Aunt Callie's Banana Pudding Recipe

Aunt Callie's Banana Pudding Recipe

One of the best cooks and one of the most admired women in my family was my Great Aunt Callie Boyles. Born in Burkes Garden, Virginia, she was the daughter of Stewart and Flora Mae Perdue Burress. She was soft spoken, and gentle, yet she was one of the most independent, strongest women I ever knew. She was my Grandmother Hazel's sister. She married David Brown Boyles, the brother of my grandfather Bane. Sisters from one family married brothers of another. Lot's of double first cousins.

Aunt Callie was remarkable.  She was a small woman that even in her 90's looked immaculate. We used to kid her and say she must have drank embalming fluid or something because she never looked her age.  But to me she was remarkable because of the life she lived. She was always active be it church or whatever.

David Brown Boyles & Callie Burress Boyles
with her boys.

She got a divorce when women didn't get a divorce. She had a 2nd grade education, owned her own home, worked at a company and retired, raised two very fine sons, basically on her own. She never drove a car. All these things she did as a woman in the Appalachian mountains when gender bias was very prominent. She was also just a steady person in our lives that impressed in us that you do what you have to do, but do it honestly and family is always important.

But one of the best stories of this little woman so gentle that I like, is just before she was divorced from my uncle.  Uncle Brown had been seeing another woman. Aunt Callie discovered this and caught them at a dance at the Bluefield Auditorium.  The only time I have ever heard of this quiet, little gentle woman, being very angry. It's said she proceeded to beat them both with her pocketbook. My mother said this 5'2 little woman using her purse, did a number on Uncle Brown's head and she gave both of them a black eye. The police arrested her for assault.

At that time they had a night court over in Bluefield, WV.  They brought her before the judge and the judge told her she couldn't be assaulting her husband, though he understood her reasoning. He fined her $25 and said he was releasing her. He asked her if she had anything she wanted to say and it's said that Aunt Callie told him, "Let me pay you another $25, because when I catch him, I'm going to do it again!"  The judge warned her not to do that or he would have to put her in jail and I guess she didn't. Instead she got a divorce.  She never remarried.

Aunt Callie's house was one that if you came to visit you had to eat. If you did not eat, she was offended!! But it was hard not to eat at her house because she was one of the BEST cooks ever. This is her Banana Pudding Recipe. I inherited her double boiler pot to make it in.

Aunt Callie's Banana Pudding


3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoon plain flour
Dash of salt
4 eggs (1 whole and 3 separated)
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla wafers

5 or 6 bananas fully ripe sliced. Combine 1/2 cup of the sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Mix in 1 whole egg and 3 egg yolks.

Stir in milk. Cook uncovered over boiling water, stirring constantly until it thickens up to look like pudding.  Remove from heat, add vanilla.  Spread small amount of pudding on bottom of glass casserole dish. Cover with wafers. Top with sliced bananas. Pour 1/3 custard over bananas. Layer with wafers, bananas and custard ending with custard.

Beat remaining 3 egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until mixture forms stiff peaks. Pile on top of pudding covering entire surface. Bake 425 degrees oven for 5 minutes until browned. Serve hot or cold.  I always like it cold.

P.S. The last picture is Aunt Callie in her mid 80's. She passed away at age 90. Yep....embalming fluid.



Copyright 2007-2016 Denise Smith