Chick-fil-A Banana Pudding
Chick-fil-A banana pudding is a rare find, so I'm bringing you a copycat version. It's light and fluffy, very creamy and decadent with fresh banana slices and softened Nilla wafers that turn cake-like from the moisture of the creamy pudding. It tastes more like a grandma's recipe and not at all what you'd expect at a fast food chain.
Servings: 12 servings
Ingredients
- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1.5 cups ice-cold water
- 3.5 oz box instant vanilla pudding mix
- 2.5 cups heavy cream
- 2/3 cup marshmallow fluff
- 5-6 barely ripe large bananas
- 1 box Nilla Wafers
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine sweetened condensed milk with ice cold water, whisking until it's well combined. Whisk in the vanilla pudding mix vigorously until there are no lumps. Cover and refrigerate until it's set up, about 4 hours.
- Once the pudding is set, in a separate large bowl, whip up the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add in the marshmallow fluff and continue to whip the cream until stiff peaks form.
- Gently fold the whipped cream into the pudding in increments, being careful not to deflate the whipped cream. Stir until there are minimal streaks remaining.
- In a 9x13 baking dish or a large bowl, add a layer of Nilla wafers. Top the wafers with a layer of banana slices, then spread on 1/3 of the cream in an even layer.
- Repeat with two more layers, ending with a final layer of cream on top. Decorate the top as you desire, I like to sprinkle on Nilla cookie crumbs on top. Refrigerate for another 4 hours at least.
Notes
I like to prepare this banana pudding the day before I plan to serve it. The longer it sits in the fridge, the better it gets.
The texture of the pudding will seem very runny when assembling. Don't worry, it thickens up as it sits in the fridge and the wafer cookies break down.
The bananas will brown further the longer it sits and there aren't many ways to avoid this. Some people recommend rinsing the banana slices in water first, I have not found this to change the browning. You can leave the bananas out of the pudding and instead slice and add them to each portion before serving. This is the method several restaurants use.