Fourth of July's All-American Dessert: Banana Pudding

Some recipes one should know so well, one can only glance at the recipe for passing reference. Banana Pudding, the comfort food of desserts, is one of those dishes. Banana Pudding requires the use of the personal touch. I studied all of the church cookbooks in my collection. I read what Paula Deen had to say about the topic -- she uses French vanilla pudding mix and Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies, rather than vanilla wafers, by the way.

When you think about it, Banana Pudding is also sort of a dessert casserole. It uses only a few ingredients. It's layered. It keeps well until the next day, and if you make it right, it tastes even better. I serve this Banana Pudding after indulging guests with a scrumptious serving of King Ranch Casserole.

"I Don't Feel So Guilty" Banana Pudding

1 box reduced-calorie Nilla wafers
6 ripe bananas
2 cups two-percent milk
1 5-oz box sugar-free vanilla pudding
1 8-oz box reduced fat cream cheese, room temperature
1 14-oz can reduced calorie ("light") sweetened condensed milk
1 12-oz container of Cool Whip Light

Note: If you want to go all out with the calories, please feel free to use the full-fat, full-calorie versions of all ingredients. It does make the pudding much richer. However, because I feel a bit abashed at the thought of directly consuming sweetened condensed milk, I usually make the low-fat version.

Have your stand mixer or electric beaters ready to roll on this one! In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and condensed milk until nice and smooth. Add vanilla pudding mix and beat well. Now add the milk, little by little; the pudding will start to thicken, but you do have to use a spatula to make sure that the cream cheese/condensed milk mixture isn't sticking to the bottom of the bowl. After mixture is thickened, mix in 1/2 container of the Cool Whip until very well-blended.

Line a 13" x 9" dish with Nilla wafers. Begin slicing the bananas (they do go brown if you slice them ahead of time), and place a layer on top of the wafers. Spoon half of the pudding mixture over the wafers. Repeat with another layer of wafers; spoon the remaining pudding mixture on top. Cover with remaining Cool Whip. Just to make this dish more homey, I do what my mom did -- I crush up some of the wafers and sprinkle them on top, also making a wafer "collar" around the dish as well. Some like their pudding with a lot of cookie (I do), and some do not. Your call!

Refrigerate for a couple of hours until the pudding is thoroughly chilled. I like to eat it the next day, after the wafers have had a chance to absorb some of the pudding.