About This Small Batch Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding
This recipe is a copycat recipe of the famous banana pudding at popular New York City bakery, Magnolia Bakery! Although you can find the original recipe online, it makes a LOT of banana pudding—a whopping 6 pints! My recipe is the exact same, but scaled down to make a SMALL BATCH. It makes just ONE PINT!
@hummingbirdhigh Made a small batch 1-pint version of the famous Magnolia Bakery banana pudding because the original recipe makes 6 pints and honestly ya girl can eat that all but probably shouldn’t 🤪
But despite being a small portion recipe, my recipe is true to the original. No need to travel to New York with this homemade banana pudding recipe! It makes the light, creamy, and silky Magnolia Bakery banana pudding we all know and love. The cloud-like pudding is then studded with soft Nilla wafer cookies and fresh banana slices.
Looking for more small batch dessert recipes that yield small portions? Check out my Small Batch Baking recipe collection! Popular recipes include my Small Batch Blueberry Muffin Recipe (which make just 4 muffins and were featured in The New York Times).
Let’s Talk Ingredients
Now that I’ve convinced you to make this delicious small batch banana pudding recipe, let’s talk about what you need:
Ingredient Recommendations
- Sweetened Condensed Milk. Because this recipe uses only a small amount of sweetened condensed milk, I recommend finding a brand that holds the milk in a squeeze bottle. That way, you can portion out small amounts and save the rest for fun drinks like this Vietnamese Egg Coffee. I personally like California Farms Sweetened Condensed Milk bottles.
- Instant Pudding Mix. The original recipe for Magnolia Bakery banana pudding uses vanilla instant pudding mix. But I tested the recipe with both vanilla AND banana instant pudding mixes—both were delicious! Use vanilla if you want the classic Magnolia Bakery flavor, and banana if you want a nostalgic banana pudding flavor. For both, I recommend using Jell-O instant pudding mix.
- Vanilla Wafer Cookies. Almost all banana pudding recipes—Magnolia Bakery or otherwise—use Nilla Wafers. It’s classic! Either mini or regular-sized works, but I recommend buying a box with snack pack portions since you only need a small amount of the cookies for this recipe. One snack-pack sized bag should do the trick. Save the rest for another recipe or for snacking!
- Bananas. Although I typically recommend using spotty and overly ripe bananas for my other banana recipes, I don’t recommend doing so here. It’ll make the pudding too mushy! Instead, find a medium banana (around 4 ounces or 113 grams peeled) that is firm but JUST ripe. This texture will give your small batch banana pudding the perfect texture!
How To Make The Recipe (With Pictures!)
Now, check out photos of some key steps in the recipe. Use this section as a guide to help you achieve the right textures when assembling your banana pudding!
Recommended Baking Equipment To Make Small Batch Banana Pudding
Although I love my KitchenAid stand mixer, a regular-sized one is simply too big for this small batch recipe. This small batch recipe contains such small quantities of the ingredients—the mixer attachments will have a hard time reaching them at the bottom of a big bowl! It’ll be faster and easier if you use a handheld electric mixer.
KitchenAid Go Cordless Hand Mixer
My favorite handheld electric mixer is this KitchenAid Go Cordless Hand Mixer. Unlike other handheld mixers, it doesn’t need to plug into the wall! It is cordless and runs off a re-chargeable battery; you can take it anywhere in your kitchen to help you bake.
Check out my other equipment recommendations for small batch baking recipes in my post: Best Small Batch Baking Tools.
Best Recipe Tips
Foolproof Techniques To Help You Make The Banana Pudding
- Plan ahead for this one! The pudding mix needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before setting. Make sure the water is cold to get it to firm up faster! In general, I like to make it a day ahead of making the whipped cream and assembling the pudding. After assembling the pudding, you’ll also need to refrigerate it for at least 2 hours to let the wafer cookies soften.
- The recipe instructs you to whip the heavy cream to “firm peaks.” The best way to see if you have this texture is to do a test with a whisk! Dip the tip of a whisk into the whipped cream, remove it, and quickly turn it upside down. If the cream is too soft, it will slide off the whisk and you’ll need to keep whisking. If the cream has a cloud-like texture with peaks that lose their shape, you’re at the “soft peaks” stage and need to continue whisking. Whisk for just a little longer and do the test again—the peaks should hold, and you’re officially at the “firm peaks” stage! Just watch out: this happens pretty soon after the “soft peaks” stage, and it’s easy to overdo it and make the cream overly clumpy.
Storing The Banana Pudding
- Bananas brown quickly when peeled, sliced, and exposed to air. So when assembling the pudding, make sure to coat any banana slices completely in the pudding! This helps prevent the banana from browning. After that, store in an airtight container with a sheet of plastic wrap pressed directly onto the pudding.
- The recipe should fill a 16-ounce canning jar (I like these wide mouth ones from Ball!) right to the brim, making these jars the perfect storage container.
Get the Recipe:
Small Batch Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding (Makes 1 Pint)
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Total: 20 minutes
Servings: 1 pint
This small batch Magnolia Bakery banana pudding recipe makes just ONE PINT of creamy, dreamy banana pudding! Despite yielding a smaller portion, the recipe is an exact copycat of the famous Magnolia Bakery banana pudding with a light, airy, silky texture.
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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
