky milk. so. gross.) then pour
it slowly stirring it into the egg mixture.
pour the mixture over the wafers and bananas and bake, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes. let it cool for 20 minutes then cover it until you're ready to serve it!
this stuff is bananas. ;)
Labels: dessert, sweets, weight watchers
