Yesterday was a special day in my family. Two of my favorite people share the same birthday, and it was yesterday. So we had a big family dinner with homemade (by my Italian husband) chicken parmesan, gluten free pasta with homemade sauce and meatballs. My husband even ground the pork for the meatballs and made sausage too. I was tasked with the dessert. Since one of the birthday boys was only turning two we opted to make a special dessert that the other birthday boy, who turned 85, would love. I made gluten free banana pudding.
Years ago, before we went gluten free, I made Not Yo’ Mama’s Banana Pudding from Paula Deen, and it was a big hit. But it uses boxed pudding mix and vanilla wafers. Not very gluten free and I do like to make my own food so I know what is in it, so that meant finding a pudding substitute. So I used her overall concept, but substituted homemade gluten free vanilla custard, and used gluten free animal crackers instead of chessmen cookies.
I used this recipe for the pudding, originally found here.
Combine sugar, cornstarch, salt and coconut milk OR milk in a heavy saucepan and whisk to blend ingredients. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly for about 6-8 minutes or until the mixture begins to thicken and bubble. Boil for 1 minute while continuing to whisk. Remove the pan from heat.
Place egg yolks in a medium bowl and whisk to blend. Slowly drizzle 1/2 cup of hot pudding mixture into egg yolks while briskly whisking. Slowly drizzle the egg mixture into the saucepan with remaining pudding. Return pudding to medium heat and whisk constantly until the mixture begins to bubble, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Don’t overcook! Add vanilla.
Stir in dairy-free butter substitute OR butter. Chill.
After the pudding was made and chilled I used Paula Deen’s recipe which i adapted as follows:
- 1 bag of gluten free animal crackers
- 6 ripe bananas, sliced
- 1 8oz bick of cream cheese, softened
- 1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
- 8 oz of heavy cream, whipped
- The vanilla pudding from the above recipe, chilled
Using a large glass baking dish spread 1/2 to 3/4 of the animal crackers in the bottom of pan, evenly. Add an even layer of bananas, using all the banana slices. In a separate bowl mix the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream. Mix the cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream mixture in to the vanilla pudding. Pour this mixture over the bananas and animal crackers. Top with remaining animal crackers and refrigerate until ready to serve.
To make this recipe Gluten Free/Casein Free use coconut milk in the pudding. You can omit the butter or use a GFCF butter substitute. Skip the Paula Deen portion and simply serve the pudding over the GFCF animal crackers and bananas.
