Donna Hackett

Georgia Seay, Donna's Mother

Servings: 8

Donna's best dessert.  This is a recipe that has been handed down from Donna's family and to her from her mother.  It makes the finest banana pudding that I have eaten.  A pudding made from scratch, no Jell-O.  Oh Yeah!!! Oh Yeah!!!

Once Donna made a mistake in adding ingredients while making the pudding in Kaiserslautern, Germany.  She inadvertently put coconut extract thinking it was vanilla in the pudding.  Folks loved it.  Maybe you can make the same mistake and please folks.

Ingredients

Cooking Method

Separate the whites from 3 of the eggs and set aside for the meringue. 

Pour the 4 cups of milk into a 5-quart nonstick pan and place over medium heat. 

1. Beat the remaining egg whites and the 5 egg yokes with a dash of salt until frothy approximately 2 minutes using a whisk. 

2. Add beaten eggs, 2 cups of sugar, and 1 cup of flour to milk, stirring constantly until it thickens (the mixture will scorch or burn easily if not stirred constantly preferably with a whisk). 

3. This is a slow process and requires patience. 

4. The mixture will be lumpy at first but it will smooth out as it thickens.

5.  When the mixture has thicken to a very thick consistency add a stick of butter and one teaspoon of vanilla extract, stirring until the butter is melted.

Using  a 5-quart Dutch oven layer with vanilla wafers (preferably Nilla Vanilla Wafers) and sliced bananas, add ⅓ of the pudding mixture and repeat until all is used.

Take the 3 egg whites you set aside, add ½ teaspoon Cream of Tartar and 1 teaspoon sugar; beat until the meringue forms peaks. 

Spread the meringue over the pudding mixture and place into oven on broil until whites brown on top.