This Magnolia Bakery Gluten Free Banana Pudding is a little bit of heaven. With homemade gf vanilla wafers, vanilla pudding, and plenty of bananas, it's all you could want in banana pudding.
OH.EMMMMM.GGGGGG, y'all!! If you are a banana pudding lover, you are gonna LOVE this version!!! I've never been to Magnolia Bakery, but after making their recipe gluten free, I am a true fan of the bakery and hope to visit there one day.
I love different interpretations of the same dessert and that's why I chose to try to recreate this banana pudding into my own gf version. I already have a gf version of Paula Deen's banana pudding on the site here, which is outstanding in its own rite. That uses store bought shortbread cookies instead of vanilla wafers. I also made a gluten free bananas foster pudding in which I made one GIANT vanilla wafer to layer in the pudding. Both those versions are amazing! But one can never have too many banana pudding recipes, am I right?
Ingredients for Magnolia Bakery Gluten Free Banana Pudding
This recipe is probably one of the easiest recipes of anything I've ever made! And I actually used a little shortcut to make it even easier than it already is. A handful of ingredients stand between you and this amazing banana pudding:
- Sweetened condensed milk--liquid gold. Anything it touches also turns to gold. Including this banana pudding!
- Ice water--yep, you read that right. Ice cold water is an ingredient the bakery uses in this recipe.
- Instant vanilla pudding--Jello brand is what I used.
- Heavy cream OR a container of Cool Whip--I'm usually all about using fresh heavy cream, but when I first made this, I didn't have any. But I had a container of Cool Whip in my freezer so I used that and it worked great.
- Gluten free vanilla wafers--my recipe is so easy, it'll probably take you less time to make them than to go to the store and buy a box of premade ones. However, if you buy the premade, you'll need two boxes (the only ones I've ever seen are from Kinnikinnick).
- Bananas--you can't make banana pudding without them!
Putting it all Together
- Whisk the sweetened condensed milk with the ice cold water until smooth.
- Pour this mixture over the dry pudding mix and whisk until no dry pudding mix remains. Cover and refrigerate until set, at least one hour but up to overnight.
- Whip heavy cream in bowl of a stand mixer (or large bowl with a handheld mixer) to soft peaks. Add the pudding mixture and continue to whip until stiff and well combined. Alternatively, whisk the pudding mixture and Cool Whip together until smooth.
- Spread a thin layer of the pudding mixture onto the bottom of a baking dish. Add a layer of gluten free vanilla wafers and sliced bananas.
- Repeat this layering, ending with one final layer of pudding and a garnish of a few remaining vanilla wafers.
- Cover and refrigerate for 4-6 hours so that vanilla wafers have a chance to soften.
For my banana pudding lovers out there, this Magnolia Bakery gluten free banana pudding is just the dessert you need to satisfy those cravings!
Magnolia Bakery gluten free banana pudding
Ingredients
- 1 14-oz (396 g) sweetened condensed milk
- 1½ cups (360 ml) ice cold water
- 1 3.4 oz (96 g) boxed dry vanilla pudding mix (such as Jello)
- 3 cups (720 ml) heavy cream OR
- 1 16 oz (453 g) Cool Whip (non-dairy whipped topping), thawed
- 1 recipe gluten free vanilla wafers OR 2 boxes gluten free vanilla wafers, such as Kinnikinnick
- 4-5 ripe bananas, sliced
Instructions
- Whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and the ice cold water until smooth. In a separate bowl, pour in the dry pudding mix and then add the milk and water mixture and whisk again until smooth, about one minute. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour, or until set.
- Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Alternatively, place the Cool Whip in a large bowl. Add the pudding mixture to the whipped cream or Cool Whip and fold the two mixtures together until well combined.
- Layer in a trifle bowl, 9 by 13-inch baking dish, or any other casserole dish, beginning with the pudding mixture, then vanilla wafers, followed by sliced bananas. Depending on the size of your dish, you should end with at least two layers and finish with a layer of pudding. Save a handful of vanilla wafers to crush and sprinkle on top.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 4-6 hours. As long as the bananas are well covered, the pudding should last covered in the refrigerator for a few days.
Anu says
Have you tried this with banana pudding mix? I imagine I would want more banana flavor than just the slices
Terri says
Jello pudding mix is not labeled gluten free and the company says it cant guarantee it to be safe.
Kim says
https://www.celiac.com/celiac-disease/is-jello-instant-pudding-gluten-free-r5214/