Magnolia Bakery's Retro Banana Pudding @LucyBurdette

Sorry it doesn't photograph well!

LUCY BURDETTE: Did you attend a Super Bowl gathering? I really don't care about football, but I do love watching the commercials and eating special Super Bowl treats. There's usually not much in the way of health food on display! 

This year I was tasked with dessert and I'd been dreaming of a recipe for banana pudding from the Magnolia Bakery that would feed a crowd. I certainly wasn't going to make it for John and me alone! I very rarely use box mixes--for pudding or cakes or anything else. But hey, this was Super Bowl night and I wanted to stick with the retro recipe I'd found on the New York Times Cooking app. There were a lot of controversial comments stirred up, such as should anyone be using a box mix with artificial flavors? For this recipe, the answer is yes! It's not at all difficult to make, but read the directions so you can plan ahead for chilling time.

Here’s where my cooking lesson came in… Did you know that there are two kinds of boxed pudding, instant, and cook and serve? I did not understand this, and I bought the second type. The instructions called for the pudding to be mixed with sweetened condensed milk and water. It was supposed to thicken quickly, particularly when refrigerated. My mixture was thin as skim milk from the moment I put it into the refrigerator all the way to the next morning. 

Panic! That's when I began to Google cook and serve pudding versus instant. It turns out to have that name because you have to cook it before you serve it. Duh! 

Ingredients for the pudding

One box either instant or cook and serve pudding.

One can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 cups cold water

Nilla wafers

Four ripe bananas

3 cups heavy or whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla (my addition, for extra flavor)

The day before you plan to serve the dish, make the pudding. For instant pudding, whisk together with the condensed milk and the water. Store this in the refrigerator for at least an hour, up to overnight.

For cook and serve pudding, mix with the water and milk, and follow the directions either on the stove top or microwave until it starts to thicken. I zapped mine in the microwave for eight minutes. Refrigerate this 4-5 hours until cold.

Using a stand mixer if you have one, whip the heavy cream until it is stiff, but not beginning to separate. Add a teaspoon of vanilla here if you wanted that to be a stronger taste. (I suppose you could add a splash of rum as well.)

One spoonful at a time, mix the pudding into the whipped cream until the the streaks are gone.

Now for the assembly! In a glass bowl or pan or individual bowls, layer a quarter of the pudding mix, followed by a layer of Nilla wafers and bananas, and repeat until finishing with the last of the pudding. 

Refrigerate for five or six hours until thick. You can get a bit fancy and crumble more cookies on top for appearance and crunch. Enjoy! It doesn't look that pretty, but we all loved it!

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries. A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS (#13 in the series) is now available for pre-order!