Have you ever wondered How To Make Banana Pudding With Cream Cheese ? This is a classic southern recipe that people love, but I don’t think it gets enough credit. It’s perfect for any occasion; a great summer dessert, a wedding reception classic, or even just an after church treat. People love this creamy southern dish and have requested I share the recipe with them. It’s time to pull back the curtain and allow everyone in on my secret ingredients.
How To Make Banana Pudding With Cream Cheese
INGREDIENTS
Nutrition
- 4cups cold milk
- 2(3 1/2 ounce) packages instant banana pudding mix (you can use vanilla, too)
- 1(8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1⁄3cup sugar
- 1 1⁄2cups thawed Cool Whip (4 oz)
- 1(12 ounce) box vanilla wafers
- 4bananas, sliced
DIRECTIONS
- In a large bowl combine milk and pudding mix according to package directions.
- In a small bowl stir together cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
- Stir into pudding mixture (I use the mixer).
- Fold in cool whip (I just stir it good).
- In a 13x9x2 inch baking dish layer half the cookies,half the bananas and half the pudding mixture.
- Repeat layers.
- Cover and refrigerate 2 hours.
Easy Banana Pudding
Banana pudding is a Southern classic that can always be found for dessert at a family gathering. Though it may appear complicated with its many layers, making banana pudding from scratch is a breeze.
Layering the pudding, bananas, vanilla wafer cookies, and of course, cool whip makes for a great make ahead dessert, leaving your kitchen clean and orderly for company!!
Our family thinks this is the best banana pudding recipe around. Its fresh taste goes great to finish off a picnic or after a cozy holiday meal. Thick & Creamy Banana Pudding
Not to mention, once you’re done it is quite beautiful! Take it along with you to a party and you’ll be sure to grab compliments from everyone who tries it.
What makes this easy banana pudding with cool whip recipe so special is it isn’t made with artificial banana flavoring. This is a classic pudding that brings the familiar flavors of banana and vanilla wafers to a whole new level!
It is a wonderful treat that will please all ages. This creamy banana pudding recipe is fun for our family to share with everyone at our dinner table.
What you’ll need for this Banana Pudding Recipe:
- Cream Cheese: This recipe is much easier to make when the cream cheese is already at room temperature. Pro-tip! Take the cream cheese out of the fridge 20-30 minutes before you start preparing this dish.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: Sweetened condensed milk adds a delicious honey flavor and is one of the key ingredients to thicken up the banana pudding
- Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix: Be sure to choose instant vanilla pudding and not cooked. Our goal is fewer pans and fewer dishes! This creamy banana pudding recipe will be ready to eat in no time when you make use of the instant pudding mix.
- Milk: I always prefer to make my desserts with whole milk, however, any percent will work.
- Vanilla Extract: It really doesn’t matter if you use real or imitation extract for this recipe. We’re trying to keep this easy, so whichever one you prefer will be just fine!
- Cool Whip, Thawed: I won’t lie, when cool whip is involved, it is always my favorite part of the dish. This thick banana pudding will call for cool whip in the pudding and on top of it! Including the cool whip instead of real whipped cream will help stabilize the pudding without the cream melting into a puddle.
- Sliced Bananas: Of course, you could not make banana pudding from scratch without bananas! Choose bananas that look fit for a photo shoot – no brown or green spots.
- Vanilla Wafer Cookies: I love preparing this dessert because I get to keep a box of Vanilla Wafer Cookies next to me the whole time. I always sneak a few while I’m preparing this recipe.
CREAM CHEESE BANANA PUDDING
I am a true Southerner! Banana Pudding is life! What better thing to blend into banana pudding than cream cheese?
I was going through some old cookbooks from my church and found a recipe using cream cheese in banana pudding. My first thought was, why don’t I throw cream cheese into the recipe I already make. It turned out perfect. This recipe has become my husband’s favorite and my Mother-in-law requested another batch. I took this as a HUGE compliment.
Cooking for crowds is something else I do. We have a large family and family friends that gather at our house in the summer. (We are the ones with the pool! HAHA!) I enjoy entertaining so much and desserts are my favorite things to make. Everyone likes to be complemented on their cooking and this was a win for me
Cream Cheese Banana Pudding
Ingredients
- (1) 3.4 oz box French Vanilla Pudding, Instant
- (1) 0.9 oz box Sugar Free Banana Pudding, Instant (I used sugar free because I picked up the wrong box, but it was delicious. You can use regular also. Just use the small box)
- (2) Cups Milk (I use 2%)
- (1) large tub Whip Cream
- (1) 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- (1) large box Vanilla Wafers
- (6) Bananas (you can use more if you would like)
- (1) 8 oz pkg Cream Cheese
Instructions
- Choose your dish. I use a trifle bowl but you can also use any type of glass dish. It is also a great idea to make individual desserts if desired.
- Blend milk and pudding in a large bowl. I used my stand up mixer but a hand mixer is perfect also. The pudding will seem very thick and that is normal.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 5 minutes.
- After chilling, add cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk to bowl and blend well.
- After slicing bananas, layer wafers and then bananas on the bottom of the glass dish.
- Add a layer of pudding on top of the bananas.
- Add layer of whip cream on top of the pudding.
- Start the layering process again starting with the wafers and bananas.
- End the layering process with whip cream, bananas, and wafers.
- Chill for 45 minutes before serving.