Paula Deen's Banana Pudding

A few weeks ago, one of my friend's made Paula Deen's banana pudding. It was AWESOME -- like really, really awesome. I intended on making the recipe as written, until I decided that I might need to double the batch since I had to feed 14 people. AND, my friend told me that it actually took her three packages of Chessman cookies in the single batch. I stood in front of the Chessman at the grocery store yesterday for a good 3 or 4 minutes -- $3.35 x 6 = $20.10. I couldn't do it. That's HALF of this week's grocery budget. Plus, I had to buy sweetened condensed milk. I knew we had Nilla wafers in our pantry, so Nilla wafers won that battle. It's kind of a bummer, but it's cookies, people. Not life or death.

Here is the recipe from Food Network:

Ingredients

• 2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
• 6 to 8 bananas, sliced
• 2 cups milk
• 1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

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I'm sure I'll be missing the Chessman cookies a little bit, but the others won't know! Maybe next time they'll get the real deal! And, as a final note, I don't think I really needed to double the batch. I had an INSANE amount of filling. If you're wanting to stretch the dish to feed a few more than 12, I'd probably just use more bananas than you normally would.

For more recipes, see Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, LifeasMom, Joy of Desserts, Grocery Cart Challenge.