This pudding is a great way to utilize stale bread and over-ripe bananas, but you don’t have to wait for the bread to stale to make the pudding. I like my bread very dry when starting this recipe. To achieve this, simply cut the bread in cubes, spread on a baking sheet and place in a 350 degree F oven and bake until the bread has completely dried out. This will take approximately 25 minutes. Alternatively, you can cut-up a fresh loaf of bread, place the cubes in a paper bag and allow to dry out over a couple of days.

For the pudding:

• 1 stale French baguette, roughly cut in 1 1/2” pieces
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 cups milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Grease a 9” x 13” baking dish. Arrange stale bread in dish in an even layer and set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg until evenly combined.

In a large bowl mash the bananas with a fork. It’s okay to leave some large chunks of banana. To the bananas, add milk, eggs and vanilla. Stir to thoroughly combine. Add sugar mixture and stir well.

Pour custard (banana and milk mixture) over bread in baking dish pressing down on bread to make sure it is submerged in the custard. Cover with and refrigerate for one hour to allow the bread to soak up the custard.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Keep pudding covered and bake in center of oven for 45 minutes. Remove cover and continue baking an additional 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center come out clean.

For the sauce:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup dark rum

Over medium heat, melt the butter in a large skillet and add the brown sugar. Stir to combine. The mixture will be thick and grainy.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the rum. Stir to combine and return to medium heat. When the mixture begins to simmer, carefully light the sauce with a long match. Keep the liquid on the heat and allow it to continue to bubble and flame. The flames will go away when the alcohol has been burned off. If you are unable to get the sauce to flame, simply allow the sauce to simmer for about 4 minutes to allow the alcohol to burn away.

Serve warm over warm bread pudding.

Optional addition: After the alcohol of the sauce has burned off, add about 2 tablespoons of milk or heavy cream to make a rum caramel sauce.

Note: Keep the sauce warm by placing it in a pitcher in a pan of simmering water. This is also a great way to gently heat the sauce after it’s been refrigerated.

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