I recently traveled to NY and tried Magnolia's banana pudding. Long story short, it was amazing 😀
When I came back home I tried to create the next best version. Having seen the below video, I combined vanilla pudding, whipped from a combination of heavy whipping cream and 2% milk, about a cup of each) and stabilized whipped cream, made from about a cup of heavy whipping cream, confectioners sugar and half a teaspoon of gelatin.
Whipped cream was perfectly stable and pudding also has a pretty good texture. While I am overall happy with my first attempt, I feel like my texture fell short. I want almost a cake frosting / ice cream texture. I want a texture that is more firm and fluffy and am not sure how to accomplish this.
Can anyone offer some advice? To get a better idea of the texture I am after, checkout magnolia's video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8468bpqWeIQ&t=7s (7 second mark)
Best Answer
I suspect that their banana pudding, even if made from off-the-shelf pudding mix, was made with significantly less liquid than called for on the box. The whipped cream will lend looseness to the mixture even if the starch gel in the pudding is quite thick.
Note the cleanly-defined scoops taken out of the bucket on the left. That pudding is thick.
BTW, I don't think it's necessary or advisable to use much cream in the pudding. The milkfat will break up the gel, but you want a strong gel to maintain the texture. Likewise, while I see your motivation for stabilizing the whipped cream with gelatin, I actually doubt it's necessary because of the starch gel. I could be wrong here, though -- I don't have very good instincts for these complicated emulsions.