chocolate banana pudding is waiting...

[Peeps]

Oh yay! Val you will love this and want to eat it everyday forever and ever, I promise! I've had a few times (maybe twice out of the 800 times I've made it - well, you get the idea) when the custard wouldn't thicken too quickly as well for some unknown reason (it happened one time at my mom's when I was using her 2% (ack!) - I would never but it was all she had - so I don't think it has to do with skim). But usually the 8 minutes does it so next time you make it, it might go faster. Trust me, there will be a next time. This is your reward for the Died and Gone to Heaven cake - which by the way I made this weekend and I was in heaven!
It does get better the longer it sits in the frig - it will be amazing tomorrow. I usually can't hold out for more than an hour before trying it but a few times I've made it late at night for the next day and its sooooo yummy once the wafers have softened up a bit. Oh, its a good thing you live in CT or I'd be at your front door...

[valchemist]

Peeps posted this yummy sounding recipe a while back and I just whipped it up during my lunch hour. Wow, it looks like it is going to be great! It is supposed to get better the longer it sits, so I wanted to give it time to mellow before we eat it for dessert tonight. Can't wait! I'll let you know how it comes out soon.

One note: It took a very long time for the pudding to thicken. I used skim milk (as peeps has done with success in the past), so maybe that is why it took so long. It took 20 minutes or so. But it did thicken in the end, so no problem.

CHOCOLATE-BANANA PUDDING WITH TOFFEE BARS

notes:
this ranks as perhaps my all time favorite CL recipe, its from September 1999. And of course I use skim milk (NEVER use anything else) and it works great, no problem. Sometimes I'll even leave out the Heath bars to lighten it further. One tip I'll give you (I've made this at least 20 times) is to let the custard cool a bit before assembling the layers otherwise the Cool Whip will sort of melt/dissolve when it hits it. I usually stick the pan with custard in the frig while I'm cutting the bananas, etc. and that seems to work OK. It needs to chill for awhile and I think it gets better the longer its been chilling. Enjoy!

2/3 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 c. 1% milk (skim works fine)
4 large egg yolks
1 ounce semisweet chocolate (I use about 2 tblsp. choc. chips for this)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. frozen reduced-calorie whipped topping, thawed
3 (1.4 ounce) English toffee candy bars, divided and chopped
30 reduced fat chocolate wafers (such as Nilla), divided
3 c. sliced ripe banana, divided

1. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups and level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan, gradually add milk and egg yolks stirring well with a whisk. Cook over medium heat until thick (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. Add chocolate, stir until melted. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, set aside.
2. Combine whipped topping and 2 chopped candy bars.
3. Arrange 15 wafers in the bottom of a 2-quart baking or souffle dish, top with 1 1/2 cups banana slices. Spoon half of custard over banana; top with half of candy bar mixture. Repeat layers. Top with 1 chopped candy bar. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.
Yeild: 12 servings

Calories: 284 (28% from fat); Fat 8.7 g (sat 5.3g, mono 1.8g, poly 1g); Protein 5.6g; Carb 46.9g; Fiber 1.4g; Chol 80mg; Iron 1.1mg; Sodium 204mg; Calc 111mg

[slknight]

Thanks for posting this. I must have missed it when it was posted before. I will have to make it one day to surprise my husband. He had some chocolate banana cream pie when we were in Hawaii that he loved. Although it doesn't sound too good to me, I think he will love it.

[valchemist]

This dessert is absoultely wonderful!!!

Peeps, I don't think I would ever have made it without your reviews because I really am not a big pudding dessert fan. I am not even a cool whip fan, so I only used one cup of cool whip and mixed it with half of the Skor bars and made one layer of cool whip mixture in the middle (instead of having two layers). You could even omit the cool whip and it would be fine.

But anyway, thank you so much, Peeps, for the recommendation. If there are any skeptics out there, let me tell you, this dessert is better than it sounds, even for non-pudding dessert lovers. It is all that Peeps said it would be! And a good source of calcium too.

Val

p.s. I think this is even better than the Died and Went to Heaven Cake.

[This message has been edited by valchemist (edited 05-31-2001).]

[Peeps]

I'm so glad you liked it but I figured that was a given - how could you not LOVE this recipe! I think I might have to make it tonight - all this talk has reminded me I haven't had it in awhile and I can't go more than a few weeks without making it!
Better than Died and Gone to Heaven cake, yes, I think you might be right there since I make this constantly! But if I could have either of those desserts everyday for the rest of my life I would die happy!!

[debg]

Died and Gone to Heaven Cake??? Did I miss something??? Guess that's what I get for not checking the board often enough...Shame on me! Care to elaborate.....???? http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[valchemist]

DebG-

Here are a couple of links to the Died and Went to Heaven Cake.

Meanwhile, back at the chocolate banana pudding, Valerie discovers that yes indeed, the dessert does get even better with time.
http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/005346.html
http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/005774.html

[Jeanygirl]

I was going through old threads trying to find everyone's absolute MOST favorite this or that, and I decided to try this because pudding-based desserts rock and it looked fairly simple.

It's AMAZING!!! Hope none of you guys that recommended it have forgotten about it, and I hope everyone else that likes these flavors will try it. This is something that my traditional meat and potatoes and pie relatives would even eat (and that's saying something).

Anyway, I'm going back for fourths...

[knunes]

Jeanygirl, YOU rock! Thanks for resurrecting this thread---the recipe looks great, and after I JUST made banana bread with my overripe bananas, and just bought a bunch of not quite ripe bananas, my dad (who is recuperating after surgery here) just got a HUGE fruit basket from friends with some almost perfectly ripe bananas. So you KNOW I've been thinking, "What am I going to do with all of these bananas?" Now I have a great idea for 3 of them! Thanks. Katie

[Chocolate Rose]

This looks great but I have a question.
Is fatfree milk the same as skim? If not, will fatfree work in this??
Thanks!!

[emily]

Originally posted by Chocolate Rose
This looks great but I have a question.
Is fatfree milk the same as skim? If not, will fatfree work in this??
Thanks!!

Fatfree is the same as skim, so yep, it should work :)

Thanks for resurecting this, I love pudding based desserts and just bought more milk and bananas today :)

Emily

[slknight]

So I noticed I posted that I wanted to try this 2 years ago and I'd forgotten all about it. It must have gotten lost in my "to try" pile. I have since discovered that I love chocolate and bananas together (was just going to make it for DH), so I definitely need to bump this up to the top of the list of things to make.

[knunes]

You're all right! This is really yummy. I made it last night (had to use the reduced fat vanilla wafers, as my dumb grocery store didn't have the chocolate ones, but I'd probably use them again, as it all worked very well.) I sort of used Val's suggestion by using just one cup of cool whip and half the candy, but I used it as a topping and still did two layers of everything else. Next time I will leave the candy out, as it was just a nice little extra, but didn't seem important to me (probably because I only had half the amount and couldn't taste it enough, right? But I figure if I can live without it, it's healthier.) Anyhow, as I said, I made it last night but didn't eat it until tonight's dessert, and everyone loved it (well not 8 year old DD, but the rest of us). Thanks! Katie

[slknight]

I made this last night too, although I ended up using regular vanilla wafers (not low-fat) and regular Cool-Whip (also not low-fat). I also used Kit Kats instead of toffee bars. It was really good, and it's definitely better today.

I do think that the candy bars aren't really necessary. I don't think the Kit Kats "aged well." Other than that, it's excellent.

I was a little hesitant about it because when I tried the chocolate custard, I didn't like it too much. But when it's combined with everything else, it tastes great.

[Kate B]

I absolutely love the chocolate-banana toffee pudding recipe. I've made it many times, always to rave reviews!

I agree with Val... chill the pudding before assembling. The Cool Whip seems to like it better when not hit with a hot mixture. :p

Kate

[knunes]

I must update to say that DD asked for some tonight after dinner and ate up every bit in her bowl. She just mustn't have been in the mood last night. It's at least as good on day two if not better, by the way! I agree with slknight in that when I tried the chocolate custard on its own I had my doubts, but all together it was delicious.