Servings
Font
Back
0 from 21 votes

Best Homemade Southern Banana Pudding Recipe (Easy)

READY in LESS THAN 30 MINUTES, this southern banana pudding recipe with fresh cool delicious creamy layers of bananas, vanilla wafers, whipped cream and TO DIE FOR PUDDING will be gone in minutes at any family or church gathering! 

Prep Time
15 mins
Resting Time
2 hrs
Total Time
15 mins
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 200 kcal
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

  • 3 small boxes of vanilla instant pudding 3.4 oz box
  • 6 Cups milk ice cold whole milk is best
  • 8 ounces sour cream regular sour cream
  • 12 oz. Cool Whip divided regular original cool whip
  • 5 bananas Cut into disks. Yellow, no spots, medium sized
  • 1 box vanilla wafers

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Mix all three boxes of the vanilla instant pudding with the ice cold milk in a very large kitchen bowl.  Works best if you use a whisk. 
  2. Add the sour cream and half of the cool whip (just eye ball it) and mix well till blended. This will require quite a bit of effort.  Start with a spatula and then switch to a whisk for best effect.  The cool whip will want to float and blop around.  Just keep going, it will eventually mix in. 
  3. Use ⅓ each of the pudding, vanilla wafers and bananas and layer in that order.  Repeat this way until bowl is filled. After all layers are completed, top with the remaining half of the cool whip and sprinkle the crumbs from the bottom of the box onto the top of the pudding.

Notes

  •  
  • For best taste, use REAL sour cream, WHOLE milk, ORIGINAL cool whip and yellow ripe bananas with NO spots. 
  • Substitutions can be made for lite sour cream, other flavors of cool whip,etc. but the best banana pudding uses as noted above.
  • This makes a LARGE amount of banana pudding, which you will need once everyone tastes it, but you CAN half the recipe.  Use three bananas. 
  • Bananas will turn brown after a day. You can treat the banana slices with a mixture of 1 Tbs of lemon juice and 3 Tbs of water.  Sprinkle this over the top of the banana slices and it will help prevent browning. 
  • It is a REAL effort to mix the cool whip into the pudding, use a whisk, have patience and just keep stirring.  You WILL beat it eventually. 
  • Crunch up 2-3 vanilla wafers and reserve them to sprinkle on the top.  Makes a delightful crunch. 
  • People often ask about using the banana flavored pudding for this recipe.  I've tried this and feel that it gives the whole pudding an "off" flavor like fake bananas.  It really is best to use the plain vanilla instant pudding.
  • Its SUPER important to use the INSTANT pudding.  The instant pudding and the pudding that must be cooked are in almost identical packages. 

Nutrition Information

Calories 200kcal (10%) Carbohydrates 25g (8%) Protein 5g (10%) Fat 9g (14%) Saturated Fat 5g (25%) Cholesterol 26mg (9%) Sodium 92mg (4%) Potassium 394mg (11%) Fiber 1g (4%) Sugar 17g (34%) Vitamin A 395IU (8%) Vitamin C 4.5mg (5%) Calcium 192mg (19%) Iron 0.2mg (1%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 12servings

Amount Per Serving

Calories 200

% Daily Value*

Calories 200kcal 10%
Carbohydrates 25g 8%
Protein 5g 10%
Fat 9g 14%
Saturated Fat 5g 25%
Cholesterol 26mg 9%
Sodium 92mg 4%
Potassium 394mg 8%
Fiber 1g 4%
Sugar 17g 34%
Vitamin A 395IU 8%
Vitamin C 4.5mg 5%
Calcium 192mg 19%
Iron 0.2mg 1%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.