I Tested the Top Banana Pudding Recipes So You Don’t Have To
Ever since trying Magnolia Bakery’s signature banana pudding at the Penn Train Station, every trip to New York, I make it a point to make a stop there. But on my most recent visit, I was greeted by a line snaking around the corner. I knew it’d easily be an hour-long wait. With my train departure in less than half an hour, I had no choice but to head back to Philly banana-pudding-less. Knowing I didn’t have enough time to wait before my train leaves the station, I sadly returned to Philly banana-pudding-less.
The ingredients seemed simple enough, so I resolved to make it at home. As it turns out, there are no crazy ingredients, and homemade versions are way cheaper. I tested three of the most popular banana pudding recipes and ranked them from worst to best.
Meet Our Three Contenders:
This light, creamy treat has quickly become one of my go-to desserts. At a high level, each recipe features layers of creamy vanilla pudding, bananas, and vanilla wafers. Once assembled, the dessert chills in the refrigerator for four to eight hours, allowing the wafers to soften into an almost cake-like texture. You can garnish your banana pudding with crushed vanilla wafers, bananas, or other fruits. The vanilla wafers layered inside turn soft and almost cake-like.
The Magnolia Bakery Recipe features heavy whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, and fresh bananas. I was surprised to see that this recipe called for fewer ingredients than others I have seen online. This was also the only one of the three recipes I tried that called for heavy whipping cream.
The Country Cook Recipe takes inspiration from the classic Southern recipe passed down through generations. It calls for cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, Cool Whip, vanilla extract, instant vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, milk, and bananas.
The All Recipes Recipe uses sweetened condensed milk, Cool Whip, vanilla extract, instant vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, milk, and bananas – same as the Country Cook recipe minus the cream cheese.
The Most Underwhelming: All Recipes
Overall Rating: 6/10
Get the recipe: All Recipes Recipe
This recipe called for 50% more whipped cream and half as much vanilla extract (1 teaspoon instead of 2) when compared to the Country Cook Recipe. As a result, the dessert was overpowered by the whipped cream, giving it a runnier and lighter texture overall. The whipped cream flavor came through most strongly, overshadowing both the pudding and banana flavors. One family member described it as tasting more like a topping you eat fruit with rather than a stand-alone dessert. Because this was the first of the three recipes I made, I was still working out a few kinks. I didn’t let it chill long enough, so the cookies were still crunchy. Even if I could remake it and let it sit properly, this was the most underwhelming of the three and the one I’d be least likely to make again.
Photo credits: Alyssa Tang
The Thickest: Country Cook
Overall Rating: 8/10
Get the recipe: Country Cook Recipe
Because this recipe called for vanilla extract, pudding, Cool Whip and condensed milk–all sweetening ingredients–I worried it might be overly sweet, much like the Allrecipes version. Surprisingly, while the addition of cream cheese made the pudding thicker and creamier, it gave the pudding a more indulgent taste without being overpoweringly sweet like. Compared to the Magnolia Bakery recipe, however, it was on the sweeter side, so while I would make this recipe again, it wasn’t my favorite of the three. That said, it was a top pick for one of my family members.
Photo credits: Alyssa Tang
My New Go-To: Magnolia Bakery
Overall Rating: Unsurprisingly 10/10
Get the recipe: Magnolia Bakery Recipe
This is the official Magnolia Bakery banana pudding recipe straight from their cookbook. Compared to the Allrecipes version, it has a more cake-like texture and feels more like a true dessert than a topping. It lies in the middle of the other two recipes in terms of richness, creaminess, and thickness profile. To me, this pudding brought out the banana flavor the best and was the most lightly sweet. The Magnolia Bakery banana pudding recipe was the most addicting and I could easily accidentally eat half of the container (granted, my containers were a lot smaller than the one pictured above). If you enjoy Paris Baguette and more Asian-sweet desserts, the cream on this one was the closest match of the three.
Photo credits: The Girl Who Ate Everything blog