Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding

Yield: one 9-inch bread pudding
Recipe: 42/200
“Back to Baking”, pp. 204

    Bread pudding. This is a concept I never really grasped. Why would you want to purposely wet bread and eat it so? In my mind the result would be a soggy and unpleasant mixture. This recipe, however, yielded a dessert that was none of that. Admittedly, I think that I slightly undercooked the bread pudding and as a result it was a bit “wet” still, but I could tell that perfectly cooked it would have tasted even better. The pudding was very good, chocolate-y and had the unmistakable banana flavour. This dessert is a bit long to make if you do not have the banana chocolate chip bread on hand, but it is definitely worth a try. It makes the perfect late-night snack!

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf Basic Banana Chocolate-Chip Bread
• 4 oz (125 g) semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 3 cups milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Wrap the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with foil to prevent leakage and grease the springform pan. Place in a roasting pan.
2. Cut the banana bread into 1-inch cubes and spread the cubes out evenly on an ungreased baking sheet. Toast the banana bread for about 10-15 minutes, until the outsides of the cubes have dried. Leave on the baking sheet to cool.
3. Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl. Heat the milk to just below a simmer and pour it over the chocolate. Whisk the mixture until the chocolate has fully melted.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract.
5. While whisking, add the chocolate milk to the egg mixture and whisk until homogeneously combined.
6. Add the banana bread pieces to the chocolate and egg mixture and stir to coat. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, making sure to stir occasionally.
   • Note: the banana bread cubes will begin to break up and crumble a bit at this point – this is normal.
7. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F.
8. Pour the mixture into the prepared springform pan and pour boiling water into the roasting pan so that water comes halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake the pudding for 60-75 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the pudding comes out clean.
9. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes, then remove it from the water bath before cooling it down to room temperature. Chill the pudding into the springform pan until it sets, about 5 hours.

Notes from Anna:

• The bread pudding is best served chilled. It slices into wedges, just like a cake.

Valerie