One thing you may not know about me is that banana pudding is my favorite dessert! I’ve grown up in the south specifically Texas, where BBQ, burgers, and banana pudding are the 3 main food groups. With that said, I don’t think I’ve ever met a banana pudding I didn’t like….more like devour, so coming up with a recipe like this was inevitable. I came up with this pie recipe on a Saturday afternoon when I had a really random craving for banana pudding but I wanted to change it up and not make the traditional dessert. And then it hit me….banana pudding….but in pie form! This pie has everything including a vanilla wafer crust (yes, you read that right), layers of bananas, pudding, and cool whip. I mean how more banana pudding-y can it get?! After testing this pie out, I am proud to say it is amazingly, scrumptiously delicious and I totally didn’t eat like 5 slices in one sitting;) Enjoy this pie, my fellow banana pudding connoisseurs!

Banana Pudding Pie

servings: 8-10          prep time: 30 min          set time: about 3 hours        total time: 3 hrs 30 min

for the crust:

-1 box reduced-fat vanilla wafers minus about 22 wafers for topping** (I use the reduced-fat kind because they are a little crunchier than the regular making the crust not soggy)

-1/3 cup melted butter

-1/4 cup sugar

-1/2 tsp. salt

for the filling:

-1 3.4 oz pckg banana cream pudding mix

-2 cups whole milk

-1 banana, thinly sliced

-cool whip, for topping

-extra 22 wafers, for topping

directions:

1. preheat oven to 350ºF

2. to prepare the crust, grind up vanilla wafers in a food processor or ziploc bag into fine crumbs

3. In a large bowl mix wafer crumbs with melted butter, sugar, and salt

4. Lightly spray a pie pan with non-stick spray and press in crust mixture to pan and bake for 10 minutes, then let cool

5. to prepare the filling, prepare the pudding with the 2 cups of whole milk and let set

6. for the assembly, Layer one layer of thinly sliced bananas on bottom of pie dish, add  a layer of pudding

7. Repeat once more with bananas and pudding

8. Top with a thin layer of cool whip and garnish with extra 22 wafers and banana slices **(I arranged it like in the picture)

9. Let pie set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and then dig in!