This past weekend my supper club gave a dinner for my bride-to-be daughter and her fiancée. One thing you can always count on with our group is good food because there are some wonderful cooks. For the desserts Saturday night my three favorite dessert flavors were there, chocolate, lemon and banana, specifically banana pudding.

Banana pudding is one of the truly southern desserts that I think every new bride should learn to make, so here is a copy of the two recipes I will be sending on to my daughter Holly to include in her recipe book.

This first recipe I got when my husband was in medical school. We had a group of students and their wives who got together and ate at each others homes about once a month. One of the wives always made banana pudding for her dessert and she shared her recipe with us, and I’ve used it ever since.

Banana pudding

2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding

1 8 ounce container of Cool Whip

3 cups of milk

1 8 ounce container of sour cream

1 box of vanilla wafers

5-7 ripe bananas

Line a large dish with a single layer of wafers and cover these with thinly sliced bananas. In a large bowl mix together the milk and sour cream. Then beat in the pudding mix and the carefully fold in the Cool Whip. Pour 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the wafers and bananas. Place on top of this another layer of wafers and bananas and pour on the remaining half of the pudding. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving and its best if made the day before.

This old Southern dessert was being made long before there was instant pudding mix in kitchen cabinets. So a while back I decided to go through recipes and learn to make banana pudding from scratch. Many of the recipes I found called for whole milk and a lot of egg yolks. I finally found this recipe in a book called Classic Home Desserts. It works without fail. And while it is easier to use packaged instant pudding — I do it all the time — there is a certain satisfaction of knowing you can make a true homemade dessert.

From scratch banana pudding

2 1/2 cups milk (whole or 2 percent)

1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 ripe bananas

Vanilla wafers

Pour 1/2 cup of the milk into a bowl, add the 1/3 cup sugar, the eggs, egg yolk and cornstarch and whisk until smooth, set aside. In a small saucepan, combine the remaining 2 cups of milk and the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar. Bring almost to a boil over medium heat.

Whisking constantly, slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring to boil whisking constantly. Lower the heat and boil gently, whisking constantly until thickened and smooth, about 2 minutes. Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Strain into a clean bowl and whisk in the butter and vanilla until the butter melts.

Line a large dish with a single layer of wafers and cover these with thinly sliced bananas. Pour on half of the custard mixture. Add another layer of wafers and bananas and pour on the remaining custard mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and be sure the wrap touches the top of the custard so a skin doesn’t form. Store in the refrigerator.

Christina Hall writes a weekly column for The Democrat. She can be reached at christina.hall@natchezdemocrat.com.