Craving banana pudding with ‘nilla wafers? But you want to keep it sugar-free? With a little work and baking you can have all the fixings on hand. Typically I’d make a big bowl of banana pudding loaded with wafer cookies, this time I made a deconstucted pudding, where you make both items and serve the pudding with sliced bananas and cookies on top. For extra delicious pick up some sugar-free whipped cream!
I’ve made homemade ‘nilla wafer cookies before and they were more thin like the commercial ones. These cookies turned out a bit more cookie like rather than wafer. But let’s be real here, they were tasty and turned out just fine, especially if used as a decoration on the pudding, rather than buried in the pudding.
Sugar Free Vanilla (Nilla) Wafer Cookies
Ingredients:
- 9 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 cup sucralose granulated sugar
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer bowl, add the butter and beat till light, scraping the bowl as needed with a spatula.
Add in the sweetener and beat in, scraping once.
Add the flour and baking powder, beat in on low.
Add the egg and vanilla, beat till dough pulls together.
Using a 1 Tablespoon disher, make balls and place on the sheets. Flatten cookies with your palm gently.
Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until they look set and the edges are just turning color.
Let cool on racks.
Makes about 20 cookies.
This thick pudding recipe can be changed to what flavor you’d like based on the flavoring you add. While some might make a vanilla pudding, I love the taste of banana flavored pudding. To get an additional banana flavor, you can use banana flavor extract instead of vanilla.
Sugar-Free Pudding
Ingredients:
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2/3 cup sucralose granulated sugar
- 2¼ cups whole milk
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Add the cornstarch and sugar to a heavy tall saucepan.
Beat the egg and yolk in a small bowl, add to the pot along with the milk. Whisk in till smooth.
Over medium heat, whisk the pudding constantly until it starts to bubble and thicken.
Take off the heat and whisk in the vanilla.
Transfer to servings dishes and chill.
Makes 4 servings.
To Assemble:
Cut some ripe banana slices on top of the pudding, place cookies on as desired, and a bit of sugar-free whip cream, and enjoy!
~Sarah