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If you’ve got overripe bananas sitting on your counter and a can of sweetened condensed milk in the pantry, you’re already most of the way there. This baked banana pudding comes together in about eight minutes of actual work — you slice, you whisk, you pour, and the oven handles the rest. What comes out is creamy, caramelized, and somewhere between banana pudding and a simple Custard tart. It’s the kind of dessert that disappears fast.
Why You’ll Love This
Only 5 ingredients — bananas, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon. That’s it. Nothing obscure, nothing you need to run to a specialty store for.
The flavor is really something — the bananas go jammy and soft in the oven, and the condensed milk caramelizes at the edges into these little golden-brown spots that taste almost butterscotchy. It’s like banana pudding and a simple flan crossed paths.
Minimal prep, mostly hands-off — eight minutes to put together, then the oven does all the work for about half an hour while you do something else.
Works for any occasion — weeknight dessert, something to bring to a gathering, or just a way to rescue bananas that are past their snacking prime.
A Word or Two About the Ingredients
Bananas: They need to be ripe. Not just yellow — I mean really ripe, the kind that have brown spots and feel soft when you press them. Those are actually sweeter, and they’ll get even softer in the oven in a way that’s really good rather than weird. If your bananas are still firm, this will still work but it won’t be as good. I usually use four large ones, sometimes five if they’re on the small side.
Sweetened condensed milk: Not evaporated milk, not regular milk — sweetened condensed milk, the thick kind in the can. This is not a place to improvise. The sugar that’s already in there is part of what caramelizes. I’ve used fat-free before and it works but it’s a little thinner. I usually just get the regular kind.
Eggs: Two large eggs. I beat them before I add them to the condensed milk. Nothing fancy.
Vanilla: Real vanilla if you have it. A full teaspoon. I’ve made it with the imitation kind and it was fine but if you’ve got the real stuff, use it here.
Cinnamon: Just a small amount. I usually measure it, but I also sometimes just shake the jar a few times and call it close enough.
Ingredients
4 large ripe bananas (really ripe — I mean it)
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cinnamon, maybe a pinch more for the top
A little butter or nonstick spray for the pan
How to Make It
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch pie plate — I just rub a little butter around with a paper towel, nothing complicated.
Peel your bananas and slice them into rounds, about half an inch thick. You don’t need a ruler, just try not to go too thin or they’ll basically disappear into the custard. Lay them out in the pie plate, overlapping a little. They don’t have to be perfect. Mine never are and it’s always fine.
In a bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, the beaten eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon. It’ll be thick and pale and smell absolutely wonderful — this is where I always have to remind myself not to taste it because of the raw eggs, a lesson I’ve technically already learned the hard way. Don’t taste it. Just trust the process.
Pour that mixture slowly over the bananas. It’ll settle down into the gaps between them, which is what you want. I tap the pan on the counter a few times to help it along. Then set the pie plate on a baking sheet — I cannot tell you how many times I’ve skipped this step and regretted it when something dribbles down the bottom of the oven.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. You want the edges set and the top to be lightly golden, with those caramelized banana spots around the edges. The center should have just a slight jiggle when you nudge it — not sloshy, just a little movement. It’ll finish setting as it cools.
Let it rest for at least 15 or 20 minutes before you serve it. I know that’s hard. The smell is genuinely difficult to wait through. But it needs that time to thicken up or it’ll be more of a soup situation, and while the soup situation still tastes good, the texture is better when you give it time.
Serve it warm, right out of the pie plate, with a big spoon. That’s it.
Oh — I sometimes add a tiny extra pinch of cinnamon on top before serving. Not always. Depends on my mood.
Variations I’ve Actually Tried
My daughter, who does not like cinnamon (has never liked cinnamon, which I find baffling), makes this without it and says the banana and vanilla flavors come through even more clearly. She’s probably right, though I still put it in mine.
Once I scattered mini chocolate chips over the bananas before pouring the custard on. That was extremely good. That might actually be the best version. I’m not sure why I don’t do it every time.
A handful of crushed vanilla wafers pressed into the top in the last ten minutes of baking is something I tried once and then my husband requested again three times, so make of that what you will. Graham crackers work too.
I tried adding a mashed banana to the custard mixture once, thinking it would add more banana flavor. It did, but it also made the texture a little dense and the top looked strange. I wouldn’t do that again.
Storing and Reheating
Cover it and keep it in the fridge — it’ll be good for about three days, though in my house it’s never lasted past the second day. Cold, it tastes almost like a banana Cream Pie filling. Warm from the microwave, just 30 or 40 seconds, it goes back to being custardy and soft.
I’ve left it on the counter overnight once by accident, which I don’t recommend. It was still technically fine the next morning and I did eat some of it for breakfast standing at the kitchen counter, but properly speaking, refrigerate it.
A Few Last Things
I’ve been making this long enough now that it doesn’t feel like a recipe anymore — it just feels like something I make. The kind of thing where I don’t need to look anything up, I just know. There aren’t that many recipes that get to that status in my kitchen, so I notice when something earns it.
If you’ve got bananas going soft on your counter right now, you already have most of what you need. The other things are probably already in your pantry.
It’s just a good, simple dessert. The oranges are still in the fruit bowl, but we don’t have to settle for that anymore.