Banana-su!

If you're living in Australia, how excited are we that Banana prices have FINALLY come down?! For those of you not in Oz, prices hit $15 per kg, instead of the usual $1-3 per kg, due to natural disasters which destroyed crops.  So if you were lucky enough to eat a banana over the winter months, you are obviously a kazillionaire!

Anyway, a few weeks ago a morning news team were lucky enough to travel to NYC for the week - how do I get a job on that show??  The lovely ladies on the show were raving about a dessert they'd picked up from the ridiculously famous Magnolia Bakery called Banana Pudding.  Luckily, I was able to find the recipe all over the web and decided to try it out.  It was yum-O!  And very popular at the dinner party I took it along to.  Mind you I did make a few adjustments as the recipe is from the US and we don't have all the same ingredients Down Under.

Word of warning... this is not diet friendly... but it's totally worth cheating!  On the up side this dessert can be made in advance and just like Tiramisu, tastes best a day or two afterwards.

Ingredients

- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk

- 1 1/2 cups ice cold water

- 1 pack of instant vanilla pudding

- 2 cups cream (original recipe says 3, but I found this too heavy)

- 3 or 4 bananas, thinly sliced

- 1 pack of Sponge Finger biscuits (smaller pack is enough, 395gr)

- Toasted flaked almonds or hazelnuts or a crushed up Flake chocolate bar

- Frangelico, or liqueur of choice (optional)

- Milk (optional)

How to...

- Using a cake mixer (or a medium bowl, whisk and a little elbow grease) beat together the condensed milk and the ice cold water until well combined, should take about a minute.

- Add the pudding mix and beat until dissolved, about 2 minutes.

- Cover and refrigerate until set, about 3-4 hours or overnight.

- Once the pudding mix is set, beat the cream just until stiff peaks form - but not until it's stiff and butter like.

- Fold the pudding mix into the cream until blended and no steaks remain.  The mix should be pale yellow.

- In a large serving dish (glass is prettiest) arrange one third of the sponge biscuits on the base of the dish and sprinkle generously with liqueur for adults, or milk for kids. If it's easier you can quickly dip the biscuits before you layer the dessert.  But don't soak as these biscuits will fall apart very quickly.

- Then layer a third of the bananas and gently spread a third of the pudding mixture on top.

- Repeat the layering process so you have 9 layers in total, finishing with the pudding mixture.

- Sprinkle the toasted nuts or chocolate on top, cover with cling wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

Whoops! Forgot the chocolate!