Description
An old Southern classic gets an upgrade. These banana pudding parfaits comprise soft pound cake, creamy vanilla pudding, fresh banana slices, a fresh citrus sauce, and a dollop of whipped cream. I used store-bought pound cake (Entenmann’s brand) and all of the other components can be made a day in advance and assembled a few hours before serving.
Ingredients
- FOR THE PUDDING:
- ⅔ cups Granulated Sugar
- ¼ cups Cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoons Salt
- 2-½ cups 2% Milk
- 3 whole Egg Yolks
- 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Cut Into Chunks
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- FOR THE CITRUS SAUCE:
- 2 Tablespoons Granulated Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Water
- ¼ cups Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
- ¼ cups Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
- FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar
- FOR THE PARFAITS:
- 12 ounces, weight Store Bought Pound Cake
- 3 whole Bananas, Sliced
- 1 teaspoon Orange Zest, For Garnish
Preparation
For the pudding:
Before you turn on the burner, first whisk the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a medium saucepan until it looks like freshly fallen snow. Slowly add milk, a few tablespoons at a time, and continue whisking. You want to avoid any lumps and slowly adding the milk will ensure the lumps stay away. Once you’ve added the milk, add egg yolks and whisk until combined.
Turn burner on to medium heat and cook milk and sugar mixture until it thickens and a few large bubbles that can barely break the surface. Remove pot from the heat and carefully pour the pudding through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium-sized bowl. Add butter and vanilla and stir until butter has melted and then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Make sure the plastic wrap is touching the surface of the pudding so a skin doesn’t develop as it chills in the fridge. Let pudding chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
For the citrus sauce:
While the pudding chills, make the citrus sauce. Mix sugar with water in a small pan over medium heat until dissolved. Cook sugar until it takes on a light amber color. In a separate sauce pan, heat orange and lemon juice until just warmed through, about 2 minutes or so over medium heat.
Once sugar has turned a light amber color, remove pan from heat and slowly pour in orange and lemon juice. Whisk continuously to get it all mixed up. Don’t worry if sugar hardens, you can put it back on low heat at this point and it will melt. Let it cook over low heat for a few minutes. Remove it from the heat and transfer it to a container with a lid. Pop it in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the parfaits.
For the whipped cream:
Using a hand or stand mixer (fitted with a whisk attachment), whip cream just until soft peaks form. Sprinkle sugar over the top and whisk just until whipped cream starts to stiffen. You can whip it by hand with a large metal bowl and a whisk. Once cream has formed soft peaks, add sugar and continue whipping until it starts to stiffen.
Assemble the parfaits in 12-ounce individual serving glasses. Scoop a few tablespoons of pudding in the bottom of the serving glass. Add some cubed pound cake and drizzle about 1 teaspoon of the citrus sauce over the top. Add a layer of sliced banana followed by another few tablespoons of pudding. Add some more pound cake and another drizzle of the coulis. Top with more banana slice, another layer of pudding, a dollop of whipped cream, and one more drizzle of coulis. Repeat with remaining serving glasses.
Garnish each parfait with some orange zest and a slice or two of banana.
