Banana Custard - featuring real bananas

“Mom can you make banana custard?”

“Of course I can!”  as soon as I find a recipe

 Now what do I do?  I consulted my fellow food bloggers and looked for a banana custard recipe…okay, next…Epicurious dot com…that’s it….okay nope…I know…Better Homes and Gardens Cooking Bible…ah, not there either.  There are  recipes out there but most of them started with…one packet of vanilla pudding, one packet of banana pudding, a teaspoon of banana extract and so on and so on.  I wanted a pure banana custard/pudding made from milk, eggs and real bananas.  Great grandma Giles didn’t even have one in her cooking bible, but she will now.  Here’s what I did…I made a really good vanilla pudding and added mashed bananas for flavor and little chunks of banana for texture and more flavor.  It was a hit and now my little monkeys are all going bananas over my custard.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

6 tablespoons cornstarch

3 cups low fat milk

5 egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 small ripe banana mashed

1 small firm banana, no spots, cut in to small quartered bite sized pieces

Beat egg yolks in a medium sized bowl, set aside.  Whisk sugar and cornstarch together in a medium sized sauce pan.  Whisk in milk.  Cook over low heat until thickened, whisking constantly until custard bubbles about 4-6 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Whisk 1 cup of milk mixture into yolks.  Gradually mix yolk mixture back into saucepan, return to heat and continue whisking until custard comes to a low boil, about 3-5 minutes.  Do not over cook or the custard will taste like scrambled eggs.  Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla and mashed banana. Quickly halve banana, quarter and cut banana into small bite sized pieces, stir into custard.  Pour into a bowl, cover with cling wrap.  Serve warm or cold.  The pudding will thicken as it cools.  To serve, spoon in bowls and top with a few “Nilla” wafers or crushed graham crackers.