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Banana Pudding Ice Cream

Banana pudding ice cream made with a cooked vanilla custard and churned until creamy, studded with crushed Nilla wafers and frozen banana slices. This Southern-style frozen banana dessert delivers a banana-and-cream bite that stays scoopable after freezing.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
chilling + freezing 4 hours 20 minutes
Total Time 4 hours 50 minutes
Servings: 8 servings
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Calories: 470
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Bananas
  • 3 very ripe bananas Use very ripe bananas for strong banana flavor and smooth blending.
Dairy and custard base
  • 2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 0.75 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 0.25 tsp salt
Mix-ins
  • 1.5 cup Nilla wafers Roughly crush so you get both fine crumbs and small wafer pieces.
  • 0.5 cup banana slices (frozen) Keep frozen until folding near the end of churning.

Equipment

  • 1 ice cream maker
  • 1 Dutch oven

Method
 

Blend bananas
  1. Blend the very ripe bananas until completely smooth, then set aside.
Cook custard
  1. Heat the heavy cream and whole milk over medium-low heat until steaming.
  2. Whisk the steaming cream mixture slowly into the egg yolks beaten with granulated sugar.
  3. Cook the custard over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches 175F (about 10 minutes).
  4. Strain the custard and stir in the vanilla extract and salt along with the banana puree.
Chill
  1. Cool the custard completely, then refrigerate for 4 hours to chill thoroughly.
Churn and add mix-ins
  1. Churn the chilled custard in an ice cream maker until thickened.
  2. Fold in the crushed Nilla wafers and the frozen banana slices in the last 2 minutes of churning.
Freeze to scoop
  1. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until scoopable.

Notes

For the smoothest banana pudding ice cream, strain the hot custard before chilling so the texture stays silky. Refrigerate any leftover in a sealed container for 3–4 days; freeze up to 2 months (allow 5–8 minutes at room temperature before scooping). For a dairy-light swap, use half-and-half in place of the whole milk and reduce heavy cream by half while keeping the custard method the same.