This Banana Pudding Is a Flavorful Dessert Casserole
When my editor tweeted a presentation of the casseroles , I went into sniper mode. “I grew up on soul food,” I muttered. “Casseroles are not soul food.” I was wrong. My favorite dessert, banana pudding, is a typical soul food dessert. It is also a casserole in both method and capacity.
This method involves combining different foods, often in layers, to cook in a slow oven. The vessel is a “casserole” – a French word that made its way into English in 1708, scholars say .
Banana pudding is usually not baked in the oven, although it can be briefly baked in the oven if sprinkled with meringues. The pudding, much needed for dessert, is thoroughly mixed on the stove or poured out of the package if the chef uses real instant pudding. But the pudding is layered with vanilla waffles, pudding and banana chunks.
However, capacity is just as important to defining a casserole as is technique. Adrian Miller , the lawyer who wrote the James Beard award-winning book Food for the Soul, defines a casserole as “any multi-layered baked dish.” “Some people define it by the container… this classic pyrex bowl,” he says. “But for me it’s any multi-layered baked dish, especially with the addition of cream.”
Miller mentions a couple of iconic “soul food” dishes that could be considered casseroles. Sweet potato puree works well when sprinkled with brown sugar, marshmallows, and walnuts. He notes that oven-baked mac and cheese is another casserole and a soul food staple. “If you do the Sunday version, you might argue that some versions of mac and cheese are casseroles.”
While studying his book, Miller came across numerous casserole recipes in and for African American cookbooks. He found casseroles in The Ebony Cookbook, a reprint of Date with a Dish , written in 1948 by Ebony Cooking magazine editor Freda DeKnight. But Miller says casserole recipes date back to the 1940s. “As far back as the 1910s, you can find casserole recipes,” he says. “I saw them back in the 1990s.”
So why did I think the casseroles were #SoWhite? I fell for the stereotype that soul food is the only food in African American cuisine. Miller and other culinary scholars note that “food for the soul” is a relatively recent moniker for African American food. According to them, the term grew in the late 60s and 70s, when the word “soul” became synonymous with the African American experience. Just like people talked about soul music, they talked about soul food.
Casseroles may not technically be soul food, according to culinary specialist Tony Tipton-Martin, but they are African American cuisine. She wrote The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cooking. Book that won the James Beard Foundation Award in 2016. Tipton-Martin advocates two lines of African American cuisine: home-made “soul food” and professional creations by experienced chefs. Both emerged from slavery, she said, but the recipes for survival are more prominent when discussing the culinary heritage of African Americans. “We completely forgot that there were people professionally trained to be plantation chefs,” says Tipton-Martin. Such chefs would have a repertoire of dishes and techniques to benefit from. Jemima’s Code is an anthology of Tipton-Martin’s collection of African American cookbooks. They date from 1827, and she found numerous references to casseroles as food and utensils.
My recipe is inspired by the ladies at my church. The dessert was originally called homemade custard, but all my church ladies use instant banana pudding. My compromise came from the international food department at my local Walmart. I found Foster Clarke’s custard powder , a savory base made from cornstarch. This allows me to control the amount of sugar without having to worry about making the custard in a double boiler. If Foster Clark’s is out of stock, use Cook & Serve vanilla pudding. Add banana extract to taste.
Many traditional recipes add meringues to the dessert. This is not a personal favorite, so I used fresh strawberries. To make the meringue, you need to bake it briefly in the oven, in which the pudding becomes a real casserole: flaky ingredients with a creamy sauce, baked in the oven. The recipe below makes four hearty servings.
Afi Banana Pudding Casserole
Ingredients for the pudding:
- 3 tablespoons Fosters Custard or Jello Cook and Serve Vanilla Pudding * (see Chef Notes)
- 1 liter in half
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons banana extract
- 3-4 medium-sized ripe but firm bananas, cut into slices
- 1 box of vanilla waffles
- 2 or 3 strawberries for garnish (optional)
- Powder cinnamon
Meringue Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon of tartar
- 1/4 cup sugar
Use a small strainer to sift the custard powder into a large bowl. Pour four tablespoons in half and beat thoroughly until the mixture looks like a smooth gravy. Combine sugar and remaining in half in a saucepan. Heat, stirring constantly, until small bubbles form in the liquid. Pour the hot liquid into the custard, whisking to avoid lumps. Pour the custard into a saucepan and return to heat. Whisk constantly until the custard thickens, about two to three minutes. Remove heat and add banana extract to custard. (* If using cook and serve pudding, cook according to package directions using half and half. Add banana extract and follow recipe.)
Pour a thin layer of the custard into a baking dish. Working quickly, alternate layers of waffles, bananas, and custard, unless you want to add a fluffy meringue to it, in which case move on to the next paragraph. Place the waffles and bananas on top of the last layer of custard. Slice the strawberries lengthwise into quarters. Decorate the pudding if desired. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Cover and refrigerate until solid.
Beat the egg whites and tartar with a mixer until frothy, add sugar slowly and continue beating until the whites form hard peaks. Spread meringue over the cooled pudding, spreading it over the edges of the dish. Use the back of a spoon to make small decorations. Bake in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, until the edges of the meringue are brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.