The Best Banana Pudding

   My husband loves banana pudding, but it took me several tries before I found a recipe that we all love! This is the best recipe that I have found, and it makes the perfect amount for our family of six. Note that the size of the dish does actually seem to matter when making this recipe.

The Best Banana Pudding
   1 cup sugar
   ½ cup flour
   ½ teaspoon salt
   2 cups milk
   1 teaspoon vanilla extract
   1 Tablespoon butter
   4 egg yolks
   48 vanilla wafers
   5 ripe bananas

   Meringue:
      4 egg whites
      5 Tablespoons sugar
      ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
      ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line the bottom of a 9" x 9" (or 8" x 11") baking dish with a layer of vanilla wafers. Peel the bananas and slice into ⅜” rounds. Cover the banana slices with plastic wrap to keep them from darkening and quickly make your pudding.

Combine sugar, flour, and salt in a bowl; stir well and set aside.

In heavy saucepan, beat the egg yolks well. Alternately, add flour mixture, milk, and vanilla to the eggs. Place pan on medium heat, and stir constantly. Bring to a gentle boil, and add butter when mixture begins to thicken. Continue to stir and remove from heat when mixture has a proper pudding consistency.
Place a layer of banana slices edge-to-edge on top of the vanilla wafers. Pour half the pudding mixture on top, spreading as necessary. Repeat with a layer of banana slices and then pudding.

For meringue, beat the egg whites at high speed until soft peaks form. Add the cream of tartar. At high speed, gradually add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the vanilla into the meringue. Spread meringue over the pudding, being sure to seal all the way to the sides of the dish.


Bake until meringue is brown (about 10-12 minutes) . Serve warm or cold. Refrigerate leftovers. Makes about 8 servings.

Notes:
   When making the meringue, be sure your bowl is completely clean and dry. If your bowl is wet at all, your meringue will not whip properly.
   I calculated the WeightWatchers points to be 10 points for 1/8th of this recipe.