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Forget the ghosts and goblins. If you really want to frighten your svelte, trendy friends this Halloween, do it with a heavy and fat-laden – yet irresistible –  dessert!

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Yes, it does use nearly two cups of cream. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

This recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Pudding produces something a lot like a cross between a banana cream and a peanut butter pie. It’s a bit softer than pie filling, and there is no crust – or I guess you could think of it as having soft, internal, crustesque “stripes.” It’s about as easy as it gets without using a pudding or pie filling mix. The peanut flavor is muted, and the overall effect is simple and homey.

Lasts for several days, but best fresh. Travels well in a cooler.

What you need to make 8 servings

1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup + 3 Tbs sugar
1 3/4 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
1 3/4 cups heavy cream, divided
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tsp pure vanilla extract, divided
50 vanilla wafers
4 med. ripe bananas, sliced into 1/4- to 1/3-inch rounds
3/4 cups chopped, roasted and salted peanuts, divided

How to do it:

MAKE PUDDING

1. Whisk together flour, salt, and 2/3-cup sugar in medium saucepan. Whisk in milk, egg yolks, and 1/2-cup cream. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened, 7 to 9 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in peanut butter and 2 tsp vanilla.

Go ahead. A second helping’s not going to kill you.

ASSEMBLE DESSERT

2. Arrange 25 wafers in the bottom of an 8-by-8-inch glass baking pan. Pour in 1/3 of the pudding, covering the cookies as completely as possible. Top with half of banana slices, 1/4-cup peanuts, and remaining cookies. Check for evenness, gently pushing down on cookies as necessary. Whisk the pudding, making sure that any skin that may have formed on the top is fully incorporated back into the pudding, and that there are no lumps. Add another 1/3 of the pudding to the baking pan. Lay in remaining banana slices in a single layer – you’ll have some slices leftover. Slice the leftover banana slices into half-moons and snuggle them sideways along the perimeter of the pan, gently pushing them down so they don’t interfere with the evenness of the overall top layer. Add another 1/4 cup of nuts. Cover with remaining pudding. (If it has become too cool to pour, reheat it gently while whisking constantly.) Cover with plastic wrap, pushing the wrap right onto the surface of the pudding. Chill 4 hours or overnight.
3. Whisk remaining 3 Tbs sugar, 1 1/4-cups cream, and 1 tsp vanilla on medium high with an electric mixer just until stiff peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Spread over top. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4-cup peanuts.

Tastes so good, you’ll swear its witchcraft.

Peanut Butter Banana Pudding

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not written in exchange for anything, nor was it solicited – not by The American Peanut Council, nor The Peanut Corporation of America, and not even by The National Peanut Board, which comes as no surprise to me, since my backing of third-party, pro-jelly candidates in this election is quite well known. In other news, now that I’ve coined the word “crustesque,” I plan to do use it as the trademark for an instant pie crust that I will invent. I can see the commercial now … “It’s not crust. It’s Crustesque.”

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