Layers of vanilla wafers, fresh bananas and creamy vanilla pudding come together in The Best Banana Pudding you’ll ever make!
Lip Smackin’ Delicious!
I have been eating this banana pudding since I could eat food. I can’t remember an Easter that we didn’t have it on the dessert table. And it makes frequent appearances at summer barbeques, family reunions and church potlucks.
My grandmothers made it, my mom makes it and I make it all the time! A family favorite, for sure! It’s one of those desserts that you just can’t go wrong with.
Watch Me Make the Best Banana Pudding
Step into the kitchen with me as I make the Best Banana Pudding you’ll ever eat!
Dessert of Desserts!
Y’all! This is the dessert of all desserts! It’s easy as easy gets. It’s lip smackin’ delicious. And everyone, I mean everyone, loves it!
Crunchy vanilla wafer cookies, fresh sliced bananas, and a creamy pudding mixture of condensed milk, sour cream and cool whip is all layered together to create a show-stopping mouth-dropping dessert for any occasion.
Banana Pudding in 20 Minutes
Whether surrounded by family and friends or curled up on the couch with a good book or movie, this banana pudding is so comforting and will leave you longing for more. M’m! M’m! Less than 20 minutes is all it takes to make this southern classic.
And once your loved ones have enjoyed it, they’ll be begging you to make it again and again!
The Best Easter Brunch Recipes
This banana pudding is part of our Easter celebrations every year! You can plan a festive and delicious Easter meal for your loved ones with this collection of The Best Easter Brunch Recipes. Fresh and flavorful sides, festive snacks and desserts–there’s so much yumminess to choose from.
What Do I Need to Make The Best Banana Pudding?
- Vanilla instant pudding mix
- Cold milk
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Sour cream
- Vanilla
- Frozen whipped topping, thawed (I use Cool Whip)
- Vanilla wafer cookies (like Nilla Wafers)
- Bananas
How to Make the Best Banana Pudding
- In a large bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.
- Fold in cool whip until well incorporated and smooth.
- Reserve 12-14 vanilla wafers and 6 banana slices for garnishing. Cover the bottom of a large serving bowl with some vanilla wafers. Cover the wafers with 1/3 of the remaining banana slices. Scoop 1/3 of the pudding mixture over the pudding.
- Repeat layers with 1/2 of the remaining vanilla wafers, half of the remaining banana slices and 1/2 of the remaining pudding mixture. Repeat layers again with remaining vanilla wafer, banana slices and pudding mixture.
- Garnish with the reserved vanilla wafers (some crushed) and banana slices. Let set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve.
- Pudding keeps well covered with plastic warp in the refrigerator for about 5 days.
More Layers You’ll Love
- Layered Chocolate Pudding Dessert takes a sweet cookie crust and piles on layers of smooth whipped cream cheese, chocolaty pudding, and creamy whipped topping! It’s an easy and delicious dessert recipe that everyone will love!
- Layered Cornbread Salad : Crumbled cornbread, fresh veggies, ranch dressing and bacon take this delicious salad to new heights. Better make a double recipe because everyone will be coming back for seconds!
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Layered Cookie Cake: Layer after layer of chewy fudgy chocolate cookies with the most addicting peanut butter filling holding them all together in this a real treat!
- 7-Layer Cornbread Casserole: A large pan of cornbread topped with everyone’s favorite 7-layer dip for a winning game day matchup or any day get-together!
Enjoy, my friends! If you make the Best Banana Pudding, be sure to snap a picture and share it with me or tag me on Instagram @thebakermama so I can see. 
I love seeing how inspired and creative y’all get with the recipes I share.
xoxo,
The Best Banana Pudding
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 14 1x
- Category: Dessert
Description
Layers of vanilla wafers, fresh bananas and creamy vanilla pudding come together in The Best Banana Pudding you’ll ever make!
Ingredients
- 1 (3.4 ounce) package vanilla instant pudding mix
- 2 cups cold milk
- 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (I use Cool Whip)
- 1 (12 ounce) box vanilla wafer cookies
- 2 pounds bananas, sliced
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and vanilla. Stir until well combined. Fold in cool whip until well incorporated and smooth.
- Reserve 12-14 vanilla wafers and 6 banana slices for garnishing. Cover the bottom of a large serving bowl with some vanilla wafers. Cover the wafers with 1/3 of the remaining banana slices. Scoop 1/3 of the pudding mixture over the pudding. Repeat layers with 1/2 of the remaining vanilla wafers, half of the remaining banana slices and 1/2 of the remaining pudding mixture. Repeat layers again with remaining vanilla wafer, banana slices and pudding mixture. Garnish with the reserved vanilla wafers (some crushed) and banana slices.
- Let set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve. Pudding keeps well covered with plastic warp in the refrigerator for about 5 days.
Love this banana pudding you make! About how any bananas is 2 pounds?
Thanks Robin! Depends on the size of the bananas, but usually 6 medium bananas is 2 pounds. Enjoy!
My grandmother always used to request banana pudding for Easter! I haven’t made it (or eaten it) in forever. Now I’m craving it! Looks amazing!
Can’t wait!
Do you mean a 3.4 ounce box of pudding rather than 3/4 ounce? I just want to get it right when I try it. Thanks!
Yes! Yes! Thanks for catching that! Just corrected it. Enjoy!
If u make this the night before will the wafers get all soft
Hi Marie! They will soften a bit, but we always prefer it after it’s set in the fridge overnight. All of the flavors come together even better. Enjoy!
OK thank you gonna try it looks delicious ????
Fantastic
Made this for Thanksgiving 2015 and it was a hit! Put in a bit less of the sweetened condensed milk, but otherwise followed exactly…
★★★★★
I just made this pudding it is good on my first attempt but I changed it a little l used lite whipped cream it’s really good thanks for the Recipe
Glad you made and enjoyed it, Tammy! 🙂
This is the best!!! Put it fridge over night and served today for Thanksgiving!!! So delicious ????
Definitely amazing! I have never put sour cream in banana pudding and admit when I tried it right after making it I wasn’t too impressed. After leaving it in the refrigerator over night, the flavors have melded together beautifully! This will be my go to recipe from now on.
Is it two 3.4 oz box of pudding or just one box and mine as soon as I take out the refrigerator it starts to melt
Hi Tricia! It’s just one box of dry pudding mix mixed with 2 cups milk and then the sweetened condensed milk, sour cream and vanilla until smooth before folding in the cool whip. It certainly shouldn’t melt. Did you follow all of the ingredients exactly?
Mine did the same thing! Complete liquid! I used all the ingredients but I’m not sure why it didn’t work
Hi Sydney! Oh no, it shouldn’t be like liquid. Are you sure you stirred in the condensed milk, sour cream and cool whip? All of those thicken it up quite a bit. And once it sits for just a bit it starts to thicken even more. I’m not sure what went wrong.
I just did pudding, condensed milk and water and mixed and set aside. Then used clear vanilla flavoring with cool whip. Started my layers of wafers, sliced bananas then pudding. Tasted good but will refrigerate over night then May sprinkle brown sugar on top before serving.
for those that said its soupy? was it cook and serve pudding mix (needs baking) or instant pudding mix?
Is there anything I can sub for condensed milk? Maybe heavy cream? I don’t want to go to the store and I don’t have the condensed milk…eek!
Hi Jennifer! I haven’t tried it so I couldn’t say for sure if it would result in the same thick texture, but if you do use heavy cream, you’ll need to add about 1 cup of sugar to it to result in the same sweetness as condensed milk. There are also a lot of condensed milk recipes out there if you search to see if any of those might work with what you have on hand. Hope this helps. Enjoy!
Has anyone tried using 2 of the 3.4 ounce boxes of instant pudding or one 5.1 ounce box? This dish is delicious, but just too loose to serve outside of the family. I am an accomplished cook and did follow the recipe ingredients list and instructions exactly.
Hi Kathryn! Did you let the pudding set in the refrigerator at all? I would recommend letting it set in the refrigerator overnight to really thicken it up. You could try adding another box of pudding mix or another container of cool whip, but if you let it refrigerate and keep it cold, it should stay thick. Hope this helps.
Hi. Would any milk do?
Hi Melissa! Yes, any cold milk will work with the instant pudding mix, but the sweetened condensed milk should not be substituted with any other milks. Enjoy!
I made it exactly how the recipe calls and it seems a bit liquidy! I’m really hoping that it thickens while it sets in the refrigerator!!
★★★
Hi Danielle! It should definitely thicken up if you followed the ingredients and instructions exactly. Was it the texture of the fourth image in the blog post? Enjoy!
I made a huge bowl of this to take to a work party. I came home with enough for a small portion for my husband. My co-workers are still talking about how wonderful this was!
★★★★★
Yay! So happy to hear, Donna! Continue to enjoy!
Before I make your version of banana pudding, I’ve usually mixed vanilla and banana instant pudding, added almond extract, and crushed about 2 cups of vanilla wafers then used a mixer to bring that altogether then placed it in the refrigerator to set. In my serving bowl I layered the wafers first, a layer of pudding mix, then a layer of cool whip. Repeatedly until all the supplies were used. Sometimes at Easter I would add crushed pineapple and chopped pecans or pistachios instead of chopped vanilla wafers and continued the process. The Easter variation with pineapple and pistachios or pecans because I’m allergic to walnuts and coconut shreds.
But I must say how excited I am to make your version of banana pudding with the condensed milk, sour cream and vanilla extract. I’ve never hand mixed the ingredients, this will be a first for me, nor have I mixed the cool whip into the pudding mixture. My question here is would it matter if I used the mixer when adding the condensed milk, sour cream and vanilla extract or would you suggest your method of folding the ingredients into the pudding mixture? Also do I need to let the mixture set in the refrigerator before assembling it together in the serving bowl?
I’m thinking I’m going to use your method of folding them in this time and wait for your reply for the next time I make banana pudding.
I’m also excited to see Donna’s variation with Greek yogurt but would that substitute both condensed milk and sour cream? I’ll look at her experience but I would be curious about loosing the sweetness of condensed milk. However I love the consistency/texture of Greek yogurt very much. I look forward to hearing back from you and any comments others may throw in too.
Hi Victoria! I’m excited for you to try my version of banana pudding. It’s a tried and true recipe that always gets rave reviews. I would definitely recommend following my instructions for folding in the cool whip so it doesn’t lose its fluffiness. And refrigerating the layered pudding allows the ingredients to chill and set to the perfect banana pudding texture. Hope this helps and that you enjoy it as much as we do! For the greek yogurt version, I actually have a recipe in the Easter Brunch spread on page 173 of my Spectacular Spreads cookbook for Breakfast Banana Pudding made with vanilla bean yogurt, vanilla wafers, granola and bananas. It’s so yummy and great for breakfast! Enjoy!
I used low fat Greek yogurt instead of the sour cream and left the vanilla out. I also use graham crackers instead of vanilla wafers just because I love them and they will stay crunchy.
Yummy!!!!!
★★★★★
Me again!
I hope you have an editor to make sense of my comments before this is all posted. I’m sorry for any inconveniences. I feel like an idiot but it is 3:47 AM.
It’s Kim’s variation with the Greek yogurt not Donna’s and why would she omit the vanilla extract? I can see the mixture would not be as sweet but that’s what banana pudding is – sweet. What would you substitute in her variation? I would use Greek yogurt but not omit everything else.
Hi Victoria! I would recommend using a flavored greek yogurt, like vanilla, or mixing the whipped cream and some vanilla with the greek yogurt for added sweetness. Hope this helps. Enjoy!