🍌 Southern Banana Pudding (No Bananas)
Everything you love about old-fashioned Southern banana pudding—without the bananas. Creamy homemade filling, buttery vanilla cookies, and all the comfort of Grandma's recipe with smarter choices.
🏡 Pull Up a Chair
If you've been around Front Porch Diabetic very long, you know I love Southern comfort food. One dessert I never thought I'd enjoy again was banana pudding. The problem wasn't the pudding itself—it was the bananas. For me, bananas send my blood sugar soaring.
After wearing a continuous glucose monitor and learning how different foods affect my body, I realized bananas were one of my biggest triggers. I know I'm not the only person living with diabetes who's had that experience. So instead of giving up one of my favorite Southern desserts, I decided to build a new version from the ground up.
This recipe keeps the creamy banana pudding flavor we all remember but skips the bananas completely. Instead, we're using Sugar Free Jell-O Banana Cream Pudding and homemade vanilla butter cookies to recreate that classic Southern dessert. Sometimes making smarter choices isn't about giving something up. Sometimes it's about finding a better way to bring it back to the table.
❤️ From Michelle
I'll always tell you the truth about the recipes on this website. I don't create them because they're "diet food." I create them because they're foods I genuinely miss. When bananas started sending my blood sugar through the roof, I thought banana pudding was gone forever. This recipe changed that. I hope it brings a little comfort to your table the way it has to mine.
🧺 What You'll Need
For the Vanilla Butter Cookies
- 2 cups almond flour
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ⅓ cup granulated monk fruit sweetener
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 egg yolk
- 6 tablespoons softened butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Banana Cream Filling
- 2 boxes Sugar Free Jell-O Banana Cream Pudding Mix
- 3 cups cold unsweetened almond milk
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons powdered monk fruit sweetener (optional)
For the Topping
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons powdered monk fruit sweetener
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Reserved cookie crumbs
👩🍳 Let's Get Cooking
Step 1 – Bake the Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Mix all cookie ingredients until a soft dough forms.
- Scoop into small cookie rounds similar to vanilla wafers.
- Bake 10–12 minutes until lightly golden.
- Cool completely.
Step 2 – Prepare the Filling
- Beat cream cheese until smooth.
- Whisk pudding mix with almond milk for two minutes.
- Blend pudding into cream cheese.
- Add sour cream and vanilla.
- Whip one cup heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
- Fold whipped cream gently into pudding mixture.
Step 3 – Assemble
- Layer cookies in the bottom of a trifle dish or 9x13-inch dish.
- Add one-third of the pudding mixture.
- Repeat layers three times.
- Top with fresh whipped cream.
- Sprinkle crushed cookie crumbs over the top.
Step 4 – Chill
- Refrigerate at least four hours.
- Overnight is even better because the cookies soften just like traditional banana pudding.
🐔 Pearl's Kitchen Tip
Don't overbake the cookies. They should still have just a little tenderness when they come out of the oven. Once they're layered with that creamy pudding, they'll soften into something that tastes just like the cookies Grandma always tucked into her banana pudding. — Pearl
🍽 Serve It With
- Fresh brewed coffee
- Unsweetened iced tea
- A dollop of homemade whipped cream
🧊 Storage & Leftovers
Cover tightly and refrigerate for up to four days. This dessert actually tastes even better the next day after the cookies have softened into the pudding. Do not freeze.
🥣 Approximate Nutrition (Per Serving)
- Calories: 245
- Protein: 6g
- Net Carbs: 8g
- Fat: 21g
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