Old-Fashioned Banana Pudding

Step 1 -In a medium saucepan, add the sugar, the cornstarch, the salt, and the egg yolks and whisk until well-blended.

Step 2 -Add the milk to the sugar mixture and whisk to combine.

Step 3 -Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, while stirring often, until the milk mixture starts to bubble, about 5-8 minutes.

Step 4 -Reduce the heat to low and cook, while whisking often, until the milk mixture thickens, about 1-2 minutes.

Step 5 -Transfer the saucepan from the heat and immediately add the butter and the vanilla to the pudding mixture and whisk to combine until smooth.

Step 6 -If the pudding mixture has any lumps, strain the pudding through a fine-mesh sieve into a heatproof bowl. You can skip this step if there aren't any lumps.

Step 7 -Fill a large bowl with water and ice to make an ice bath.

Step 8 -Place the pudding mixture, either in the saucepan or the heatproof bowl, in the ice bath and allow the pudding mixture to cool, while stirring occasionally, until the pudding mixture reaches room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Step 9 -Cover the pudding mixture with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic right against the surface of the pudding mixture to prevent it from forming a skin.

Step 10 -Chill the pudding mixture in the refrigerator until it is completely cooled, at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.

Step 11 -Add a large dollop (about 1/2 cup each) of the pudding mixture into the bottoms of four parfait cups. If there is leftover pudding, reserve it for a separate use.

Step 12 -Top the pudding layers in the parfait cups evenly with the wafer crumbles and the banana slices. Reserve a few of the wafer crumbles for topping, if desired.

Step 13 -Top the banana slices and the wafer layers in each parfait cup with a dollop of the whipped cream.

Step 14 -Sprinkle the reserved wafer crumbles on top of the whipped cream layers.

Step 15 -Serve.