If you grew up with a big glass dish of banana pudding at every church potluck, these banana pudding cookies are going to make you a little emotional. I’m not even kidding. A box of instant banana cream pudding mix keeps them soft for days, one spotty banana gives them real flavor, and the broken vanilla wafers and white chocolate chips make each bite taste like a spoonful from the corner of that dish. It’s about 20 minutes of actual work plus a short chill.
Here’s the quick version first.
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Total time | 1 hour 25 minutes (20 prep, 30 chill, 25 bake, 10 cool) |
| Yield | 24 cookies |
| Difficulty | Easy, one bowl and a mixer |
| Key ingredients | Instant banana pudding mix, ripe banana, Nilla wafers, white chocolate chips |
| Make ahead | Yes, the dough freezes well |
| Texture | Soft center, lightly crisp edges |
Banana Pudding Cookies Recipe
Got one spotty banana on the counter and a box of wafers in the pantry? That’s your sign to bake these today.
Banana Pudding Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (281 g)
- 1 (3.4 oz / 96 g) box instant banana cream pudding mix dry, not prepared
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (170 g), softened
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar (160 g), packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50 g)
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1/2 cup mashed very ripe banana (115 g, about 1 medium)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup white chocolate chips (170 g)
- 1 1/2 cups Nilla wafers (60 g, about 15 wafers), broken into rough pieces
- 12 Nilla wafers halved
- 1/4 cup white chocolate chips (45 g)
Method
- Whisk the flour, dry pudding mix, baking soda and salt in a bowl until no pudding clumps remain.
- Beat the softened butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg, mashed banana and vanilla until smooth. The mixture may look slightly curdled, which is fine.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix on low just until no dry streaks remain.
- Fold in the white chocolate chips and broken wafers with a spatula.
- Cover and chill the dough for 30 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
- Scoop 2-tablespoon balls (about 45 g) and place 2 inches apart, 12 per sheet. Bake one sheet at a time for 11 to 13 minutes, until the edges are light golden and the centers still look soft and puffy.
- Right away, press a wafer half and a few chips onto each warm cookie. Cool on the sheet 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
Notes
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Why These Banana Pudding Cookies Work
My first few banana cookie batches years ago were basically muffin tops. Banana is mostly water. Water turns to steam in a hot oven. Steam puffs things up. Cute, sure, but I wanted chewy.
So I cheat in two ways. One, just half a cup of mashed banana. You can taste it, and the dough still holds a scoop. Two, a full box of instant pudding mix. There’s modified cornstarch in that powder, and it grabs moisture and won’t let go, so these are still soft on day three while a regular cookie would be getting stiff.
Everything else is just classic banana pudding thinking, really. The vanilla wafers get broken into rough chunks and folded in, so you get these little crunchy pockets that go a bit soft as the cookies sit (exactly like the wafers in the real pudding do). White chocolate plays the part of the custard. And a 30-minute nap in the fridge keeps them nice and thick.
Ingredients and Swaps
Nothing fancy, promise. The only thing I’d double check at the store is the pudding box, because the size matters way more than which brand you grab.
- Instant banana cream pudding mix: you want the regular 3.4 oz (96 g) box, and it has to say “instant” on it, not “cook and serve.”
- A very ripe banana: the uglier the better honestly, since all those brown spots mean more sugar and a stronger banana flavor.
- Softened butter, brown sugar and white sugar: the brown sugar is what keeps these chewy in the middle.
- One egg at room temperature: a cold egg can make the creamed butter seize up and look broken.
- Vanilla wafers: Nilla Wafers are the classic choice, though I’ve used the store brand plenty of times and nobody noticed.
- White chocolate chips: semisweet chips would just bulldoze the banana flavor, but white chips go all soft in the oven and sitting next to the banana they kind of taste like little blobs of pudding, which is the whole idea.
Out of something? This chart shows what you can use instead and how the cookie changes.
| Ingredient | Swap | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Banana cream pudding mix | Vanilla instant pudding (3.4 oz) | Milder banana flavor, more “vanilla custard” |
| Banana cream pudding mix | Sugar-free 1 oz box | Not recommended, it’s much smaller and the cookies spread |
| White chocolate chips | Butterscotch or milk chocolate chips | Butterscotch tastes like banana bread, milk chocolate is richer |
| Nilla wafers | Golden Oreos, crushed | Sweeter, more crunch |
| Light brown sugar | Dark brown sugar | Deeper caramel flavor, slightly softer |
| Fresh banana | 1/2 tsp banana extract + 2 tbsp milk | Works in a pinch, less natural taste |
Equipment
You’ll want a stand mixer or a hand mixer, a big bowl, two rimmed baking sheets with parchment, and a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop (that’s about 45 g of dough per cookie). I used to skip the scoop and just eyeball it with a spoon, and then I’d always end up with a couple of raw ones and a couple of dry ones on the same tray, so yeah, the scoop is worth it.
How to Make Banana Pudding Cookies
Exact amounts are in the recipe card above. Here’s what to look and feel for at each step.
- Whisk the dry stuff. Flour, pudding powder, baking soda and salt all go in one bowl, and you whisk until those little pudding lumps are gone.
- Cream the butter and sugars. Give it 2 to 3 minutes on medium, until it goes pale and fluffy and looks kind of like frosting, which is where that chewy texture actually comes from.
- Beat in the egg, banana and vanilla. Don’t panic if it looks a bit curdled from the banana, it always does that for me and it smooths out once the flour goes in.
- Add the dry ingredients on low. Stop the second you don’t see dry streaks anymore, because overmixing builds gluten and gluten is what makes cookies tough.
- Fold in the wafers and chips by hand. Grab a spatula for this part, since the mixer will grind those wafers into dust before you can blink and you really want chunks you can see.
- Chill for 30 minutes. This dough is softer than most thanks to the banana. Skip the chill and you’ll get flat, lacy puddles. Ask me how I know.
- Scoop and bake. 350°F (175°C) for somewhere around 11 to 13 minutes, and I know it’ll feel way too early when you pull them, because the middles look puffy and kind of raw and only the very edges have gone a little gold, but trust it. It isn’t too early.
- Top them while warm. Press a wafer half and a few chips onto each one right away, let them sit on the pan 5 minutes, then slide them onto a rack.
That underbaked look in step 7 freaks people out, I get it. But the middles keep cooking on the hot pan for a few minutes, and that’s how you get soft centers instead of dry hockey pucks.
Bake Time by Cookie Size
Sometimes you want tiny ones for a party tray and sometimes you want those giant bakery-style cookies, so here’s how the timing shifts at 350°F (175°C).
| Scoop size | Dough per cookie | Bake time | Yield | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tablespoon | About 22 g | 9 to 10 minutes | About 48 | Edges just set, tops pale |
| 2 tablespoons (recipe) | About 45 g | 11 to 13 minutes | 24 | Edges light golden, centers puffy |
| 3 tablespoons | About 70 g | 13 to 15 minutes | About 16 | Golden edges, centers just set |
| 1/4 cup (bakery style) | About 90 g | 15 to 17 minutes | About 12 | Deep golden edges, slightly soft middle |
If you go with the big 1/4 cup size, only put 6 on a sheet because they spread out a lot more than you’d think.
Why Everyone’s Making Banana Pudding Cookies Right Now
Banana pudding is kind of everywhere right now, have you noticed? Searches for banana pudding cookies are sitting around 9,900 a month in the US, which is up roughly 50% from last year, according to RisingTrends’ dessert report updated October 19, 2026. And when I checked Google Trends this week, the term was climbing again through mid-October, right as everybody starts baking for the holidays.
Even Oreo jumped in. On October 13, 2026 they announced that banana pudding won their “Twist, Lick, Vote” fan poll, beating out deep-fried and chicken and waffles (I have questions about chicken and waffles Oreos, but okay). The flavor is supposed to come back in spring 2027, according to Tasting Table. Honestly that’s one more reason to try the Golden Oreo swap from the table above.
The homemade version blew up on short videos too, with people mixing pudding powder, crushed wafers and white chocolate into cookie dough. It’s a great idea. What most of those quick clips leave out though is the chill time and how much banana to use, and that’s exactly why so many batches out there come out flat or cakey.
Common Mistakes and Easy Fixes
If a batch didn’t turn out, it’s almost always one of these.
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies spread flat | Dough not chilled, or butter too soft | Chill 30 to 60 minutes, butter should dent but not look greasy |
| Cakey and puffy | Too much banana | Measure 1/2 cup exactly, don’t use 2 bananas |
| Dry by the next day | Overbaked, or no pudding mix | Pull them while the centers look soft |
| Wafers turned soggy | Crushed to powder | Break them into rough, nickel-size pieces |
| Weak banana flavor | Banana wasn’t ripe enough | Use one with lots of brown spots, or use banana cream pudding mix |
Fun Variations
Once you’ve made the basic version a time or two, it’s really easy to play around, and these are the ones I keep coming back to.
Banana pudding cookies with frosting
Beat together 4 oz (113 g) of softened cream cheese, 2 tbsp butter, 1 1/2 cups (180 g) powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla, then swipe it over cooled cookies and stick a wafer on top. The frosting lands somewhere between cheesecake and that whipped layer on top of a pudding dish, and that’s pretty much what I was after.
Brown butter version
Brown the butter until it’s amber and smells like toasted nuts, then chill it until it’s soft-solid again (melted butter won’t cream). The cookies end up a little toasty, kind of like banana bread’s cousin.
Banana pudding cookie sandwiches
Make the small 1 tablespoon cookies and sandwich two together with that cream cheese frosting, which is perfect for a party tray because people can just grab one.
Chocolate chip banana pudding cookies
Do half white chocolate and half semisweet chips. It cuts the sweetness a little and, in my experience, kids go nuts for them.
Serving and Gifting Ideas
These are such good sharing cookies. Stack them in a tin with parchment between the layers for a bake sale or a neighbor, or just eat them with a cold glass of milk or your afternoon coffee. For a fall dessert table, put them next to a slice of our caramel banana cream mousse cake for the true banana lovers, and add something chocolate like these super moist chocolate cupcakes for everyone else.
How to Store and Freeze Banana Pudding Cookies
Since there’s real banana in them, they don’t keep quite as long as a plain chocolate chip cookie, so here’s what I do.
- On the counter: they’re good for up to 3 days in an airtight container, and tossing a slice of bread in there with them keeps them extra soft.
- In the fridge: up to a week, but let them sit out about 15 minutes before eating so the chips aren’t rock hard.
- Frozen, already baked: 3 months, bagged. An hour on the counter and they’re ready.
- Frozen dough balls: honestly my favorite trick, I scoop the whole batch, freeze the balls on a tray, toss them in a bag, and then on some random night I’ll bake just two or three straight from frozen at 350°F (175°C), giving them a minute or two longer.
Look, I sneak dough off the spoon too, but this one’s got raw egg and raw flour in it and either one can make you sick, so hold off until they’re baked. The FDA explains why raw flour isn’t safe to eat until it’s baked.
Banana Pudding Cookies FAQ
Can I use vanilla pudding instead of banana pudding mix?
Yep, swap in a 3.4 oz box of instant vanilla and they’ll stay every bit as soft. The banana flavor will only come from the fresh banana then, so it’s a bit milder, and I’d pick the spottiest, ripest one you’ve got to make up for it.
Do I have to chill the dough?
I really would. Please do, this dough is way softer than your usual chocolate chip dough because of the banana, and warm dough in a hot oven just melts outward. Thirty minutes is plenty, and if you’re in a hurry you can scoop the balls onto the tray and stick the whole thing in the freezer for 15 minutes instead.
Why are my banana cookies cakey?
Usually it’s too much banana or too much mixing. Too much banana, almost every time, since all that extra water steams in the oven and lifts the dough like a little cake. Stick with 1/2 cup of mashed banana, mix the flour on low just until it disappears, and take them out while the middles still look soft.
How do I keep the wafers crunchy?
Break them into rough chunks instead of crumbs and fold them in at the very end. Pressing a wafer half on top right when they come out of the oven gives you the most crunch. The ones inside do soften a bit by day two, but honestly that tastes even more like actual banana pudding, so I don’t mind.
Can I use cook and serve pudding?
Nope, sorry. Cook and serve pudding has to be heated in milk to thicken, so it doesn’t do the same job in cookie dough. Stick to instant in the 3.4 oz size, and skip the sugar-free boxes too since they’re way smaller and the cookies spread.
How long do banana pudding cookies last?
They last about 3 days on the counter in a sealed container, up to a week in the fridge, and around 3 months in the freezer. Because of the real banana they’re a little more perishable than normal cookies, so if any make it past day three, move them to the fridge.
Before You Grab the Mixer
If I could only tell you one thing, it would be to actually measure that half cup of banana. Too much banana is the number one reason these go cakey on people, and it takes literally ten seconds to get right.
So bake a batch this weekend, for a bake sale or just for your own cookie jar (no judgment). If you make them, I’d love a star rating on the recipe card and a comment telling me which mix-ins you went with. Pin it too, so it’s right there the next time a banana goes spotty on your counter. And for more cozy baking ideas, browse our list of simple fall desserts.
