Prep: 35 minutes

Cook: 20 minutes

Cooling and Chilling Time: 10 hours, 30 minutes

Total: 11 hours, 25 minutes

Serves: 8 to 10

Ingredients

• 4 cups whole milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 226g granulated sugar (8 ounces; 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
• 60g cornstarch (2 ounces; 6 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, divided; for table salt, use half as much by volume
• Yolks from 8 large eggs, straight from the fridge (5 ounces; 140g)
• 56g unsalted butter (about 2 ounces; 2 tablespoons)
• One 11-ounce box Nilla Wafers or other vanilla wafer cookies
• 5 medium bananas (about 27 1/2 ounces; 775g), peeled and sliced in 1/2-inch rounds
• 2 cups (480ml) heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon (8g) confectioners sugar

Method

• In a 4-quart stainless steel saucepan or pot, combine milk and scraped vanilla bean along with its seeds or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste. Bring to a bare simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat, cover to prevent evaporation, and let steep for 30 minutes.