Made with fresh bananas and whipped cream, this Homemade Banana Pudding Trifle is a Southern-inspired dessert perfect for any special occasion. It’s layered with cookies and pudding, making it a downright show-stopper!
This banana pudding trifle is one of my favorite holiday desserts served alongside Honey Baked Ham, an Easy Ambrosia Salad, and Honey Glazed Carrots.
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Reader Comment
“So good and easy. Perfect to make ahead and serves a lot of people!”
Petra
If you’re from the South, you most likely grew up eating Banana Pudding. I remember enjoying a pretty dessert cup filled with layers of bananas, soft cookies, pudding, and whipped cream. It felt so special and fancy. With those sweet memories for inspiration, I’ve taken all the flavors of classic banana pudding and added a few shortcuts to make this delicious dessert into a cool, quick, and easy trifle.
Ingredients For This Banana Dessert
- Vanilla Wafers: These cookies are a classic in any banana pudding dessert. They help add a crunch and vanilla flavor!
- Banana: It’s super important to have ripe bananas for desserts because the more ripe they are, the sweeter they are.
- Vanilla Extract: What makes a great banana trifle is the vanilla so I add vanilla extract to amp it up even more!
- Vanilla Pudding: I like to use French vanilla pudding because it has much more flavor than standard vanilla.
- The Cream: To make this pudding ultra-rich and creamy, I combine cold milk, sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese, and heavy cream.
- Confectioners Sugar: This helps to thicken and sweeten. Because it’s also a thickener, granulated sugar can’t be used.
Variations And Substitutions
- You can use pudding that’s banana flavor in place of vanilla pudding.
- If you don’t have nilla wafers, you can use graham crackers. They won’t soften quite the same, but will still be delicious!
How To Make Banana Pudding With Vanilla Wafers
- Step 1 – In a large glass bowl or trifle bowl, layer 2 layers of vanilla wafers. t
- Step 2 – Blend together the milk, vanilla extract, pudding, cream cheese, and condensed milk.
- Step 3 -Layer half the banana slices on top of the cookies.
- Step 4 – Whip the heavy cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.
- Step 5 – Fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture, being careful not to overmix. Pour half of this over the bananas.
- Step 6 – Layer the rest of the ingredients, repeating with more cookies, bananas, and whipped cream mixture. Top with crushed cookies and then cover with plastic wrap.
Donya’s Success Tips
- Make this banana pudding trifle recipe the day before to save time and energy! Just be sure to cover it with plastic wrap.
- With pudding trifles, it’s important to put the whipped cream mixture on top because as the pudding chills, a film can form.
- If you want to decorate the top with fresh bananas, do that last minute or toss them in a little lemon juice. They turn brown VERY quickly, so I typically choose not to add them.
Questions And Answers
Yes, this dessert is awesome to turn into individual desserts with mason jars, stemless wine glasses, or small plastic cups for outside events!
I recommend Cool Whip rather than canned whipped cream. Canned whipped cream tends to deflate too quickly, whereas cool whip has the right consistency to replace fresh whipped cream.
You can store this banana pudding and whipped cream in the fridge for up to 3 days. This dessert is great because it can be stored all together or leftovers can be popped into an airtight container.
Trifles are great because you want it to soften a bit. So it won’t get soggy, it will get the perfect texture!
What To Serve With This Trifle
This banana cream pudding trifle is delicious for holidays—Easter is my favorite! Make a full dessert spread for any holiday, and serve it with Lemon Pound Cake, Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie, and fresh fruit.
This recipe is easy enough to make for a weeknight meal or cookout. I love serving it with burgers, and hot dogs, fried chicken, and pasta salad.
More Recipes Like This You’ll Love
If you tried this Banana Pudding Trifle Recipe or any other recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ boxes vanilla wafers
- 6-7 ripe bananas – sliced
- 2 cups cold milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 5 oz box french vanilla pudding
- 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 8 oz package cream cheese – room temperature
- 4 cups heavy cream
- 4 tablespoons confectioners sugar
Instructions
- In a 9"/5 quart glass bowl, cover the bottom with 2 layers of vanilla wafers. Next, layer half of the bananas over the wafers.
- Place heavy cream and the powered sugar in a large bowl. Using a stick blender, or electric mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the cream and sugar together until stiff peaks are formed. Place in refrigerator until needed.
- In a medium-size, bowl, blend together milk, vanilla extract, and vanilla pudding packet using a hand mixer. Add in the cream cheese and condensed milk and blend until smooth. Fold in 1 cup of whipped cream to the mixture. Layer half of the mixture over the bananas. Add half of whipped cream over vanilla pudding mixture.
- Repeat all steps ending with whipped cream on top. Add crushed vanilla cookies to top of dish. Cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for minimum of one hour, or until ready to serve.
Video
Notes
- For store-bought whipped: I recommend Cool Whip rather than canned whipped cream. Canned whipped cream tends to deflate too quickly, whereas Cool Whip has the right consistency to replace fresh whipped cream.
- You can store this banana pudding and whipped cream in the fridge for up to 3 days. This dessert is great because it can be stored all together, or leftovers can be popped into an airtight container.
Nutrition
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The last time I made banana pudding I used half and half for the pudding -banana cream flavor. Sooo good!
Thanks, Chandler.
I agree and glad you are cooking along with me.
~Donya
It was delicious!! Will definitely be making it again. I used the recipe for the pudding and whipped cream. I had bought a banana cake mix and used cut up cake squares instead of vanilla wafers. I decorated the top with mini wafers and maraschino cherries. The cherries dressed it up for Christmas.
Can you make this without the cream cheese?
If you have left overs can you freeze it?
No. Banana Pudding is not a dessert that can be frozen.
~Donya
IF you make the trifle the night before, do you need to put lemon juice or anything on the bananas to keep them from turning brown. Thanks.
Hey there Donna!
Thank you so much for your interest in this recipe, I think you’re really going to love it! I’ve made this recipe ahead of time on many occasions, and there are a couple different ways you can do it. When the bananas turn brown, it doesn’t mean that they’ve gone bad it just means that they’re oxidized. You can add the banana into the layers of the trifle and those slices may brown a little bit, then you can wait to add fresh banana slices on top when you’re ready to serve. The other option is to toss the banana slices in lemon juice and then they won’t turn brown at all, it’s really up to you’re personal preferences. I hope this is helpful, let me know how everything turns out, I’d love to hear what you think!
~Donya
Do you use instant pudding or cook & serve pudding?
Hey there Jane!
Great question! I like to use the boxed instant pudding, I buy the Jell-O brand most of the time and it works really well. I hope this helps, thank you so much for your interest in this recipe, let me know how everything turns out! Happy Easter!
~Donya
So good and easy. Perfect to make ahead and serves a lot of people!
Hey there Petra!
My goodness, I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! I completely agree with you, this recipe is the PERFECT make-ahead dessert. Thank you so much for your kind words and this fantastic rating, I appreciate your support!
~Donya
I am so excited to have found this recipe! I am planning to make it for Thanksgiving dessert. Would you recommend to make it the same day as serving or is this something I can make the night before? I just don’t want the whipped cream to melt on me! 🙂
Hey Alex.
You can make the recipe the night before and it will turn out great. Just make sure you’ve got stiff peaks on your whipped cream.
Happy Thanksgiving!
~Donya
OMG! Hubby LOVES banana pudding and I have a trifle bowl that’s just waiting to be used. So……..guess what’s going to be made for Easter! Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes.
Claudine in Fort Worth, TX
Thanks, Claudine. I hope y’all enjoy the recipe.
Happy Easter!
~Donya
Try subbing Banana nut bread for wafers. My niece wanted a banana nut bread for wedding buffet 🥴 cake fell apart coming out of pans – chunked it up and made a truffle with Banana pudding recipe ( much like the one here) and layered in trifle bowl. Smash hit 🥳
Hey there Pat!
My goodness, what a fantastic idea, that is honestly genius! I am definitely going to give that a try the next time I make a Banana Pudding Trifle, thank you so much for sharing! I hope you enjoy this trifle recipe, if you ever have any questions about a dish please don’t hesitate to ask!
~Donya