Pure Unadulterated Comfort

Banana Pudding with homemade Nilla wafers

Hello, Happy Friday!

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If you read last weeks newsletter you’ll know I recently got back from the American south, after spending a week in Birmingham, Alabama. One of the culinary highlights, from that trip, was the banana pudding I devoured whilst eating BBQ at Saw’s. I’ve had banana pudding before, but there was something about eating it in the south, in a BBQ joint that made the whole experience a little more impressive. I needed to recreate the dish the second I got home.

But what actually is banana pudding. At its simplest it is just vanilla pudding layered with sliced banana and Nilla wafers. But it’s a little more complicated than that. For the non-americans ‘pudding’ refers to an almost custard like dish, a custard made with starch similar to pastry cream. The recipe on the back of the Nilla wafer packaging stays true to that idea but uses the leftover egg whites (the yolks are used in the pudding) are used to make a meringue to top the dessert with. The meringue is beloved by many but the most common version is topped with cream so that is what I am going with here. Many people also skip making the pudding from scratch, using instant pudding mix instead, adding condensed milk to the mixture for sweetness and flavour.

There are many variations on the recipe but the above is a fairly good overview of the dessert. I am sure you can imagine why it is so nostalgic to some and why it is an obviously comforting dish. Because the pudding is basically just pastry cream by another name that part is easy to replicate this side of the Atlantic, but Nilla wafers? Thats another story.

shop bought vs homemade

What even are ‘Nilla Wafers’? Well Nilla, short for Vanilla, are a wafer like cookie made by Nabisco (the company that brought you oreos). Almost rusk like, they are about as simple as they get, they’re crunchy, sweet and taste of, you guessed it, vanilla. Not really a cookie designed to be eaten out of hand they seem almost entirely sold to be used to make pudding, or ice box cakes. I will admit that whilst probably designed to be used to make a composed dish I am partial to snacking on these straight from the box, so it’s probably a good thing they’re not actually sold in the UK. Which brings me to todays challenge, making these cookies from scratch. I brought back a box from the US for comparison with a determination to make a perfect dupe at home.

As I have been posting about recreating this classic dish, and specifically trying to make homemade Nilla wafers, many Americans have said to me that the Nilla wafers they remember as kids tasted better than what is available today, many of them blaming the switch to artificial vanilla as the reason for the decline in quality.

There is no denying that when you eat a Nilla wafer there is an undeniable artificiality to the flavour. The ingredients list also confirms they use the incredibly specific and not at all vague ‘natural and artificial flavourings’. Originally made with real vanilla they switched to a primarily artificial blend in 1994. So, if my aim was to replicate the real deal, do I go down the real or artificial route?

When I was younger (wow typing that made me feel old) the vanilla products that were available were considerably different than what we have today. Real vanilla extract was hard to come by, in its place were tiny vials of vanilla essence, all the essence none of the actual vanilla. This product is made with synthetic vanillin, artificial vanilla. Vanillin is the primary flavour compound in vanilla and it is recreated to make a synthetic vanilla essence. Side note, if you are looking at any extracts, or similar, and they use the word essence instead of extract that is an indicator that what you're buying is synthetic and not the real deal. Today it is surprisingly hard to find vanilla essence, the market has changed and the consumer wants to buy the real thing. Because vanilla is a very expensive product to produce supermarkets have replace those tiny vials of cheap vanilla essence with tiny vials of very weak vanilla extract to make something similarly priced but with the proud declaration that it is real vanilla extract. Thankfully our options are greater these days and this weak extract is just one option among many, from really good vanilla extracts with a full bodied flavour, to pastes, to powders and of course greater access to actual vanilla pods.

But back to the Nilla wafers, do I use vanilla or vanillin. I decided to try both. I tracked down the two types of vanillin still available on the consumer market, ‘vanilla’ sugar and vanilla essence (old school corner shops were my saviour on this hunt) and made a batch of the wafers and compared them to a batch made with the real deal. Personally I much preferred the real vanilla, the flavour is more delicate, more natural, but that is because it lacks that artificial punch that comes from the synthetic essence. The version made with the essence also didn't get close enough to the artificiality of the Nilla wafers flavour. So, for many reasons, real vanilla is where I landed.

When you search online there are MANY recipes for homemade Nilla wafers but the most common method was entirely different to my approach, they use a simple cookie recipe that starts with creaming together butter and sugar and finishes with a cookie dough that is rolled into balls and baked like tiny cookies. I went an entirely different route, starting with a sponge finger recipe. I took my old recipe for sponge fingers and on test one I added butter and a tiny amount of baking soda, I also turned the heat on the oven down and extended the bake time to attempt to dry out the cookies so they became crisp not soft and spongy like the original recipe. They came out incredibly crisp but far too light, they almost dissolved on the tongue as you ate them, but I knew I was on the right track and, with a few tweaks, I should have something pretty close. The remaining tests simply increased the amount of flour until the baked cookies really resembled the Nilla wafers and had the same texture. It took four attempts to nail the recipe but I genuinely think these are a pretty spot on dupe from the brand name cookies, they’re also incredibly easy to make.

⭐️Below is the Nilla wafer dupe and my take on the classic banana pudding but over on Second Helpings this week I have taken banana pudding in a very different route and made a banana pudding doughnut. To get that recipe, upgrade to a paid subscription to get exclusive weekly recipes and access to the full archive of recipes from the paid newsletter.⭐️

🌸Mothers Day🌸

Mothers Day is coming up next week and to celebrate, the folk over at Dishpatch are relaunching my Anzac Millionaires Shortbread just for one day. If you don’t know Dishpatch they started as a restaurant meal kit delivery service during the pandemic and whilst that is still the core of their business they also do a few ready made things, like my postal bakes, as well. If you're looking for a delicious treat for mothers day, or simply because they sound good to you and you deserve a treat too, the Anzac Millionaires shortbread comes in a postbox sized box so there is no worry about missing the delivery. The box has 8 pieces, each with a chewy anzac cookie base, a thick layer of salted caramel topped off with a thin layer of dark chocolate. They are indulgent and just ridiculously delicious. Unlike when we had these available for christmas a few years back this is a one day delivery so if they sound good to you get your order in now!

Homemade Nilla Wafers
Makes about 50-60

50g unsalted butter, diced
120g plain flour
1/8 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
2 large eggs
65g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Banana Pudding
Serves 6

Vanilla Pudding

350ml whole milk
75ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
25g caster sugar
35g cornflour
4 large egg yolk
Pinch fine sea salt
125ml condensed milk

To Assemble

250ml double cream
25g condensed milk
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 large bananas
1x batch homemade Nilla wafers

Preheat the oven to 160ºC (140ºC Fan) and line two large baking trays with parchment paper.

Add the butter to a small saucepan and heat over low heat until the butter is fully melted. Remove from the heat and set aside for the moment.

Sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the salt.

In a large mixing bowl add the eggs and sugar and whisk together for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Sprinkle over half of the flour mixture and fold together until the flour has disappeared into the batter. Repeat with the remaining flour and then when you have a smooth batter pour in the butter, pouring around the edge of the bowl. Fold the butter into the batter and once a smooth mixture is formed, scrape the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip.

On the prepared baking tray, pipe the batter into small rounds, leaving a little space between each cookie to account for spreading. Once all of the batter has been used, place the two trays into the oven and bake for doubt 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, or until the wafers are golden. Remove and set aside to cool fully. Once cooled, store in an airtight container where they should keep for a few weeks. The slow and low baking of these wafers fully dries them out allowing them a relatively long shelf life.

To make the pudding add the milk, cream and vanilla into a saucepan and over medium heat bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, add the sugar and cornflour to a large bowl and whisk together. When the milk mixture is at temperature add the yolks and salt to the cornflour mixture and whisk until pale. Pour the milk onto the cornflour mixture, whisking as you pour to prevent the yolks from cooking. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and is bubbling. Cook for a further 30 seconds before scrapping into a bowl. Pour the condensed milk into the pudding and whisk to combine. Press a sheet of clingfilm onto the surface of the custard and refrigerate for a couple hours.

Once chilled, remove the pudding from the fridge and beat together until loosened. In a separate bowl whisk the cream, condensed milk and vanilla just until the cream is holding soft peaks. Add about 3/4 of the cream to the pudding mixture and fold to combine.

To assemble the pudding divide a quarter of the pudding mixture between 6 glasses and then top with sliced banana, repeat with the second half this time adding a layer of vanilla wafer. Repeat the layering two more times. Finish by dolloping the leftover cream on the top of the puddings before garnishing with a single Nilla wafer. If you watch the video making this dish on social media you’ll notice I did just two layers of pudding with both bananas and wafers layered at the same time. The reason for the change is that these wafers are not quite as absorbent as the shop bought wafers so you want to ensure all sides of them are coated in pudding to ensure they soften correctly. If you want to make these even more like the pudding I had in Alabama everything was kind of mixed together in a mixing bowl, no neat layering, just get it combined. It was then simply scooped into a glass, a bit like a chocolate mousse is served.

Refrigerate the pudding for a few hours before serving, giving the wafers time to soak up some of the liquid from the dessert.

Homemade Banana Pudding

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