Banana Cream Pudding or Pie Filling

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This banana cream pudding and pie filling is low sugar and delicious.  The recipe calls for dried pineapple as part of the pudding mixture, a flavor which blends beautifully with the rest of the pudding and does not stand out at all.

Do not proceed with the recipe until you have read the Note at the bottom which explains an important detail about the pineapple.

 

When serving this pudding as a pie filling, it is very easy to make the crust ahead which keeps nicely if tightly covered with saran; make the coconut whipped cream a couple days ahead and refrigerate; leaving just the actual pudding to blend and cook up on your serving day or the day before. Thinking ahead saves a lot of last-minute stress.

 

 

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Banana Cream Pudding or Pie Filling

Servings –8 servings
Prep Time – 15 minutes
Cook Time – 8 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:

Prepare a 9″ graham or graham-type pie crust, see Graham-Type Crust

1 cup almond milk

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup softened dried pineapple, cut rings into small pieces and pressed into measuring cup* — be sure and read Note below.

1/4 cup organic cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp unprocessed cane sugar or sweetener of your choice — When pudding is cooked, you can taste and see if you prefer an additional tablespoon.  Just add and stir.

2-3 drops yellow food coloring, opt. — this makes a very authentic-looking vanilla pudding, but the pudding is a nice light color without it.

1 cup almond milk

1/2 cup coconut milk **

 

1/4 tsp butter flavoring, opt. but adds a nice flavor

1 1/2 tsp vanilla — I like to use Cook’s powdered vanilla

1/8 tsp agar powder — added for pie filling only

nicely ripened bananas

Instructions:
  1.  Prepare crust.
  2.  Soften pineapple briefly in hot water (10 seconds), rinse well, press out any extra moisture.
  3.  Combine all the ingredients down through the food coloring in a blender cup and blend until smooth as cream — no grit when rubbed between thumb and finger.  If you do not have a high-powered blender, just   blend longer.  I do not add the final milks until afterward as difficult things blend much better without an abundance of liquid.
  4.  Add additional milks and blend to mix.
  5.  Pour into a kettle and stir with a whisk until it begins thickening and comes to a boil for a minute.  Remove from heat.
  6.  Immediately mix in agar powder and extracts.
  7.  Cool while whisking occasionally to keep skin from forming.
  8.  Cut bananas into 1/4 – 1/3 ” slices and lay side by side to cover the bottom of the pie crust.  Whisk smooth the cooled pudding and pour over the bananas.
  9.  Cool and chill completely, before covering.
  10.  Delicious topped with coconut whipped cream.  To make your own see https://www.heatherleno.com/whipped-coconut-cream/
Notes:

Because the bananas will turn brown, best to enjoy the day you make it or within 24-48 hours.

*The broom-style dried pineapple does not work here at all, and fresh or canned will taste like a pineapple pie.  We use the unsulfured dried pineapple that has a small amount of sugar.  I put the pineapple briefly into VERY hot water to soften, rinse it well to remove as much sugar as possible.

**If you prefer, this can be replaced with almond milk.  It will be slightly less rich, but still delicious.