Banana Pudding Pavlova
Everybody loves grandma’s old-fashioned banana pudding with cooked custard. I flipped mine upside down and put the meringue on the bottom for this fun pavlova. Make ahead and WoW your holiday guests.
Ingredients
Makes 2 ~ 8ish servings each!
Meringue
- 4 large egg whites, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 cup caster sugar*
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 10 ounce box vanilla wafers, roughly chopped
Custard
- 4 egg yolks
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1-12 oz. can evaporated milk
- ½ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping
- 3-4 ripe bananas sliced
- 2 cups heavy cream whipped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place parchment paper on a large sheet pan or 2 smaller ones.
Meringue
- Whip the egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until peaks are firm and glossy.
- Continue mixing, slowly adding sugar. Add cornstarch with extracts and beat for 10 seconds.
- Fold in 2 cups of wafer crumbles. Divide in half and spread each onto the baking pan(s).
- Leave a shallow well (1½-inch rim) in the center. Scatter with more chopped wafers, saving a bit for garnish.
- Bake 1½ hours. Turn oven off and let sit several hours or overnight.
Custard
- For custard, combine ingredients through vanilla and heat over double boiler until thickened, whisking as it cooks to keep a creamy consistency. Chill.
Topping
- Place meringue on serving plate. Top with sliced bananas, custard and whipped cream. Dust with remaining wafer crumbs.
Notes
*To make caster sugar, put granulated sugar into food processor or blender and pulse into finer granules (but not powdered).
Best not to make the meringue on high humidity days. Can be wrapped in plastic then foil and frozen up to a month.