The fourth of July: a day best celebrated while floating down the Chattahoochee River, eating watermelon, risking third-degree burns from sparklers, and watching fireworks with your loved ones. On the fourth, we celebrate the USA’s independence from Great Britain and Congress’ approval of the Declaration of Independence.
To commemorate Independence day, I decided to make a southern classic to share with my host family. Because I didn’t bring my beloved box of my grandma’s recipes on my adventure, I reached out to my great aunt Margaret, who shared this super easy and delicious banana pudding recipe with me. But many of the essential ingredients like Nilla wafers and Cool Whip aren’t available in Australia, so I had to improvise.
My host family was skeptical at first. Some choice quotes: “What’s a Nilla wafer?” “I’ve never heard of putting bananas…in a pudding……” I am so excited for them to try this staple! My first bite brought me back home to Georgia, so yummy!
🍌Banana Pudding 🍌
Ingredients
2 boxes french vanilla instant pudding (I used 2 sachets of Cottee’s vanilla pudding, which has a teensy bit more powder than the Jell-o brand, which isn’t available here)
1 can condensed milk
3 cups cold milk
1 tub cool whip (Again, not available here, so I used regular whipped cream)
Nilla wafers (not available here…you’ll have to make your own. Link below.)
4-5 medium bananas (Buy locally grown for a sweeter flavor!)
Directions
- Mix pudding mix with milk and condensed milk.
- Add 1 cup whipped cream and mix. (I forgot this part but the final product was still delish).
- Line bowl with vanilla wafers, layer of sliced bananas, layer of pudding mix and layer of whipped cream
- Repeat second layer, top with whipped cream.
- Refrigerate (best if left overnight).
You simply can’t have banana pudding without nilla wafers, though! I found this recipe from Kitchme, which was pretty straightforward to follow. I spent about a half hour on these the day before and they turned out really well, aside from being a bit crispier and far too big to be actual Nilla wafers. It was hard to save them for the pudding!
Optional: Serve with sparklers and “Born in the U.S.A” by Bruce Springsteen on repeat.
Everyone (especially the one-year-old) loved it and I was so happy to share a little piece of America with them. Happy Fourth of July, everyone! 🇺🇸
