In a saucepan, mix together sugar, flour, eggs and 2 cups of milk. Mix until it’s smooth with no clumps of flour. I like to use a whisk for this but Mama uses a spoon most of the time.

Then add another 2 cups of milk, the melted butter, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.

Cook on medium heat until thick, stirring constantly. This will take probably 15-20 minutes. Once it’s thickened, remove the pan from heat and let the pudding mixture rest for 10 minutes.

Line a 9×13 baking dish with vanilla wafers (prop some up on the sides too), then top with sliced bananas (about ¼ inch thick). Pour the warm homemade vanilla pudding over the cookies and bananas and cover the top with sliced bananas.

Finally top the dish with more vanilla wafers. Mama usually uses whole vanilla wafers but if you have a box with a bunch of broken ones in the bottom, crumble them up and top the whole thing with crushed cookies! Either way it’ll be delicious!

Allow it to sit and thicken at room temp for up to an hour.  Serve warm or chill for 3-4 hours (or overnight) to serve cold.