Gluten Free Peanut Butter Banana Pudding

My favorite element of cooking is other people.  Cooking and baking are a great way to show someone how much you care.  If you invited me to your house and made me something as simple as a sandwich, it would make me feel great.  You can bake something as a welcome to the neighborhood, a get well wish [mmm, chicken soup], or even as a thank you. 

A man in our church blessed us with a very generous gift for our baby.  There is no way to say thank you enough--and I know he doesn't expect us to--but I decided to make him his favorite dessert: banana pudding. 

I wanted to do something different, though.  Ya'll know I like to do it all the hard way...in other words, all from scratch.  I did not want to make vanilla wafers last night, so I decided to go with peanut butter cookies.  These cookies are chewy, peanut buttery, and also gluten free.  My mom has celiac disease so I started making these for her after she was diagnosed.  They are so easy and because they don't contain flour, you can eat at least a dozen before you start to feel full.  :)

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup all-natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda

Just mix all of these ingredients together and bake at 350.  I like to use a small cookie scoop so mine are done baking in 10 minutes.  You can add chocolate chips and nuts if you like.  They also make great nutella sandwiches.  :)
See how tiny they are before they bake?  The end up spreading out to around 2 inches.  Cute!

Ok, onto the pudding.  I like to make homemade vanilla pudding, and the recipe I like can be found here.  But you are welcome to use Jello.  Luckily I had a box of Jello on hand this morning because for some reason my pudding didn't set up.  Obviously, if you need to eat gluten free for your health please use safe ingredients.

Lets give this pudding some personality.  I happen to love vanilla pudding as is, but I think it needs more when it comes to banana pudding.  Take 1 cup of heavy cream and whip it up with a tablespoon of powdered sugar until it gets stiff peaks.  Put it in the fridge to chill for a few minutes.

While that's happening, add about half a can of sweetened condensed milk to your prepared vanilla pudding.  Then gently fold in the fresh whipped cream.  And there ya have it!  Try not to inhale it and get ready to layer your pudding.

I don't think there's any right or wrong way to assemble banana pudding.  I did a layer of peanut butter cookies, covered them in bananas, and then filled with fluffy pudding.  My dish was deep enough for 2 complete layers topped with more bananas and crumbled cookies.  Then you can just chill this baby in the fridge until you're ready to eat it! 



OR...
If you have extra pudding, cookies, and bananas...
And you're the cook and deserve a little taste...
You can do this:

How cute are desserts in mason jars?  You can layer this however you want.  I alternated crumbled cookie, bananas, and pudding.  You could make a whole tray of these for a party.  They look so fancy but they are so easy!  What a fun way to get some calcium and potassium into your kiddos. 

Because vitamins are what this dessert is all about, right?