Milkjam Creamery - Nana's Pudding

Nana's Pudding - Roasted Banana Ice Cream with Kool Whip, Nilla Wafers

 

Milkjam Creamery of south Minneapolis has released its June flavors (instagram link here).  The theme is "nostalgic favorites".  The first of these flavors is called Nana's Pudding (instagram link here).  It is a roasted banana ice cream with swirl of kool whip and vanilla wafer mix-ins and it is available only in pints.  This flavor is based on the classic "banana pudding and vanilla wafers" recipe.  A google search for this recipe returns more hits than I can count.  I do remember it being so popular that when my mom bought a box of Nabisco's Nilla Wafers when I was a kid, the box itself often features pictures of this dessert on the back and had it's own recipe for it printed on the side.  I have had a few banana-and-vanilla-wafer themed pints before from Steve's, Graeter's and Phin & Phebes.  It will be fun to see how Milkjam's flavor compares.

Removing the lid, I can see the textured yellowish color of the roasted banana base with some of the "kool whip" swirls of whipped cream visible in it.  I also some several generous-sized chunks of vanilla wafers visible right away on top as well.  Digging in, the banana flavor is quite strong, aromatic and sweet.  I love it, but you have to be a fan of sweet banana.  I have written before about how I find there are two types of banana flavoring: the earthy banana-bread banana and the sweet banana-cream-pie banana.  This is definitely a banana-cream-pie banana.  The swirl of whipped cream adds to this as well.  You don't get big hunks of whipped cream by itself, but the presence of this swirl definitely makes the banana sweeter.  The vanilla wafer chunks are some of the larger that I have seen in an ice cream flavor which is a good thing.  They provide a lot of chunk to this otherwise creamy and sweet pint.

I loved this banana-pudding-and-vanilla-wafer pint from Milkjam Creamery.  This is my new favorite implementation of this flavor.  I tastes a lot like banana cream pie which is my favorite type of pie.  In addition to being sweet, the banana flavor is quite strong as well.  I don't know how they got the banana flavor to be strong while keeping the bananas looking nice and yellow, but whatever it is, it worked.  A warning, though, that this is a very strong and sweet flavor which might not be everyone's cup of tea.  But if you are a fan of that type of banana pudding then you will love this flavor.