Follow our step-by-step, photo illustrated recipe to make this unique dessert. We’ve combined the flavors of a Southern Banana Pudding to make this delicious cheesecake with a Vanilla Wafer crust. It’s much easier to make than you might think. Printable recipe included.
Banana Pudding Cheesecake
Banana Pudding is one of the major food groups for Southerners.
When I saw recipes for a Banana Pudding Cheesecake, I was determined I wanted to make one.
I purchased a Springform cake pan well over a year ago, but never got around to using it. Now was the time to break it in.
Do you like cheesecake? To me, they don’t have a lot of flavor in them, at least not the one’s I’ve tasted. The best part seems to be the toppings you place on them. Whether it’s Strawberry, Blueberry, Caramel or any other topping, I just think that’s what makes the cheesecake taste so good. How about you?
We have a small drive-thru place here in town that sells New York style cheesecake by the slice. Kind of unique for a drive-thru place, but I find myself ordering a slice ever now and then. Generally, I’ll get it with the Strawberry or Blueberry toppings. Those two are my favorites.
This cheesecake is also light on the banana flavor. Since you’ll be following along on my first time ever baking one, I might would add a little banana extract type flavoring to another one when I make it again. Or, maybe a little more vanilla extract. Keep it in mind if you decide to bake one of your own.
I was quiet pleased with the outcome though. I searched bunches of recipes, and came up with pretty much my own version to make this one.
It really was very simple to put together. It just needs to rest in your refrigerator for 6 hours, or even better, it should stay there overnight in order to firm up properly. Waiting that long before getting the chance to slice it was the hard part.
While I’ve thought about making it for some time now, I must admit that I regret not making it sooner.
I had an auctioneer friend that loved cheesecake, and he always talked about banana pudding. Anytime a large bowl came up for sell at his auction house, he’d always say he’d buy the bowl if someone would make him a banana pudding in it.
Sadly, he passed away just a couple of weeks ago, and I never had the chance to offer him a slice.
So, don’t hesitate on making this one. If you love Banana Pudding, and you love Cheesecake, I’m sure you’ll like it. Ready to get started? Alright then, let’s get in the kitchen, and… Let’s Get Cooking!
Dedicated in memory of Col. Wicker.
Banana Pudding Cheesecake Recipe: You’ll need these ingredients.
Be sure to let your eggs, cream cheese, and the butter, come up to room temperature before you start making your cheesecake.
Crush the vanilla wafers into crumbs.
I placed my vanilla wafers, except for about 20 of them, into a plastic freezer bag with a zip top. Freezer bags are a little thicker than a regular ziploc type of bag and thus stronger.
A rolling pin made fairly simple work of crushing the wafers into crumbs for the cheesecake crust.
Measure out the needed amount of crumbs and place them into a mixing bowl.
Add the granulated sugar.
Add the cinnamon.
Stir all the dry ingredients together well.
Add the melted butter.
The butter was already at room temperature, so it only took about 10 seconds in the microwave to melt it down.
Stir the butter into the crumbs well. You want to make sure all of the crumbs are moistened.
The crumbs should be moist enough to stick together when squeezed. If not, add a bit more melted butter.
I’m going to be using my new springform pan.
I’ve had this pan well over a year but have never used it. This is a two piece pan. The bottom comes out, and the ring, as you can see, has a latch that lets you release the sides from the bottom so its easier to get your cheesecake out of the pan.
Springform pans are mostly used for cheesecakes and ice cream cakes, but is not used for regular cake batters because they are too thin.
Notice the “lip” on the bottom of the pan. This helps keep the batter or filling inside the pan and not leaking out.
You’ll need to grease the sides of the pan.
I used the wrapper from my stick of butter to grease down the sides. You could also use a spray type of shortening if you have that.
I want to place parchment paper in the bottom of the pan.
Since the pan was new, I used the advertising piece that was on the inside of the pan as a perfect template for cutting the parchment. I placed it on a piece of parchment and traced around the outside with a pencil, then used my kitchen shears to cut the circle out.
I assembled the springform pan together, then spread a little softened butter around the bottom to help hold the parchment paper in place.
Use sugar to coat the sides of the pan.
Normally, a recipe will tell you to “grease and flour” your baking pan. I found this tip for using sugar to coat the sides and wanted to give it a try.
I placed about a quarter cup of sugar in the pan, then rolled it around the inside edge of the pan to give it a good coating. Any excess sugar was dumped out. I’m anxious to see how this idea works.
Next, place the moistened crumbs inside the pan and spread them out with a spoon.
I placed a little butter on my fingers, then pressed the crumbs firmly into the bottom of the pan. I also tried to create a bit of a rim around the outer edge that was just a bit higher than the bottom. Sort of like when you spread out pizza dough.
Place the crust in a oven pre-heated to 350F degrees. Let it bake for just 8 minutes. Watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn. Remove from oven, place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Peel your bananas and place them in a medium sized sauce pot.
Be sure to remove all the “phloem” from your bananas. No body likes to eat that stuff.
Did you know that stringy stuff you find on bananas is called Phloem? It’s pronounced FLOM, and it’s about like finding a hair in your food if you don’t remove it. Yuck!
And, did you know that if you hold the banana by it’s handle and peel it from the top end down, you will not get any of that Phloem in the first place?
Okay, I didn’t know this either, but I felt certain that stringy stuff had a name and I looked it up. Smile.
I also learned that Americans eat an average of 27 POUNDS of bananas every year per person.
The bigger question would be how many pounds do they BUY in order to eat that many? I buy three or four bananas about each time I go grocery shopping and end up throwing two of them away because they become too soft before I get around to eating them. I have good intentions when I buy them, but they go bad too quick. Is it just me?
Add the lemon juice. This is suppose to help keep the bananas from turning dark.
Add the brown sugar.
Mash the bananas. I used my potato masher for this part.
Now, I’m not sure this part is actually needed, but I did it anyway.
Place the sauce pot over Medium heat on your stove top. Stir it constantly, and let it heat up enough to just dissolve the brown sugar.
I thought the sugar was pretty well dissolved before it ever went on the heat, but I did this part anyway. If yours looks dissolved, just skip over heating it up and I think you’ll be fine.
Grab a large mixing bowl and add the cream cheese.
Use your mixer to beat the cream cheese until it’s creamy and smooth. This shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes if you have let the cream cheese come up to room temperature ahead of time.
Gradually add the sugar to the cream cheese.
Add the cornstarch and mix that in.
The cornstarch is suppose to prevent the cheesecake from cracking when baking.
Add the vanilla extract.
I always suggest that you crack your eggs into a small dish as opposed to directly into your recipe. It makes it easier to remove any pieces of shell that might fall in.
Add the eggs one at a time into the batter.
Beat the eggs on a slow speed just to the point of where the yellow part is mixed in. You don’t want to add a lot of air into your cheesecake, so go easy on the mixing when adding the eggs.
Mix it just to the point to where everything is combined.
By the way, I’m still loving my OXO Illuminated Hand Mixer. Yep, it’s got a headlight on it. Smile.
Add the bananas to the cream cheese mixture.
I think the cooking caused them to turn a bit darker than I would have liked.
Use a spoon and gently fold the bananas into the cream cheese mixture. Again, do this just to the point to where you feel like everything is combined together without over mixing it. We’re still trying to avoid making air bubbles and whipping air into our mixture.
This part took two hands. Pour the cream cheese mixture into your pan and gently spread it out with a spoon. I also tried to smooth out the top a bit, but it didn’t seem to do a lot of good so I stopped.
Hey, we’re baking this for the first time together. I’m learning as I go with this one. Same as you, but I’ve always thought that was one of the best parts about our recipes on Taste of Southern. You’re seeing the actual way I make a recipe based on the printed recipe that I provide along with it. All my recipes are kitchen tested this way so you shouldn’t experience any surprises when trying our recipes. How’s that?
Place the cheesecake in a 300F degree oven. Let it bake for 60-80 minutes or until it’s done. A cheesecake is done when the outer edges are solid but the center should still wiggle a bit when you slightly shake the cake pan.
CAUTION: Do Not Open the oven for at least 60 minutes after it starts to bake. Doing so could cause cracks in your cake. You wouldn’t want that to happen if at all possible.
I actually baked mine for 1 hour and 25 minutes.
When the cake is done. Turn the oven OFF and crack open the door to your oven. Just let the cake sit inside until it completely cools.
Here’s mine out of the oven after it had cooled. As you can see it has a couple of small cracks. It’s not a disaster by any means and I think I know what I might have done to cause it.
I had my timer set for 1 hour and 8 minutes before I would open the oven. When I opened it and wiggled the cake gently, I saw that the outer edge was still wobbly. The next time I opened the oven, 10 minutes later, I saw the two cracks in it. I think it probably happened because I opened the oven and tested it a bit too soon. Don’t know that for certain, but it sounds reasonable doesn’t it? Smile.
When the cake is cooled, cover it and place it in the refrigerator to firm up.
It’s best if you can leave it overnight, but it does need about 6 hours to set before you attempt to slice it. Just saying.
Remove the cake from the pan.
This can be a little tricky. Remember the bottom of the springform pan comes out of the pan itself.
I used a large plastic container to sit the cake on first. Then, I released the latch to the pan. This way, the rim of the pan could slide DOWN and away from the cheesecake.
Since the cake had released from the sides while it baked, this part actually turned out to be pretty simple. I guess the coating of sugar on the inside edge of the pan worked pretty good after all.
Slice, serve, and Enjoy!
Okay, lets be honest about this. I wanted to slip the cake and the parchment paper off of the metal bottom of the pan before attempting to slice it.
Perhaps I was trying to move too fast after taking the cheesecake out of the refrigerator, but the bottom crust just didn’t want to let me get a knife under the parchment paper. The bottom of the pan has a small lip around the outer edge, and this made it almost impossible to get under the edge of the parchment paper.
When I finally did get under and tried to lift the cake, it started to break in that area. I stopped.
So, now I had to try and remove a slice by making sure I cut it right up to that lip on the pan. That didn’t work so well either. Hmmm.
I had to remove the first slice in a couple of parts. After that, the next slice came out pretty easy.
I’ll work on this the next time. Smile.
