banana pudding and sesame brittle

I have a real soft spot for banana pudding. In the South, banana pudding is practically a health food because IT HAS FRESH FRUIT IN IT. It’s kind of like how my childhood babysitter used to give us collard greens swimming in bacon grease and tell us to eat up because it was “good for us.”

The thing about most banana pudding recipes out there are that the vast majority are just a vanilla flavored custard poured over sliced bananas and crushed vanilla wafers. When I was looking for a good recipe, I found lots of frustrated cooks who wanted banana pudding with the banana flavor inside the pudding. Well, here’s the secret, y’all: bananas are mushy. When you mash them up and mix it into the custard, the banana flavor pretty much infuses right into the custard. Et voila!

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I wanted to do something a little different with my banana pudding, so instead of vanilla wafers, I made a crunchy sesame brittle. Bananas and sesame seeds are a winning combination used in many of the desserts I tried when we were living in Southeast Asia. There's a great textural contrast between the soft sweetness of the banana and the savory crunchiness of sesame. I topped everything off with Reddi Wip whipped cream (they were a recent sponsor of Grits & Chopsticks), which turned out to be a great, easy way to finish off my creamy pudding. Plus, who doesn't love spray whipped cream from a can? I dare you not to enjoy it.

These little puddings are best served in little ramekins or, if you've got them, small glasses (I used double old-fashioned glasses from Crate and Barrel, which you can get here). I took a bite of my pudding, and immediately I was transported back to the simpler days of my childhood in South Carolina, days where my babysitter would serve up dollops of banana pudding as my afternoon snack.

I miss those days. You know, those days when we didn't know how bad refined sugar was for you or when bacon was a totally normal and acceptable seasoning for greens. Want to go back there with me?