A few weeks ago, I purchased Whitney Miller’s new cookbook called Modern Hospitality: Simple Recipes with Southern Charm. I can’t wait to try out so many recipes (fresh fruit and granola tarts, bacon stuffed brusselsprouts, jalapeno cornbread, the list goes on!) One recipe that immediately caught my eye was Banana Mousse Trifles. It looked so light and fresh; the perfect end to a meal of hamburgers cooked on the grill with sides of scalloped potatoes and cucumber & tomato salad. Since we were entertaining and I don’t necessarily have the patience to make pudding from scratch like Whitney’s recipe called for so I improvised and used store-bought instant pudding. No one could tell in the final taste test and the dessert was a smash success! Here’s my adapted recipe below. Enjoy!
Banana Pudding Parfait
Serves 8
Ingredients
2 packages instant pudding mix (one vanilla, one banana)
2% or skim milk (likely 4 cups for two packages of pudding mix, but follow the amounts on whatever instant mix you buy)
4 bananas (2 very ripe, 2 yellow)
1 box vanilla wafers
1 large orange
Directions
1. Cook pudding in stovetop according to package instructions.
2. After pudding has cooked, cool for 5 minutes then pour into a bowl and store in fridge for 3-4 hours prior to serving. In order to prevent the “skin” from appearing on the top of the pudding, cover the bowl with a lid or saran wrap if you don’t have a lid that fits it.
3. Right before you want to serve the parfaits, crush around 30 vanilla wafers until they are in chunky pieces. (I put them in a plastic bag and then used the back of a spoon to break them up.) Set the crushed wafers aside and take the two very ripe bananas and mash them with a fork until they are broken into small, mushy pieces. Add the juice of half an orange to this mixture to prevent browning/discoloration. Set aside this mixture and slice the remaining two yellow bananas into bite size pieces.
4. In serving glasses, spoon two layers of each ingredient in to a glass in the following order: 1) 2 heaping spoonfuls of pudding, 2) small layer of mashed banana/orange juice mixture, 3) small layer of crushed vanilla wafers, 4) a few slices of banana. Top each parfait with one slice of banana and one whole vanilla wafer.
5. Serve immediately. This will hold up in the fridge for a few hours if you want to prepare it in advance and serve ice cold.
Sweet Southern Comfort 