We all wanted dessert the other day. I was thinking of doing up some grilled bananas with chocolate and chopped nuts. But then Reiver mentioned that he could really go for some bananas and custard. Except... we were all out of custard.

We did have milk, sugar, and eggs though. So I reasoned that it wouldn't be that much trouble to make some custard.

But then I got to flipping through my cookbooks and found this banana butterscotch pudding recipe. And we had (almost) all the bits. And it sounded fun. And Reiver and I are both butterscotch fans. So... wins all 'round!

I say almost all of the ingredients, because we didn't actually have any vanilla wafers. What we did have though, was Gingernuts! And I reasoned that a) using butterscotch pudding rather than vanilla was already a deviation from the "traditional" combination and b) ginger would go quite nicely with both the banana and the butterscotch flavours. And they did, indeed, go very well together!

Banana Butterscotch Pudding

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 6 large egg yolks¹
• 40g cornstarch (cornflour)
• 3 c. milk, divided
• 70g butter
• 250g sugar
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3-4 bananas, peeled and sliced
• 4-6 Gingernuts, crumbled
• whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Mix the egg yolks with the cornstarch and 1/2 c. of the milk and set aside.
2. Heat the remaining 2 1/2 c. of milk with the butter until steaming. Cover and keep warm.
3. Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water over high heat.
4. Stir constantly until sugar has just melted.
5. From this point on, DO NOT STIR the sugar!
6. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook, swirling often, until caramel turns golden.
7. Remove from heat immediately and carefully pour in the milk mixture. It will bubble and steam vigorously, so just do a little at a time initially.
8. Whisk until bubbling subsides and mixture is thoroughly combined.
9. Whisk the egg mixture to make sure the cornstarch hasn't settled out.
10. Slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture while whisking to temper the eggs.
11. Return the custard to medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.
12. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
13. Spoon layers of pudding, banana slices, and crumbled biscuits either into one large dish or several smaller ones.
14. Once pudding has cooled, add a generous dollop of whipped cream on top and serve.

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¹ I actually went with 4 egg yolks and 1 whole egg for mine. I still found the finished pudding lovely and rich, so I'm not sad about saving a few eggs by doing it that way. ^Back