Banana Pudding Cheesecake has a Vanilla Wafer crust and a creamy banana filling flavored with fresh bananas and brown sugar. Makes a showstopper dessert.
This creamy dessert flavored with fresh banana is a combination of two of my favorite desserts- cheesecake and banana pudding. I’m a huge fan of banana pudding anything and everything. In the past I’ve made Banana Pudding Pancakes, Banana Pudding Bars, Banana Pudding Cupcakes, Banana Pudding Cake, Twinkie Banana Pudding and Banana Pudding Ice Cream.
Banana Pudding Cheesecake starts off with a vanilla wafer crust – because it’s not banana pudding without nilla wafers 🙂 . Just to make sure there’s enough Nilla Wafer goodness a ring of whole vanilla wafers is placed along the circumference of the springform pan. If you wanted even more vanilla wafers in your Banana Pudding Cheesecake, you could also do a layer of them in the middle of the filling.
Tips for making Banana Pudding Cheesecake:
The original recipe, which came from Southern Living, called for baking the crust before the filling is added, but I skipped this step and it turned out fine. No need to do extra work :). Plus I find crusts made out of vanilla wafers can get a little hard to cut through if they are precooked.
It’s best to use ripe, but not overripe bananas for this cheesecake.
The filling is creamy and rich with just the right amount of banana flavor. Top the cheesecake off with whipped cream and vanilla wafers and you have a showstopper southern dessert that would be perfect to serve for Easter.
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Watch the short video below to see how easy it is to make this cheesecake.
Banana Pudding Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups finely crushed vanilla wafers
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup Challenge butter , melted
- 17 vanilla wafers
- 2 ripe bananas, diced
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2-3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 3 (8-ounce) packages Challenge cream cheese , softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- whipped cream and vanilla wafers for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, stir together crushed vanilla wafers, chopped pecans, and melted butter. Press into bottom of a greased 9-inch springform pan.
- Stand 17 vanilla wafers around edge of pan with rounded sides facing outward. Press them gently into the crust.
- In a small saucepan, combine bananas (both diced and mashed) and lemon juice. Stir in brown sugar, using 2 tablespoons if your bananas are super ripe and 3 tablespoons if they are medium ripe. Cook over medium heat until brown sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
- Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Gradually add granulated sugar.
- Add eggs, one at a time and stopping to scrape down sides of bowl after each addition. Do not over beat. Only beat until most of yellow disappears before adding next egg.
- Beat in vanilla extract.
- Stir banana mixture in until evenly mixed. Pour batter into springform pan on top of crust.
- Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until center is almost set. Jiggle the pan to check.
- Turn oven off, open door about 6 inches and leave cheesecake in oven to cool for about 1 hour.
- Remove cheesecake to counter to cool for another 30 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours before serving.
- Garnish with whipped cream and vanilla wafers.
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe Source: adapted from Southern Living
More Cheesecake Recipes
Pecan Pie Cheesecake
Amaretto Cheesecake
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
This recipe is fool proof. The flavor taste great and the cheesecake is always perfectly done. I also use this recipe as a base for other flavors like vanilla bean or strawberry swirl.
I had a request from a friend to make them a banana cheesecake. This was a challenging request for me since I do not eat bananas myself. After looking through several recipes, I settled on this one because of the good reviews and the use of fresh bananas instead of pudding mix. I roasted the bananas in the oven to concentrate the flavor a bit more. My friend and her husband loved it! This recipe will be a keeper for me since it was easy to follow and a crowd pleaser.
Im going to try this tonight with Chessmen cookies instead of vanilla wafers! I think it will come out great
This cheesecake is AMAZING! It’s my favorite recipe for dessert, and everyone loves it. It’s now my most requested dessert for any party or event I go to.
I tweak the recipe just a tad. I do half the sugar. I also don’t use brown sugar. In place of the brown sugar, I do use just a bit of molasses (probably about 1/2 tablespoon). I use three very ripe bananas (I don’t dice any, all mashed). I also do not use the pecans, as some people in my family can’t tolerate them.
For the crust, I will add just a pinch of salt to bring out the sweetness of the cookies.
Thanks so much for this delicious recipe!
OH boy this is going to happen this weekend!
Got a question… my mama always made banana pudding with a meringue top… You think I could make that work with this?
Maybe very carefully adding the meringue in the last 10 minutes?
Made as directed, however I used a water bath. The taste wasn’t terrible, but the chunks of banana really didn’t work (for any of the 8-10 people who tried it)
I did hesitate with the chunks but decided to follow the recipe.
I think it would have been alot better without the chunks, but think I’ll stick to keeping banana pudding just as a pudding
Made this for my son’s birthday on Sunday. He loves banana pudding and cheesecake, so this recipe sounded like a perfect combo. We all loved this cheesecake! The consistency and banana flavor were spot on. I did use 3 very ripe bananas per other reviewers comments and the flavor came through. I received a request from my son to make this for all his future birthdays. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This is such a great cheesecake!
I think I had too much filling. Should you only fill to just below the top of the vanilla cookies?
I’m a huge vanilla wafer fan. Would adding a cup of roughly chopped wafers, into the batter, complicate things?
I just made this and put about half a cup of chopped wafers in the cheesecake mixture and it turned out great.
I made this as a tester for a baking competition and it turned out great! I always make banana pudding from scratch and I’m happy that this cheesecake use those exact ingredients without the use of instant pudding (which I am strongly against). I Could not believe how easy it was to make and decorate. It’s also very inexpensive. I wish I could upload the picture of it. I followed the recipe exactly as above. The only emphasis I would make (and I think this was covered in the recipe actually) is use VERY ripe bananas for more banana flavor. Great Job on this recipe! All my testers loved it!
Glad the recipe turned out well and everyone enjoyed it! I agrre this cheesecake recipe does a great job of capturing that great banana pudding flavor!
Can this be made with strawberries?
I think that would work. Let us know how it turns out if you try it!
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was delicious. The only complaint that I have is the cheesecake didn’t taste like Banana pudding but more like Banana nut bread ( due to the pecans being added to the crust). I am definitely gonna make this again, I’ll just omit the pecans from the crust and add vanilla wafers to the cheesecake filling.
I made this for thanksgiving last year and I’m looking it up again because I’ve been getting requests to make it again this year. I really want to try something new but it was such a hit last year, how could I disappoint? Thank you for this recipe, it’s clearly become a staple in our thanksgiving, for, I’m assuming, years to come.
I absolutely LOVE bananas! My father in law’s favorite dessert is banana cream pie, and I bet he would just LOVE this cheesecake. I can’t wait to make it for him.
Hope he loves it Christine!! 🙂
Do you bake this in a water bath?
I do not use a water bath Sonya.
I just baked this and was about to put it in a water bath until I saw the response that the author did not use one. I HIGHLY recommend a water bath if you’re concerned with your presentation. I decided against the water bath (for once) and regretted it as soon as I opened the oven and saw the massive gouge in the center of my cheesecake. Luckily, I just made this for fun so I’m not terribly worried about presentation. But in the future, I’d definitely use a water bath to avoid cracking 🙂
I’m very happy that i found this recipe, and made it for the first time. I had everyone to tried it and went crazy.
Thank you for this recipe I made it with my girlfriend and it was our first ever and it came out delicious! We haven’t even finished the one we made and we already going to make another one. I have a question how do I make it more of a cheesier? Can I just add another cream cheese block? Oh and can I make my bananas more rip by putting heat to them? Thanks again
I’ve never had to chill cheesecake for 8 hours prior to eating – i’ve always just baked until set and then let cool. Is there a reason for the chill time in the fridge? Or just for cleaner slicing?
Can substitute Greek yogurt for the eggs… I would typically replace three eggs with a quarter cup of Greek yogurt in a cake. Thanks! Would love to try this one if I can do it without the eggs. Sounds delish.
I was wondering if this could be made in cupcake pans using liners to make personal sized cheesecakes?
Yes, you can definitely do that. However I don’t have much experience making mini cheesecakes, so I really can’t advise on cooking time.
I just made this, waiting for it to finish baking. I added one cream cheese, banana flavor and came out with 12 cupcakes and the whole cake. It only took about 20 min for the cupcakes to cook so watch carefully!
I also made these into mini-cheesecakes. Unfortunately, I incorrectly assumed that the standard recipe would only yield 12 to 18 cakes, so I doubled the batch. 36 cupcake sized and 18 mini (2″ diameter) cheesecakes later I finally ran out of batter. I also topped my with a banana cream mousse.
I agree with Wanda, they should only take about 20 minutes to bake.
Great recipe!! Thank you for posting!
What another nuts can I replace pecans with? (I can stand pecans)
Walnuts or almonds should work well or even macadamia nuts. Or you could just leave the nuts out. You might want to add a few more crushed Vanilla wafers if you do this to make sure you have plenty of crust.
I’m allergic to pecans do I have too use them ?
No, you can leave the pecans out.
Has anyone made this in mini cheesecake springform pans 4″?
My Mom made this for Thanksgiving 2016…such a HUGE hit..it turned out so pretty just like the pic and she used the helpful hint of other reviewer of bakers joy for the pan and it worked great! Thanks so much for the recipe…our family devoured it and didn’t wan to stop….definitely a new Thanksgiving tradition!
I made this cake for the first time for our Thanksgiving feast at work. It was a HIT! People were scraping the cake plate and begging me to make another one! Most delicious cake I’ve ever eaten (and I have eaten a lot of cake). This one is going in the favorites file for sure!
In the last year, I’ve fallen head over heels for Cheesecake. I started making my own about eight months ago; first no bake; out of the box. Then I started with my cousin Teresa helping me cook my first real Cheesecake and now I’m the self proclaimed King of Cheesecake in Lexington, Ky. I love banana pudding and my sister in Louisville, Ky saw this recipe on line. I got mine in the oven now. I know it’s going to come out scrumptious. Thanks so much. Eddie?
Can I make this in a regular pie dish instead of a spring foam pan
The sides of the pie dish, even a deep-dish one, won’t be high enough.
Oops! I meant to say I was “wondering” if I could use non-dairy cream cheese?
Hi Pat, I’ve never baked with non-dairy cream cheese so I’m not sure how it would turn out.
I just came across your recipe and it sounds delicious. I love banana pudding. I was spending if I can use non-dairy cream cheese since I am lactose intolerant?
I am wondering if it HAS to cool for 8 hours in fridge? Could it maybe do a couple hours in the freezer to speed it up? I just took it out of the oven and I’m not so sure we can wait till tomorrow to eat it! Lol. Maybe 8-9 tonight we can wait? Have you ever tried the freezer/fridge combo?
I know I am too late to help you. Haven’t ever tried the freezer, fridge thing. Did you try it?
I did not try it, I actually waited until the next day to eat it. I did make it again today and may end up trying it.
do you combine both the sliced and mashed bananas into the saucepan with the lemon?
This looks awesome. I know with my homemade banana pudding, I make a meringue topping which I brown lightly in the oven…I wonder…hmm…
I think a meringue would be fabulous on this cheesecake. Let me know if you try it!
I made this for Easter and it was a huge hit! It was was my first time making a cheesecake. I have one question and my nilla wafer that you stand up all pulled off when it took the ring of the pan off… Did I do something wrong?
I always use baking spray on my pans before baking desserts to prevent sticking Any brand will do but I prefer Baker’s Joy. A spray around the rim and bottom should work. I do this is lieu of greasing. Works better for me.
I made this yesterday and it is AMAZING!!! I must try with these fresh strawberries I have.
I bet it would be so good with fresh strawberries!
I made this for my husbands birthday and everyone raved about it! It was my first time making cheesecake and I have to admit I was a little nervous, but the prep was straight forward and it turned out awesome. My hubby says this is his new favorite dessert and trust me, he’s a creature of habit so a compliment like that is huge. ❤️❤️❤️ banana pudding cheesecake!
You made my day Rachael with this comment! So glad your husband loved it. Wish him a Happy Birthday from me. 🙂
I absolutely love banana pudding, but Banana Pudding Cheesecake?? That is THE BOMB!! Can not wait to make it!! 🙂
I checked out the original recipe. All the bananas are mixed with the brown sugar. This recipe has two texture for the bananas, mashed and diced.
Can I get clarification on the banana part. I’m to combine both mashed and diced bananas with the lemon and brown sugar in a saucepan? TIA.
I seriously just made banana pudding for the first time and now I need to make this cheesecake. I just have to!!
Holy moly you are a genius!!! I feel like the banana pudding gods should be singing right now as I read this post… I’m obsessed!
Looks amazing!!! Never thought of combining them but great idea!! Yummy!!
You made this for me didn’t you?!
I adore banana pudding and I adore cheese cake (of course I gotta have the lactose free versions) but put them together and ooh lala!
OMG!!!! Such a great idea!!! These are two of my favorite desserts too! There is just something about vanilla wafers that I Love! And your photos are exceptional, Christin! But they always are 🙂
Oh my gosh, Christin, this looks SOOO good! I love both desserts, so the combo is amazing!! I agree with Kay, this would be perfect for Easter!
I love banana desserts but have never had it as cheesecake. I need to make this! Pinning.
I had a banana cream pie cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory once and it was amazing. Yours looks even better — so creamy and extra full of banana flavor! Pinned.
Unbelievable. My mind is blown. I had down this year to make a banana pudding cheesecake but I’m done and just want this one!
i Love pudding.. So creamy and delicious! Give Me this one 😀
You are the cheesecake queen without a doubt, Christin! This latest beauty is nothing short of gorgeous! Banana pudding is one of my hugest weaknesses so I’m all over this gorgeous cheesecake! Stunning photos, girl! Pinned. 🙂
Christin, this cheesecake looks amazing! Now, I’m hungry for it, and I just ate dinner! No matter – I will make room for it! 🙂
Dear Christin, What a scrumptious cheesecake…I wish I had a slice of this right now. It looks wonderful. xo, Catherine
This is the best cheesecake I’ve ever seen. If I wasn’t so bad at cheesecake, I would make it right now.
This cheesecake looks gorgeous, Christin! Banana is my favorite flavor and I love the pudding texture! Pinned!
This cheesecake looks gorgeous, Christin! I love banana desserts so this sounds like the ultimate treat!
Banana pudding + cheesecake is a match made in heaven. 🙂 I love both of them, so this would be a double treat for me!
#drool
Yummy. . It looks so creamy 😀 I’m in love with this pudding cheesecake..
This cheesecake looks incredible! LOVE that soft, luscious banana center! Pinned 🙂
Wow this is so perfect!!! I love cheese cake and banana pudding as well. So, this recipe is calling my name 😉
WOW!! This looks amazing!! What a lovely recipe! I sure do love dessert! This looks so creamy and delicious! …I could go for a slice myself! 🙂
I am a huge fan of banana anything too 🙂 Baking the crust and filling together is genius! A gorgeous showstopper for an Easter meal in my book too!