Not Yo Mama's Banana Puddin'

Here's a recipe I made a while back to tide you over until my holiday entries. This would be a great, easy recipe to take to your next holiday party.

This is Paula Deen's Not Yo Mama's Banana Puddin'. I first saw Paula make this on tv a few years ago, and I was appalled. Paula Deen is supposed to be the queen of Southern cuisine, and here she was making a Southern dessert staple -banana pudding - with packaged vanilla pudding mix, shortbread cookies instead of Nilla wafers, and cream cheese? I'd grown up on my Mema's recipe, the traditional one, which contains a homemade custard pudding cooked on the stove. I turned my little nose up at this recipe and refused to make it, until my good friend Sarah (yes, the same Sarah that I baked the chocolate cake for) convinced me otherwise. I decided to give it a shot. And, boy, was Sarah right on! Traditional or not, this stuff is amazingly delicious! Even if you don't care all that much for bananas, you'll love this banana pudding.

Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding
recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Ingredients

• 2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies (you may want to get three, I felt I ran out of cookies)
• 6 to 8 bananas, sliced
• 2 cups milk
• 1 5oz box instant French vanilla pudding mix
• 1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
  
• 1 140z can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12 oz container Cool Whip, or equal amount homemade whipped cream

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.