Blue Willow Café: Where Inclusion Meets Delicious Homemade Banana Pudding
Inclusive Dining Experience at A Caring Heart’s Community Restaurant
In our spring issue, we visit the Blue Willow Café, a restaurant with a mission. Run by A Caring Heart, this inclusive establishment is staffed by people with disabilities and serves exceptional food for both lunch and dinner. Everything on their menu is homemade, including their standout dessert: the classic banana pudding.
The Magic of Banana Pudding: A Southern Comfort Dessert
This beloved dessert performs culinary magic by transforming simple cookies into cake-like layers. It represents the ingenuity of early 20th century convenience foods, originally developed to provide shelf-stable nutrition for troops. The “no-cook instant pudding” component—simply powder, cold water, and 30 seconds of whisking—amazed New York Times food writers in 1949 with its “creamy, smooth texture and delicate flavor.”
Nostalgic Flavors with a Modern Twist
Instant pudding instantly transports many of us back to childhood memories at the kids’ table. There’s something uniquely appealing about its distinctive flavor profile that makes it truly irresistible.
Blue Willow’s Special Recipe
The banana pudding at Blue Willow Café features this nostalgic instant pudding base along with softened packaged cookies. However, their recipe includes what appears to be a “secret” ingredient not commonly found in traditional banana pudding: cream cheese. This addition provides an extra tangy dimension and a creamy richness that paradoxically enhances the dessert’s airy lightness.
Visit Blue Willow Café to support their inclusive mission while enjoying their signature banana pudding and other homemade specialties.
The Blue Willow Banana Pudding
Ingredients
- 8 ounces softened cream cheese
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (5-ounce) box instant vanilla pudding
- 3 cups milk, 2% or higher
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 (8-ounce) tub thawed Cool Whip topping, halved
- 1 (11-ounce) box vanilla wafers
- 5 to 7 bananas, peeled and sliced
Instructions
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium, beat the cream cheese until smooth and fluffy.
- Add sweetened condensed milk, pudding mix, milk and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined. Fold in half of the whipped topping.
- To assemble: Layer 13 vanilla wafers on bottom of 9- by 13-inch baking dish; layer with ⅓ of the bananas. Cover with ⅓ of the pudding mixture. Repeat twice. Top with remaining whipped topping.
