Banana Pudding

Steps

1. Whisk10 min
   custard: dry whisked, milk in, cooked thick, yolks tempered
   • sugar
   • cornstarch
   • milk
   • egg yolks
   sugar + cornstarch + salt, then milk streamed in, cooked over medium until thickened — then a ladle of the hot mixture beaten into the yolks before they join the pot for two more minutes at a low boil; the same tempering-and-full-boil law as the lemon meringue, for the same enzyme reason
2. Season2 min
   off heat: butter + vanilla
   • butter
   • vanilla extract
   • vanilla wafers
   • bananas
   stirred in until glossy — this is vanilla pudding, the real thing, and the tablespoon of extract is not a typo: bananas and wafers both pull vanilla flavor into themselves overnight, so the custard overshoots on purpose
3. Prep10 min
   layers, custard still warm: wafers, bananas, custard × 3
   in a trifle dish or 9x13 — wafers, banana coins, warm custard, repeated to the rim, ending in custard sealed to the edges — the WARM custard is deliberate: it starts the wafers softening immediately, and bananas fully covered by custard are bananas that don't brown
4. Rest240 min
   refrigerated, 4 hours minimum — overnight is the dish
   the transformation hours: the wafers drink custard until they slice like cake layers, the bananas perfume everything, and the whole assembly fuses from parts into pudding — served before four hours it is nice components; after twelve it is banana pudding
5. Top5 min
   whipped cream + crumbled reserved wafers, at serving
   • heavy cream
   • powdered sugar
   cream + powdered sugar to soft peaks, spread over, the held-back wafers crumbled on for the one crisp note the dish has left — the crunch-against-plush finish that explains why the topping waits for serving day