Banana Split Dessert

We had a pool party today. What fun! And even though it was 100-plus degrees outside for about a month and a half now, the pool water was about 88 degrees and felt cool, relatively, compared to the air temperature.

We served hamburgers and hot dogs…which was an easy entrée but something that always seems to go over well…plus I made some side dishes and our guests brought side dishes too. I thought I’d post the recipes for some of the foods I made for today. I’ll start with what I made for dessert.

BANANA SPLIT DESSERT

1st layer:
2 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
½ cups granulated sugar
10 T. unsalted butter (1 ¼ sticks), melted

2nd layer:
3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar

3rd layer:
2 (20 oz.) cans pineapple, in juice, drained
3 bananas

4th layer:
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp. salt
3 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks, beaten in small dish
3 T. butter
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

5th layer:
1 pint heavy whipping cream
¼ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Garnish:
6 bananas
¼ cup chopped pecans

Lightly butter 11X15-inch glass baking dish. Mix 1st layer ingredients together and press onto bottom of dish. Freeze for 10 minutes.

While 1st layer is chilling, beat cream cheese and 1 cup sugar together until fluffy. Then spread on top of graham cracker crust. Refrigerate some more while making vanilla pudding for 4th layer.

To make pudding 4th layer, combine sugar, flour, salt and milk in saucepan. Cook over medium heat until thickened and starting to bubble. Reduce heat to low and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Pour about one cup’s worth of hot milk mixture into beaten egg yolks and quickly whisk together. Return this egg-milk mixture to the rest of the milk mixture in sauce pan. Cook for two minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Set aside to cool about 5 minutes, stirring several times.

While pudding is cooling, top cream cheese layer with drained pineapple. Top pineapple with sliced bananas. Then top bananas with pudding mixture; cover evenly to cover all the banana slices. Cover pudding with plastic wrap to prevent the pudding from forming a skin. Chill in refrigerator several hours.

For 5th layer, beat whipping cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Remove plastic wrap from pudding layer and spread with whipped cream.

For garnish, slice 3 bananas into ¼-inch slices. Dip them in lemon juice and arrange on top of whipped cream. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Refrigerate until serving time.

Enjoy!
~Becky