Gluten-Free Banana Pudding

As long as I have known him (which has been over 8 years now), my husband always looks forward to Thanksgiving, because his grandma makes him one of his all-time favorites: banana pudding. Although I wasn't diagnosed with Celiac until a couple years after meeting Steven, for some reason I had never tried his grandma's banana pudding. The brilliant idea came to me to make it the other day so I could see for myself what got him so excited for it every year.

Now don't get me wrong, my intent was not to compete with his grandma's recipe, and Steven flat out told me that he would never say one way or another whether mine was better or worse than his grandma's pudding. My main point was to try to make the dessert, and to also see what all the fuss was about.

I'm glad I did try it, because it is so good! I wish I would have known how delicious this dessert was a long time ago because I definitely would have been making this a lot more. Steven told me that it was very good, but he refused to compare it to his grandma's. The fact that he took a giant helping of it and practically inhaled it was answer enough for me though: it was very good.

I did make the pudding from scratch in this banana pudding recipe, but you could easily use a a large package of instant vanilla pudding if you don't want the fuss. I have to say though, the from-scratch pudding was much better than the boxed kind, and it was nice to know that there was no mysterious gluten-hiding ingredients (it's merely eggs, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, milk and a little salt). Also, if you can't find the cookies I used, any crunchy gluten free vanilla or sugar cookies will work fine.

Gluten-Free Banana Pudding

You will need:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn starch
dash of salt
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 ripe bananas (riper=sweeter)
1 package Enjoy Life Crunchy Sugar Crisp Cookies
1 package Cool Whip, if desired

1) In a medium sauce pan, whisk the eggs. Mix in the sugar, salt and cornstarch. Add the milk and mix well.

2) Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat to a simmer and continue stirring until mixture thickens (be patient, this takes about 10-15 minutes. I literally grabbed a stool and sat by the stove playing a game on my phone). 

3) Once thickened, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. 

4) In a medium-sized bowl or dish, layer cookies (I broke the cookies into medium chunks), bananas and pudding. Repeat for 3 layers. 

5) Cover and refrigerate for a few hours until ready to serve. Serve with Cool Whip (or other whipped topping), if desired. Store covered in the fridge.