That old fashion vanilla wafer banana pudding is a popular dish for the holidays. Why not impress your guests and yourself with a kicked up version! Since I am not a huge fan of vanilla wafers, I use Maria’s cookies. It’s a Mexican cookie. They are super crunchy, very inexpensive and really good. They make a great cheesecake crust too!

Of course, you can make a big ol serving pan of this dessert, but it’s so nice for everyone to have their very own personal dessert. It’s so pretty that way too. You can do this in little mason jars or just make a stack on some pretty little dessert plates.

Now, sometimes I make my own pudding, but sometimes I just use the instant Jello Pudding, which makes this a super quick and easy dessert. If I don’t have homemade caramel sauce on hand, I just melt some caramel candies. See? Easy! you have no excuse not to make this. 🙂

Here we go….

Kicked up Banana Cookie Pudding with Caramel

1 box vanilla Jello Instant Pudding mix
2 – 3 sliced bananas
Milk for  the pudding
10-12 caramel candies (the square individually wrapped ones) or you can use ice cream topping
1 package Marias Cookies (found in the Hispanic section of grocery stores)

Prepare your pudding as stated on the pudding box. Chill it.
Melt your caramel candies in the microwave with just a tablespoon or 2 of water. Mix until smooth and set aside to come to room temp.

On a dish or in a jar, start layering, starting with the chilled pudding, cookie, banana….repeat. You can do a small stack or spread out 3 or 4 cookies and layer. Drizzle with caramel sauce. Serve.

I prefer them in the jars, so that way, the cookies have time to get soft and mushy like. Mm-m-m-m

Serves 3-4 people