Southern Banana Puddin'

This past summer, my mom and youngest brother, Eric, came to Dallas for a visit.  We decided to take a road trip to Austin, and on the way there stop at the Texas BBQ capital- Lockhart.  There were two restaurants that had been featured on the Travel Channel's 101 Tastiest Places to Chow Down: Smittey's BBQ and Black's BBQ so our interest was piqued.  Long story short, we unanimously decided that we liked Smittey's a ton better.  In fact, we really wanted to like Black's because the couple that owns the business are the cutest little old people ever, but we just didn't care for the taste of their meat.  However, the one redeeming factor was that this is where I met Banana Puddin'. And it was GOOD too.  Made from scratch with the vanilla wafers and whipped cream- it was bliss.  When I got back home I emailed my friend, Jessica and asked her how I had lived so long without knowing about Banana Pudding.  According to her,  (which by the way, she is totally a southern girl)- you can't say pudding.  You have to say "Puddin"  to sound legit. She is no newcomer to banana puddin' either.  So this is my attempt at making it myself from scratch.

Ingredients:
6 cups milk
6 egg yolks
1/3 cup flour
1/2 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. banana extract or 1 tbsp. banana liqueur
4 bananas
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2  box of vanilla wafers
1 1/2 cup whipped cream ( I beat some whipping cream with a dash of powdered sugar)

In a large mixing bowl,  blend the milk, egg yolks, vanilla extract and banana extract.  Set aside.  In a large non-stick pot or pan, add the butter and allow it to melt.  Next add the flour and combine it to form a roux.  Once the roux is formed, add the custard mixture and whisk it well.  Allow the mixture to cook on medium heat, breaking up and dissolving all of the flour into the custard.  Let it simmer until it's thickened, stirring occasionally. If it doesn't thicken to the desired consistency, add a little flour and whisk it into the mixture.  Remove from heat and transfer into a container with a lid and place in the fridge to cool completely.

I assembled the pudding into a nice wine goblet.  Make sure the pudding is completely cooled before assembling. I layered it as follows: a layer of pudding, whipped cream,  next a layer of wafers, then some more banana pudding, then sliced bananas and lastly top with whipped cream and a vanilla wafer and mint leaf to garnish .  If you were assembling it into a casserole dish, you'd start with pudding, then the wafers, then pudding, then bananas, then pudding then you'd top with whipped cream or do another layer of pudding and wafers, depending on how deep your dish is. However you assemble it, it's delicious!