Banana Walnut Bread Pudding

This bread pudding is amazingly simple to make. Nothing fancy, just a basic bread pudding recipe with a few additions. To make it more tempting for my two lil' monkeys, I have added walnuts and bananas.

I made this pudding with the sweet braided bread that I baked yesterday. This bread already had a lot of sugar and butter so I added just 1/2 cup sugar (1/4 cup white and 1/4 cup brown), skipped the butter, and used 2% milk to cut down the calories. To make this richer (if you don't mind the calories), add the butter and use whole milk and heavy cream (1 cup whole + 1 cup heavy cream).

Make this pudding with any 1-2 day old bread you have on hand. 1 day old French or Vienna loaf tastes great in this pudding (no, don't use the wheat bread). For a non-sweet bread, increase the sugar by 1/4 cup.

Banana Walnut Bread Pudding

Ingredients

White bread (About 6 slices cut in to small cubes/ apprx. 6 cups).
2 cups 2% milk
3 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup crushed/chopped walnuts
2 ripe bananas, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
2-4 tbsp melted unsalted butter (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the bread cubes in a baking dish. If using the butter, pour it over the bread. Mix rest of the ingredients and pour them over the bread. Let it stand for a few minutes till the bread absorbs all the liquid. If the mix is too watery, add some more bread. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 - 50 mins. Serve warm topped with whipped cream. For a more custard like texture increase the milk by 1/2 cup and add an extra egg.

"MINE"