Snoop Dogg’s Hey Auntie Banana Pudding
Summer’s Back, so is Banana Pudding
Time: 40 minutes active + 6 Hours refrigeration
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
Difficulty: 1/5
Banana pudding is a very popular summer dessert and now that summer has come back around, I’ve decided to try another banana pudding recipe. This time, the recipe comes from Snoop Dogg’s Cookbook. The last banana pudding I tried came from Rodney Scott’s cookbook and you can read it here. Let’s see how they stack up against each other.
Key Ingredients & Omissions:
None of the ingredients in this recipe are hard to find, so the only thing I left out was the optional rum in the whipped cream.
Tools:
Bowls
Fine Mesh Strainer
Whisk
Hand mixer/Stand mixer
Cooking Review:
Make Pudding: 27 minutes
To make the pudding, I whisked together the sugar, salt, and corn starch in a medium pot before whisking in the heavy cream and milk to combine. I cracked in an egg, beat it in, and put the mixture over medium high hear, whisking constantly until it thickened and began to bubble. At that point, I reduced the heat to medium and started to whisk more vigorously for about 45 seconds before removing from the heat.
Strain & Refrigerate: 4 minutes + 2 hours min
I put a strainer over a bowl and poured the pudding through the strainer, using a rubber spatula to push through any that did flow through immediately. I mixed in the vanilla extract and covered the pudding with plastic wrap, which I ensured was touching the surface of the pudding and refrigerated for about 3 hours and 15 minutes, but you just need to refrigerate it for at least 2 hours. The recipe says to stir it occasionally, but I think this is just to help it cool faster.
Mix in bananas & Assemble: 20 minutes
I cut up two of the bananas into chunks. Before adding them to the pudding, I whisked it to loosen it up to make folding in the bananas easier. The recipe says to use 6oz serving glasses to assemble the banana pudding, but I used a bread/loaf pan to assemble. I started with a layer of pudding followed by a layer of Nilla wafers, alternating the two and finishing with a layer of pudding. The last two bananas are meant for garnish, but I went ahead and sliced them and topped the pudding with them.
Refrigerate & Finish: 4 hours min + 6 minutes
I covered the pudding with the plastic wrap and refrigerated it for about 5 hours and 15 minutes, but the minimum is 4 hours. I added the heavy cream to a bowl and used a hand mixer to beat it until just thickened. I added the vanilla extract and confectioner’s sugar and continued to beat it until I achieved soft to medium peaks. The recipe says to refrigerate a bowl and whisk, but as long as your heavy cream is cold, you shouldn’t have to do that. Finally, I topped the pudding with the whipped cream and served it.
Analysis:
I was actually impressed by this recipe. The ingredients are very simple and not much goes into the pudding, but it turned out pretty good. The sweetness is just about perfect and well balanced by the less sweet whipped cream. Plus, the ratio of whipped cream to pudding is better in this recipe than in Rodney Scott’s. I like the banana chunks throughout the pudding, which made it taste more banana-y than Scott’s too. However, the vanilla pudding in the other banana pudding is much more flavorful and deep than this one is. I think if bananas were chopped up and mixed through that pudding like Snoop’s, it might be better than both of these. The Nilla wafers softened up nicely, becoming almost cakey, but not soggy, which I liked. The textures were pretty nice, as well. The pudding was smooth, the cream was light, the wafers were soft, and the bananas added a little bite. I think I like this recipe more than Rodney Scott’s which was already pretty good. The ratio of whipped cream is better here, as well as the banana flavor. The only place where Rodney’s is better is in the pudding itself. If this recipe had Rodney’s pudding instead, it just might be perfect. I’m giving this a 9/10.
