Review: Magnolia Bakery's DoorDash-Exclusive Banana Pudding Is A Chocolate Peanut Butter Lover's Dream

New York is bursting with legendary eateries, making the city the ultimate foodie destination. One of the wonders of the contemporary food scene is that many of NYC's iconic eats are now accessible to those outside the city via nationwide delivery. This is especially welcome news for dessert lovers, as Magnolia Bakery, the world-famous sweets shop, has released Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces, a brand-new, limited-edition flavor of the bakery's renowned banana pudding.

Magnolia Bakery began delighting New Yorkers in 1996, when the bakery opened its first storefront in a picturesque corner of the West Village. While some think of the bakery's signature cupcakes as its claim to fame, Magnolia's banana pudding has become the bakery's most famous and sought-after dessert.

In 2017, due to a massive surge in demand, Magnolia Bakery made its banana pudding accessible via nationwide shipping — bringing the classic dessert into homes across the country. That same year, Magnolia began releasing seasonal flavors of banana pudding — paying homage to the bakery's beloved red velvet cupcake and later honoring the changing seasons with a decadent nod to pumpkin spice. Now, for the first time ever, Magnolia Bakery is partnering with food delivery service DoorDash to release an exclusive, delivery-only banana pudding flavor. Let's see what the collaboration has in store.

Magnolia Bakery and DoorDash are collaborating to bring Magnolia's banana pudding to sweet lovers nationwide with the click of a button, offering an exclusive run of a new banana pudding flavor that is only available for purchase via the DoorDash app. That flavor is a peanut butter and chocolate lover's dream: Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces.

The original Magnolia Bakery banana pudding, which is made with an instant pudding mix, is a decadently creamy masterpiece of rich vanilla pudding, fresh bananas, thick heavy cream, and tons of melt-in-your-mouth vanilla wafers. That flavor pairing has become so iconic that Magnolia even created a packaged cookie version of its banana pudding, which is available in grocery stores nationwide. In recent years, Magnolia has also released new banana pudding flavors each month within its storefronts, including s'mores, strawberry shortcake, cookies and cream, and coffee-flavored banana pudding. Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces, meanwhile, features fresh pureed bananas, ribbons of peanut butter, fluffy vanilla pudding, loads of chocolate chunks, and chocolate cookie pieces.

Even if you live near one of New York City's Magnolia Bakery locations, or one of the lone storefronts in California or Illinois, in order to try Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces, you have to order via the DoorDash app. Magnolia's latest collaboration is a testament to the power of the online culinary retailer. Magnolia and DoorDash's banana pudding isn't available in any brick-and-mortar stores. Instead, it can be purchased exclusively via DashMart, DoorDash's virtual convenience store which started during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to bring household staples and specialty restaurant items to customers with expediency.

To place your order, visit the DoorDash app and head over to DashMart. You'll have the option of choosing from a series of specialty restaurants. Select Magnolia Bakery and then choose your desired quantity of Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces. The limited-edition pudding is sold in pints for $12.99, not including tax, delivery fee, or delivery tip.

Magnolia Bakery's original banana pudding is made with six simple ingredients often found in classic banana pudding recipes: bananas, heavy cream, vanilla instant pudding mix, vanilla wafers, water, and sweetened condensed milk. Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces has a similar, yet slightly lengthier, ingredient list due to its layered flavoring, as each Magnolia specialty banana pudding flavor uses the classic pudding as a base for a more complex taste.

Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces is comprised of heavy cream, chocolate sandwich cookie pieces, sweetened condensed milk, water, banana puree, peanut butter, vanilla pudding mix, and soft chocolate chips. Both banana puddings contain milk, peanut, soy, and wheat allergens.

Each serving of Magnolia x DoorDash's banana pudding contains 24 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, and 0.5 grams of trans fat. The collaboration pudding contains 55 milligrams of cholesterol, 210 milligrams of sodium, 38 grams of total carbohydrates (including 26 grams of total sugars and 1 gram of dietary fiber), and 5 grams of protein. Each pint contains three servings.

Now for the true test: How does Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces taste? I had extremely high expectations for this collaboration as a lover of Magnolia Bakery's original banana pudding and a devoted chocolate peanut butter dessert aficionado. I've always believed that chocolate and peanut butter go together in perfect harmony, particularly when paired with a subtle base that allows their unique flavor profiles to really sing.

I'm pleased to report that Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces is a culinary feat. Ribbons of thick peanut butter weave into the creamy banana pudding without overpowering or dominating the overall flavor. Sometimes in frozen desserts with pieces of cookie or cake, the texture of the added ingredient becomes mushy or unpleasantly stale, but here, the pieces of chocolate sandwich cookies are just right — soft enough to melt on your tongue and to blend organically with the rest of the pudding. The chocolate chunks and cookie pieces lend a complex sweetness to the nuttiness of peanut butter, allowing the tastes to build upon one another. Swirled with Magnolia's signature cream-forward banana pudding, this collaboration makes for a majestic treat that strikes just the right balance.

As a dessert lover who has ample experience with Magnolia Bakery's classic banana pudding, I was tremendously eager to see how the collaboration flavor held up to the original. One of the potential challenges that comes with offering so many different flavors of a beloved dessert, particularly one with such a rich culinary history in the U.S., is the risk of overcomplicating the flavor or, worse, infusing notes of artificial taste. What makes Magnolia's classic banana pudding so iconic is that it tastes like a fluffy, creamy, decadent cloud. The banana is woven seamlessly into the pudding, and the vanilla wafers practically melt into an airy texture of cream that lets you keep eating and eating.

I was delighted to find that Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces added to the original's signature flavor without distorting it. If anything, I had expected there would be more peanut butter, chocolate chunks, and cookie pieces, but as I took bite after bite of the new pudding, I realized that the quantity was just right — it allowed the base of Magnolia's classic banana pudding to be tasted throughout. It's the rare culinary collaboration that presents a sumptuous new flavor while simultaneously fully honoring the original. There's no replacing the original, but Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces is a worthy addition to Magnolia's lineup while it's here.

If you love Magnolia Bakery's classic banana pudding but have always wished that decadent, impossibly creamy pint of banana goodness tasted a bit more like a Reese's peanut butter cup, then you may want to pull out your phone right now and order the collaboration pudding. For $12.99, I can't imagine a dreamier dessert pairing that stays true to all the wonder of Magnolia Bakery's original while also delivering chocolate and peanut butter lovers their favorite pairing. Since Banana Pudding with Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunks & Cookie Pieces is available for only a limited time, I recommend sampling a pint as soon as possible so that you don't miss out.

My only two knocks for Magnolia and DoorDash's banana pudding collaboration have to do with the DoorDash rollout. While DoorDash is a delivery platform that serves customers across the country, the exclusive banana pudding is only available via DashMart, which has locations throughout most major cities but is not available in all zip codes, which could prevent some banana pudding devotees from procuring the dessert. Additionally, the nature of the collab means your banana pudding will arrive frozen rather than fresh from a Magnolia Bakery storefront. Fortunately, once the pudding reaches room temperature, the texture is just as creamy and mouthwatering as the original. Plus, you have the added bonus of velvety peanut butter and rich chocolate. I say go for it!