In a medium sized saucepan, whisk together your sugar, salt, egg, egg yolks and cornstarch until it is completely smooth.
Drizzle in your heavy cream and your milk, whisking constantly. Heat this over medium heat and allow it to come to a simmer, stirring constantly. Once it starts to simmer it should begin to thicken, this takes 2-4 minutes. Don’t allow it to come to a boil or it will curdle.
Remove from the heat and whisk in your butter and vanilla extract.
Pour into a bowl and put a piece of plastic wrap on top of the pudding so a skin doesn’t form. Let it chill for at least 4 hours or ideally overnight. This makes 2 cups of pudding.
Beat heavy cream with the sugar until soft peaks form.
Keep half of the whipped cream to the side. Fold the other half of the whipped cream in with the pudding. Fold until it is completely smooth.
Layer your jars as follows: a few cookies, a spoonful of pudding, a couple banana slices. Repeat this until you get to the top of the jar and top with the reserved whipped cream. Refrigerate, preferably for a few hours so the cookies can soften slightly. When ready to serve, top with a banana slice, a cookie and some crushed cookies on top of the whipped cream.
Notes
My recipes have been developed and tested in metric grams. I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. I have provided a conversion to US cups but please note that I haven’t tested the recipe with this method. Just click on ‘US customary’ above the ingredients.Room Temperature: I make sure that all of my ingredients are at room temperature before I start the recipe, so pull out all of the ingredients about 2 hours before you start baking.Salt: If you don’t have kosher salt, halve the amount of salt called for in the recipe. 1 teaspoon kosher salt = ½ teaspoon fine salt.Butter: I use European style butter, like Kerry Gold, in my recipes.
Jars: I used 0.25 litre Kilner jam jars, but you could also use those larger Bonne Maman jars (I always save mine when I get jam!) but note it will only make 2 jars worth of banana pudding. Feel free to use any dessert container or jar you have!
Storage: Keep the finished puddings in their jars for up to 3 days in the fridge. I don't recommend topping them with the sliced banana until you're just about to serve them, as the banana on top will brown slightly and dry out. Making Ahead: You can make the vanilla pudding the night before.