skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Banana Pudding is a dessert made with creamy vanilla pudding (or custard), slices of sweet banana, and crunchy vanilla wafers (or ladyfingers). Some like to layer this dessert, like an English Trifle, so you can see the separate layers of pudding, banana slices, and vanilla wafers. Others like to just mix everything together in one big bowl, so each delicious spoonful has a little pudding, some banana, and some vanilla wafers. Your choice. History seems to suggest that Banana Pudding originated in the Southern States and Southerners often like to top their Banana Pudding with a meringue. However, I am partial to whipped cream and that is the topping I have used in this recipe. I also like to dress the top of each pudding with more sliced bananas and whole vanilla wafers. I am also not against some shavings of chocolate.
The vanilla pudding we are making here is really a 'cooked' custard. There is only one real difference between a pudding and a custard and that is cornstarch (corn flour). Cornstarch is added to a cooked pudding so it becomes thick enough to eat with a spoon. The important thing is that they have to be cooked carefully as we do not want lumps or even worse, scorching. So keep the heat fairly low and use a heavy bottomed saucepan, making sure that you stir constantly with a large heatproof rubber spatula. When stirring it is important to reach the bottom, sides and corners of the saucepan to prevent the pudding from sticking and scorching. Once the pudding has become thick, like mayonnaise, remove it from the heat and add the butter and vanilla extract. Then strain the pudding to get rid of any lumps that may have formed.
If you are using Ladyfingers, instead of vanilla wafers, I like to use a commercial brand because they are thicker and their texture, crisp yet very absorbent, keeps its shape. Ladyfingers are finger-shaped cookies that are about 3 1/2 inches long and 1 inch wide (8 x 3.5 cm) that are made with a sponge cake batter. They are called Savoiardi in Italy and are so named because they come from Savoy Italy.
To focus attention on British usage (of the word pudding) is legitmate, since pudding may be claimed as a British invention, and is certainly a characteristic dish of British cuisine...It seems that the ancestor of the term was the Latin word botellus, meaning sausage, from which came boudin and also pudding. Puddings in all their varity and glory may be seen as the multiple descendants of a Roman sausage. The Haggis, buy its nature and the ways it is prepared, illuminates the connection. In the Middle Ages the black pudding (blood sausages) was joined by the white pudding, which was also made in a sausage skin, or sometimes a stomach lining...White pudding was almost completely cereal in composition, usually containing a suet and breadcrumb mixture. It was variously enriched and flavoured, and there were sweet versions. In diverging from these origins English cooks found two paths which could be taken to advance pudding cookery. The first was to take advantage of th fact that by the 16th century many ordinary houses had small ovens built into the chimney breast, or at the side of the main bread oven where there was one. These ovens were not very hot. It was possible to bake a white pudding mixture or a cereal pottage slowly enough to suit it. Often, it was enclosed in pastry...this path led to baked puddings. The second path involved finding a different container to replace the gut used for sausages...The breakthrough came when the pudding-cloth was invented, around the beginning of the 17th century...During the 18th century, suet mixtures were joined by the first sponge puddings, and boiled and baked batters became common. Sweet puddings included all kinds of fruits, jam, spices, meringue, and other delicacies. Plain puddings remained important. Among savoury types, the first beef steak and mutton puddings appeared. Sweet milk pottages made with cereals such as rice or barley persisted. As new kinds of starchy product began to be imported...these were also adopted for that purpse...The disappearance of domestic servants in the 20th century brought further changes. The pudding-cloth was found to be difficult for housewives...boiled pudding were now almost made in basins covered with greased paper and foil and steamed partly immersed in water. Thus did the British steamed pudding come fully into its own. Roll-shaped puddings were either converted to basin format or baked in specially made tubular tins.
The history of pudding is a complicated topic. Why? Though time, many different kinds of foods have been known by this name. The creamy, rich pudding dessert think of today is more closely related to custard. The history of custard is likewise ancient. This food followed a separate, though parallel, path that managed to converge with pudding in 19th century America.
Food historians generally agree the first puddings made by ancient cooks produced foods similar to sausages. The British claim pudding as part of their culinary heritage. Medieval puddings (black and white) were still mostly meat-based. 17th century English puddings were either savory (meat-based) or sweet (flour, nuts & sugar) and were typically boiled in special pudding bags. The "pease porridge" most of us know from the old nursery rhyme was most likely a simple boiled pudding of pease meal. By the latter half 18th century traditional English puddings no longer included meat. 19th century puddings were still boiled but the finished product was more like cake. These puddings are still traditionally served at Christmas time. Plum pudding (aka Christmas pudding)is a prime example. Modern steamed puddings decend from this tradition.
About custard? Ancient Roman cooks recognized the binding properties of eggs. They were experts at creating several egg-based dishes, most notably patinae, crustades and omlettes. These foods were either savory (made with cheese, meat, pepper etc.) or sweet (flavored with honey, nuts, cinnamon etc.). Food historians generally agree that custard, the sweet almost pudding-like substance we Americans know today, dates to the Middle ages. At that time custard was eaten alone or used as fillings for pies, tarts, pastry, etc. Flan is probably the the most famous and widely adapted custard dessert in the world. It is important to note that custard was not unique to Europe. Similar recipes flourished in Asia.
The distinction between European custard and American pudding became muddled sometime in the 1840s. At that time in America, traditional boiled puddings were no longer necessary to feed the average family. There was plenty of food. This also happened to be the same time when Alfred Bird, an English chemist, introduced custard powder as an alternative to egg thickeners. It wasn't long before Americans began using custard powder and other cornstarch derivatives as thickeners for custard-type desserts. This proved quite useful for overlander (conestoga wagon) cooks who did not have ready access to a reliable supply of fresh eggs.
In the last decades of the 19th century some American social reformers and food companies endeavored to promote these products as health food. American custards and puddings converged and were thusly marketed for their nutritional benevolence with special emphasis on invalids and children. Yes, this means chocolate pudding was perceived by some as a health food. Late 19th century cookbooks and company brochures (Jell-0, Royal) were replete with "quick" custard and pudding recipes, often touting arrowroot and tapicoca as the healthy ingredients. By the 1930s instant custard & pudding mixes were readily available to the American public. We gobbled them up.
Some pudding-type foods have been considered healthy since ancient times. Case in point: rice pudding. This ancient recipe was traditionally prescribed for the young and infirm. The formulas was inscribed in medical texts before it showed up in cookbooks. Tapioca, arrowroot, and cornstarch puddings (made from new world thickeners) were later recommended as restoratives.
