Banana Caramel Cream Trifles

This is the first full week of year two of the notebook. I want to mark that. The dollar-bin notebook from year one is in the drawer in my bedroom. The green hardcover is on the kitchen table, and the page I am writing on right now is the first page of the second hundred pages, which I have decided is the start of the next chapter.

Cody is on day seventy-eight of his sentence. He passed his fourth GED practice test on Tuesday with an 89 percent. The number is moving in the right direction. He is four months from being able to take the actual test. He is on chapter sixty of The Grapes of Wrath, three more chapters from the end. He is reading East of Eden next.

Mama got her tax refund Wednesday. Eight hundred dollars. Mama looked at the deposit on her phone for a long time and then she sat down at the kitchen table and made a list. Four hundred dollars to Aunt Tammy, which closes the debt down to $40. Two hundred to the savings envelope, the largest single deposit it has ever seen. Two hundred to the kitchen budget for the next two months, which means I can stop being so tight on the protein math for a little while. Mama said, when she handed me the kitchen budget envelope, baby, you have been doing miracles on twenty dollars a week. Spend forty.

So I did the trifles. The recipe had been sitting in the notebook for two weeks and the four overripe bananas on the counter were the trigger. The recipe is a Banana Caramel Cream Trifle — layered in clear glasses with vanilla pudding, sliced bananas, homemade caramel sauce, and crushed vanilla wafers. Total cost about $4.20 for four trifles in mason jars I had washed and saved from last summer’s pickle jars.

The technique I want to keep is the homemade caramel. You melt three tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. You stir in a half cup of packed brown sugar. You let the mixture bubble for two minutes without stirring — the bubbling is the sugar dissolving into the butter and the water cooking off. You slowly whisk in a half cup of heavy cream (the cream must be at room temperature; cold cream will seize the caramel). You let the mixture simmer for two more minutes until slightly thickened. You take it off the heat. The caramel sets to a thick glossy sauce as it cools.

Total cooking time on the caramel: under five minutes. The cost: about a dollar fifty. The flavor: the kind of flavor that the store-bought caramel sauces are trying and failing to imitate.

The assembly was the layering. Crushed vanilla wafers in the bottom of each jar. A spoonful of pudding. Sliced bananas. A drizzle of caramel. Repeat. End with a final dollop of pudding and a generous drizzle of caramel and a few crushed wafers on top.

I lined the four trifles up on the kitchen counter Saturday afternoon and I took a photo with my phone. It was the first food photo I have ever taken. The photo turned out beautiful. The colors stripe through the glass — cream and yellow and brown and the white-and-tan of the wafers — and the caramel ribbons run down the sides of the bananas in the layers. I am keeping the photo. I am keeping it because it is the first photo and because the photo is the kind of evidence that this kitchen has become a kitchen.

Mama and I ate two of the trifles at the kitchen table Saturday after the visit. The other two went to Mrs. Henderson down the street as a thank-you for the canning equipment. She said, when I dropped them off on her porch, baby, you are going to make a living from these hands one day. I am going to write that down too. The list of sentences that older women have said to me about my hands is getting long.

The recipe is below. The trick I want you to keep is the homemade caramel — do not buy the jarred kind. The five-minute homemade version is a different food. Layer the trifles in clear glasses or mason jars so the layers show. Eat one, photograph one, give two away. Some recipes are also small generosities.

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

Custard
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Caramel Cream
1/4 cup store-bought caramel sauce (or homemade)
1 cup heavy whipping cream, cold
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Layers
3 ripe bananas, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
40–50 vanilla wafer cookies
Extra caramel sauce for drizzling
Crushed vanilla wafers for topping

Instructions

Make the custard. In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and flour until pale and combined. Gradually whisk in the milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 10–12 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter until smooth.
Chill the custard. Pour custard into a bowl and press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until completely cool, at least 1 hour (or up to overnight).
Whip the caramel cream. In a chilled bowl, beat the heavy cream and powdered sugar with a hand mixer on medium-high until soft peaks form. Drizzle in the caramel sauce and beat just until combined and cream holds medium peaks. Do not overbeat.
Layer the trifles. In 6 individual glasses or one large trifle dish, begin with a layer of vanilla wafers across the bottom. Spoon a generous layer of custard over the wafers. Add a layer of sliced bananas. Dollop or pipe caramel cream over the bananas. Drizzle lightly with caramel sauce. Repeat layers until the glass is full, ending with caramel cream on top.
Finish and serve. Top each trifle with crushed vanilla wafers and a final drizzle of caramel sauce. Serve immediately, or refrigerate up to 4 hours before serving. The wafers will soften into a tender, pudding-like layer as it sits — that’s exactly right.

Nutrition (per serving)

Banana Caramel Cream Trifles — The First Dessert I Ever Photographed