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These cookie sandwiches are almost finger food, but not quite. You’ll want to serve them on a small plates, with spoons or forks. When preparing them, don’t trust the taste of the filling when it’s freshly made. It needs to be complimented by the bananas and even so, its flavor will significantly improve when solidly chilled.
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Serves 8
Ingredients
1 tub (3 cups) regular Cool Whip, thawed
8 oz. full-fat cream cheese, room temperature
1 box (3.4-oz.) Jell-O Instant Banana Pudding
1 cup heavy cream, optional
2½ large bananas, sliced no thicker than the width of one cookie
1 package of Pepperidge Farm Chessmen Cookies (24 cookies)[1]
12 maraschino cherries (optional)
Banana Cream Pie Bars Require Special Equipment
You’re going to need a 1″H x 7″W x ⅞″D spacer. (The height is flexible. It should be at least 1 inch.) I used a piece of cardboard packaging, which I wrapped with plastic wrap. You could MacGuyver one with a couple 3-oz boxes of Jell-O, scissors, duct tape, and plastic wrap. You could also just squish some foil into the right shape … once you’ve read on, I think you’ll understand what you need to do.
Directions
Line an 8 x 8″ pan with 12 unbroken cookies, four across and three down. You’ll have some extra space at the bottom of the pan. Place your spacer in that extra space, to hold the cookies in place. Set aside.
Beat cream cheese on speed 6 for 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Stir in pudding just until combined. Lighten the mixture with half the whip, then fold in remaining whip. This will produce a very thick pie filling. If you’d like to lighten it, remove the filling to a large mixing bowl, clean and dry the stand mixer bowl, and whip the optional cream to stiff peaks. Lighten the filling with ⅓ of the cream and fold in the remainder.
Spread half pie filling over cookies in the baking pan. Top with half the banana slices. Add middle cookie layer, precisely duplicating your bottom layer’s 4-across-by-3-down configuration. Unless your pan is straight-sided, the cookies in this layer will probably not touch one another unless you build your layer up from the spacer, and keep two adjacent sides centered. Spread remaining cream cheese mixture, distribute remaining banana slices. Press a cherry into the cream cheese mixture at the center of each bar, if desired. Top the whole thing with remaining cookies, once again duplicating the 4-by-3 layout.
Refrigerate until ready to eat. The cookies will reach an ideal texture in about 8 hours.
Inspired by “Banana Cream Pie Bars,” from Peanut Butter and Peppers.
Mixer Speeds:
I use a KitchenAid stand mixer with the following speeds: Stir, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. I tend to use these speed numbers when writing recipes, because I realize that the KitchenAid is a popular mixer. If you use a different mixer, here’s how those speeds translate:
2
4
6
8
10
Notes:
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OMG i’ve tried this recipe and it was so delicious. Thanks for sharing such an amazing recipe 🙂