Bully's holiday recipe

Yes! I Like To Cook Too :3))

BANANA MERINGUE PUDDING

To check if your meringue is stiff, lift the beaters out of the bowl and upend them: The peaks should stick straight up.

Ingredients:

Pudding

4 large eggs

⅔ cup sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

4 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Pinch of kosher salt

Assembly

1 11-oz. box vanilla wafer cookies

3 ripe bananas, thinly sliced

4 large egg whites

½ cup sugar

Preparation:

Lightly whisk eggs in a large bowl just to blend. Whisk sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Gradually whisk milk into sugar mixture and heat over medium heat, whisking often, until very warm to the touch. Gradually whisk half of hot milk mixture into eggs, then whisk egg mixture back into milk mixture in saucepan.

Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened and whisk leaves a trail in pudding (it should be the consistency of mayonnaise), about 4 minutes. Remove from heat, add butter, vanilla, and salt and whisk until butter is melted and mixture is smooth.

Strain pudding through a fine-mesh sieve into another large bowl. Cover pudding with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto the surface. Chill until cool, about 2 hours.

Spread one-third of pudding evenly in a 2-qt. baking dish. Top with half of cookies and half of bananas. Repeat layers one more time and top with remaining third of pudding. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.

Just before serving, heat broiler. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat egg whites until foamy. With motor running, gradually add sugar. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form.

Spoon meringue over pudding and swirl decoratively. Broil until meringue is dark brown in spots, about 1 minute.

Good Meringue

Egg whites beaten with cream of tartar, then sugar until those famous stiff peaks form...golly, that's good meringue! A nice, basic recipe."

4 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Make in a very clean steel or glass bowl; grease will break down your meringue. Don't use plastic bowls!

2. Egg whites must be pure; if you get a little yolk in them, it's full of fats that will break down your meringue.

3. Beat on high until the peaks start bulging out in front of your beaters. For me, this takes about 7-8 minutes.

4. Add the sugar, vanilla, and cream of tartar when you are about halfway to 3/4 through.

5. If you want the meringue to not separate and make a liquid layer on your pie, put it on your custard or filling while it is still hot. The hot custard cooks the meringue from the bottom, and the oven cooks it from the top. If you put meringue on cool filling, the bottom of it may stay raw and can separate.

6. When you put on the meringue, use your knife to meld it to the edge of your pie crust.

7. Cook in a 350F oven for 7 minutes for lightly browned.