Growing up in the South, banana pudding was a regular and popular dessert at our house. Mom always made the custard from scratch in a double boiler. An idea came to me to make the dessert in individual cups and put a meringue topping on it. This will make 6 6-ounce ramekins of pudding.
1 ¾ cups of vanilla wafer crumbs. About 55 cookies plus 6 for decoration
1 stick of butter, melted
¾ cup of granulated sugar, divided
2 cups whole milk
3 large eggs, separated
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Bananas
Pulse the vanilla wafers in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. Pour into a bowl and mix with the melted butter until all the crumbs are moist. Press the crumb mixture into 6 6-ounce ramekins. Use about 4 tablespoons of the crumb mixture on the bottom and up the sides about ⅔ of the way up. Place the ramekins in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set the crust.
Place a metal or glass bowl over a pot of simmering water-there should only be about 1” of water in the pot, and the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Pour 2 cups of milk into the bowl. Whisk in the egg yolks, ½ cup of sugar and cornstarch. Stir with a spatula or whisk over the simmering water until it is hot and thickened.
Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the vanilla extract. Using a ½ cup ladle, divide the custard into the 6 prepared ramekins. Press about 4-5 slices of banana into the custard in each cup.
Separate the 3 egg whites into a clean mixing bowl. Using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer, whisk whites until they are almost forming peaks. Add ¼ cup of sugar to the whites. Beat until the egg whites are stiff and shiny.
Divide the meringue among the 6 ramekins and toast the tips using a small butane torch. For decoration, insert 1 vanilla wafer into the top of each pudding cup.