I LOVE Banana pudding. If you gave me the choice between plain old banana pudding and oh, I don’t know, double chocolate whiskey bread pudding with caramel sauce, I’d choose the banana pudding every. d*mn. time. Even if it was just the cold jello-pudding version and not the warm homemade baked custard kind that my mama and grandmother always made… if it’s on a menu (or the buffet), I’m going to eat it… Which is why it’s ALSO one of my mostest favoritest flavors of bluebell ice cream.
Which is ALSO why I’ve been more than a little heart broken that I haven’t been able to lay my hands on Blue Bell since April. So, I figured I needed to attempt my own batch of Banana Pudding ice cream just to, you know… tide me over.
Well y’all. This stuff is dynamite. heavenly. as good as the Blue Bell kind (if not a teeny bit better…but probably only because I made it with my own two hands and eggs from friends). If you find yourself in the same fix I’m in without Blue Bell..or you just want to knock the sock off of a guy or gal with an amazing homemade dessert, this is your recipe. for serious. Also, it’s basically homemade banana pudding (the boiled custard kind) thrown into an ice cream freezer. What could be better than that?
Banana Pudding Ice Cream
What you need:
2-3 frozen bananas
2 cups heavy cream
2 cup white sugar (divided)
2 cups whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
6 egg yolks
1-2 cups of tiny vanilla wafers
What you Do:
Once you’ve combined the egg, sugar, cream, and milk, add in the vanilla and then return the saucepan to the heat. You’ll want to bring the temperature back up to almost boiling here, but mostly just steaming, so as to cook the egg and NOT curdle the milk. While you’re doing this, you’ll need to be stirring the whole time until it has thickened enough so it will coat the back of a spoon.
At this point, I cooled the custard base for about 45 minutes (read here to see how to use an ice bath) and then mashed up the banana and used an immersion blender to puree it into the custard. (so gorgeous. sooooo smooth).
Once you have a beautiful cool banana custard base, use your ice cream maker according to the directions to freeze it. Crush or break your nilla wafers into smaller pieces and once the base gets thick, toss them in so they mix in evenly. You don’t want too many BIG pieces (although a chunk here and there can’t hurt). thought about leaving banana chunks in the custard, or throwing in a couple of slices later on while it froze in the ice cream maker, but worried I’d chip a tooth on the cold, frozen banana pieces. But feel free to test out and let me know how it goes!)I like to put my finished product in the freezer for an hour or two to really let it set, then I’d serve it to everyone I know. Watch out Blue Bell… we may not need you after all. 
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