Cold Banana Pudding

Enough about stress and health! Let's talk food ...

I've been making home-made full-fat yogurt for a few months. Mine is actually extra-fat, because I use one part organic heavy cream to 3 parts organic whole milk. I make 2-cup batches, which I usually eat in 3 portions. I keep it in the refrigerator, of course, and I usually slice a banana or other fruit into the yogurt and sprinkle with cinnamon. 

This recipe uses the exact same foods to produce a dessert that's just as healthy but tastes sinfully good.

A Day or So Ahead ...

I frequently have several bananas reach "perfect" at the same time--freckles, wonderful aroma, etc., but I can't eat 3 or 4 bananas in one day. I throw extras into the freezer peels and all. 

About the Yogurt ...

Whether it's home-made or store-bought, once you use some of the yogurt (clear liquid) whey should seep into the empty space. That's good, because the yogurt becomes even thicker and the whey can be stirred back in but can also be used separately. That's what we'll do. From my yogurt, there's between 1 and 2 tbsp whey for each serving of yogurt remaining in the dish.

Make the Pudding! (at the beginning of meal preparation)

* 1 frozen banana (take it out to soften slightly 10-15 minutes before using)
* 2/3 c. full-fat plain yogurt
* 1-2 tbsp whey
* cinnamon to taste

1. Peel and slice/chunk the banana. It should still be frozen but softened enough to slice easily.
2. Put the banana chunks, whey and cinnamon into your blender/food processor/bowl and immersion blender.
3. Pulse just enough to turn the banana and whey into a thick paste.
4. Gently stir the banana/whey/cinnamon paste into the chilled yogurt; I like to barely mix it in rather than thoroughly whip it.
5. Put the pudding in the freezer and fix/eat your meal.
6A. When you're ready for dessert, the pudding will be very cold but not really frozen. Mine made a thick creamy pudding with rich banana flavor.
6B. There's a short-cut method too. Just slice/dice the frozen banana into chilled yogurt and sprinkle with cinnamon. The frozen/cool combination is very interesting and the flavors are a little more separate.
6C. If you make pudding and want it truly frozen, you'd need to make it farther ahead. I don't know if it would have  creamy texture, it might be more of the icy frozen yogurt texture. If I try it that way, I'll come back and update this post.

Just remember, this is not a "paleo-friendly" dessert. This is a healthy probiotic food that just happens to taste like a dessert. Enjoy!

Thoughts About Home-Made Yogurt

Forgive me if I gush about my new hobby, but you know how it is. The  new toy gets all the praise.

It's less than 3 weeks since I began making my own yogurt, but by itself that should tell you there isn't a long learning curve. I've been asking myself why I waited so long to start making it, but the answer is that I could never tolerate it before. Since I started drinking water kefir, though, good things have happened and I now handle a dish of yogurt just fine every morning.

Let's Eat!

Because ancestral eating means eating whole foods without fear of animal fats including dairy, I don't make reduced-fat yogurt. In fact, I enhance my whole milk with heavy cream. Fats have been wrongly accused of causing heart disease when research now shows the opposite--low fat diets increase your chance of suffering heart disease. If you want to read more about that, here's a link to a relevant article. However, if you want to make reduced-fat yogurt then just buy reduced-fat milk.

Here are my first reactions to making yogurt:

• I can't believe how easy it is!  
• I love having control of how much/little fat is in the yogurt
• I love having control of how much I make each time rather than having to buy containers that are too large/small
• I love the flavor--the plain yogurt isn't sweet but it definitely tastes like a dairy product unlike the commercial ones that taste like sweeteners, thickeners and stabilizers
• I love the texture. I'm already successfully producing a nice thick yogurt that mixes easily with fruit and is smooth on the tongue either plain or mixed
• I like the fact that my  home-made has a full complement of live, active cultures and has no appreciable shelf life as I make it every 3 days

And that's just the beginning. In case you're curious, I'll detail a few facts:

• I bought a yogurt maker. Living in a 5th wheel RV, temperatures are comfortable but quite variable. In winter, it gets cool overnight and in summer it's quite warm despite 2 air conditioners and a ceiling fan. I bought one that allows me to use my own container of preferred size. Many people are able to make yogurt without a yogurt maker, though, and advice is easy to find online.
• I buy organic whole milk and heavy cream (the cream also goes in my coffee.) I purposely tried mixtures of different strengths--milk plus a little cream, half/half and mostly cream. My strong favorite is 1.5 cups of whole milk and 1/2 cup of cream. It sets up beautifully but still has a milky taste.
• Few supplies are needed other than the yogurt maker. I use a stainless steel bowl for heating the milk/cream, a silicone spatula to stir, my full-purpose glass measuring cup, an instant-read thermometer and 2 2-cup ceramic mugs-with-handles that are nice for handling the warm liquid and yogurt. The only things I purchased for the yogurt project were the 2 2-cup mugs and a package of culture starter.
• To make the yogurt, you heat the milk/cream to 185 degrees, then cool to 110. You then add the starter culture (I used the one I bought for the first batch only) or 1 tbsp live-culture yogurt per cup of liquid. I reserve 2 tbsp of yogurt from each batch to start the next.
• My yogurt is ready in about 5 hours; I cool it briefly then cover and put it in the fridge. Right now I'm using about 2/3 cup per day.

New Batch

Sample for Next Batch

Instead of staring in bewilderment at the supermarket's yogurt display, looking in vain for full-fat yogurt without additives, I now open the fridge and take out my creamy fresh yogurt and all I have to do is decide which fruit sounds good today.

Resources: The most complete information I've found about making yogurt at home is at makeyourownyogurt and I recommend you check it out.

Holiday Splurge: Yogurt as a Between Meal Dessert

The best things about my recipe are that I'm using home-made, full-fat yogurt and there are no sweeteners used.


If you aren't making yogurt, then look for plain unsweetened yogurt with no- or few additives as they basically make yogurt taste like something else. My favorite part of my home-made is that it still tastes like a dairy product. I can and will eat it plain, but only to keep losing weight. Once I reach my desired weight I plan to eat it this way every day.


I start with a ripe banana. Mash half of it coarsely with a fork and sprinkle with cinnamon. Add your yogurt. I use about 2/3 cup of yogurt; you should start with your preferred portion and, if it's much more or less than 2/3 cup you may want to adjust the fruit quantities from what I describe.


Once the mashed banana and cinnamon are stirred into the yogurt, slice the other  half of the banana and add a handful of either sliced or whole grapes in your desired quantity. Gently mix with your spoon and EAT! The mashed banana sweetens the yogurt but not so much that the other fruit tastes sour.


To enhance the flavors, I add a few raw pecan or walnut halves for contrast.


Variations can include replacing the grapes with any of these: kiwi, sweet apple, pineapple (preferably fresh), berries.