Easy Banana Pudding

5 from 6 votes

This banana pudding recipe is rich, creamy, and tastes like the one Grandma used to make!

Prep Time20

Chill Time2

Total Time2 20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: semi homemade dessert

Servings: servings

Calories: 508kcal

In a mixing bowl, add the sweetened condensed milk, whole milk, and pudding mix. Whisk together until smooth.
Whisk in the vanilla extract. Set aside for now.

Add about 1 cup of the wafers to a food processor (or you can use a resealable plastic bag and a rolling pin), and pulse until you have medium sized pieces. Set aside.

To a separate mixing bowl, add the heavy whipping cream and granulated sugar. Use a hand mixer (or you can use a stand mixer with it's bowl) and beat on about a MED speed until soft peaks start to form (see chef tips #2 below for more info).
This will likely take about 3-4 minutes.

Add half of the whipped cream to the bowl with the pudding, and use a rubber spatula to fold it in, using an over-under motion, until you don't see streaks of white.
To a 9x13" baking dish, add a layer of whole vanilla wafers to the bottom. Top with a layer of banana slices, then a layer of the pudding (about half of the mixture).
Top with a layer of crushed vanilla wafers, then banana slices, and the rest of the pudding mixture.
Top that with the remaining whipped cream, and garnish with whole vanilla wafers, banana slices, and crushed vanilla wafers.

I've estimated this recipe serves about 12, but please feel free to divide it up into as many servings as you'd like.
Soft Peaks – When you turn the mixer upside down (with it OFF), so the beaters are facing up, the cream will stand up in a peak (like a little mountain), and then fold over onto itself gently. This is a great visual guide from Taste of Home.
If you'd like to save a little time, instead of making your own whipped cream, you can omit the heavy whipping cream and granulated sugar and use store-bought whipped cream or cool whip instead!