One of my dearest friends has an incredibly talented son. He is a ballet dancer and in the summer he goes to some amazing dance clinics called “intensives” up in NYC. Here’s the deal. I know absolutely nothing about ballet. It’s never been my jam. What I know, I learned because I love him and my friend so much.
Now, when they go to NY, they stay near the Lincoln Center since that’s where he dances. And right near there is a wonderful little place called the Magnolia Bakery. If you talk to my friend about NY, you’re going to hear about the Magnolia Bakery and their banana pudding. So, when our lovely friend, Covid-19, started making its way around the world, and NYC became its poster child, none of us were terribly surprised when the ballet intensives got cancelled. I can’t bring back ADB’s (Amazing Dancer Boy) clinic, but I can make sure they get a little taste of the city!
First of all, I saw a Goldbelly ad on Facebook. Did you know that you can get items from really famous bakeries shipped all over the country? You can even get a Vageode cake. I’ll wait, you want to go look at that picture…
I really thought I was just going to hit a button and have this magic pudding shipped to her door, but….it’s not cheap getting that kind of thing shipped. I think Goldbelly has a great business model and I’ll definitely use them for something (maybe that cake…), but I just couldn’t justify $70 for pudding. Sooooo….off to the interwebs! Apparently, Magnolia Bakery is really cool about sharing their recipe so off to the grocery store I went, then Bean and I got to work!
She started slicing bananas, while I beat up the whipping cream and folded in the pudding/condensed milk mixture. Layered it up in a big tub and sent it to the fridge to set. Easy peasy! Four hours later, I put it into mason jars for delivery to my friend. Massive hit! She said it tasted just like the bakery. Bean and I were big fans, too, and the half that was still at our house did not last long. I confess, I ate more of it than Bean did. Really want to do it again, but the scale has been screaming at me!
Quick note: The person that wrote up the recipe that we used said not to let the pudding go for longer than 8 hours before eating it all. Don’t believe that. It’s not as pretty after 8 hours because the bananas go completely soft and the cookies are total mush, but dang! The flavors meld so well and the pudding is just fine left-over for a few days…if it lasts that long!