Beth's Banana Bread Pudding with Chocolate Chunks

- Hey guys, if it is still
chilly where you live and spring is slow-coming, I have got a great dessert idea
that will warm you right up. It is my banana bread pudding
with chocolate chunks. This is a fantastic dessert to serve when it's really cold outside
and you have friends over and you want to impress
them with something really soul-satisfying and delicious. People will talk about these
bread puddings for weeks.

They are that good. Let me show you how to put it together. So the first thing you want
to do is prep your ramekins. So I'm working with
four six-ounce ramekins and you want to spray them
with some baking spray.

I like the larger ramekin,
because I think the pudding looks a lot more elegant that way. I also like the little raised polka dots on the side of them. If you want to know where to get them, they're in my Amazon shop and I'll leave you a
link in the description. So once you spray them
with the baking spray, it also helps to take a pastry brush and just rub around the sides, making sure everything's well-coated.

And then you can set those aside. Then in a large mixing bowl,
you're going to add six eggs, one cup of heavy cream,
two tablespoons of sugar. I don't actually add
that much sugar to this, because the bananas
provide so much sweetness. But if your bananas are not very ripe, you might want to add another tablespoon.

And one teaspoon of vanilla extract. And you can whisk that all together, just until combined,
and then set that aside. Then, for our bread, I like
to use a rustic Italian loaf, but you could also use brioche or you could use a French loaf. And you just want to cut the bread into about half-inch cubes.

And we're looking for six cups. Then you can add the bread to the batter and toss it to combine,
making sure all those cubes are getting well-soaked
in with the custard. And then in a small bowl, you want to mash two very ripe bananas. The riper they are, the
sweeter the puddings will be and the more pronounced
the banana flavor will be.

And you can toss those in. And then the last thing we're gonna add is 1/3 of a cup of chocolate. So you could use chocolate chunks, you could use chocolate chips,
whatever you have will do. See wasn't that easy? This is all we have to do.

Now we're going to take this
mixture and fill our ramekins. I think it's easiest to do
it with an ice cream scoop. And you just want to make sure that your first couple scoops have
a lot of liquid in it, because that's what's gonna create the sort of custard center. And then the final scoop
should have more bread in it, because you want to make sure that you get some nice cubes kind of balancing on top, which will toast and become golden brown and make the banana puddings
look really elegant.

Then you want to take your ramekins and place them on a baking tray. And you can pop this whole thing in your refrigerator just like that, because you do want to make sure that you refrigerate these puddings
for at least four hours to allow for the bread to
soak up all of that custard. Because that will create
a more delicate interior than if you just popped it
into the oven right away. Then when it comes time to serve, you can pop these in the oven
at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 45 to 50 minutes.

So it does take quite a bit of time to make sure all of that egg
custard is fully cooked through and that the tops have
become golden brown. And you can kind of press
on them a little bit and if no liquid is coming up and they're nice and kind of spongy, then you know that they're done. So you can take them out. And then I like to dust these with a little bit of
powdered sugar just on top.

And then you can bring
them right to the table and let everybody dig in. (Laughing) And once they've gotten through
about two to three bites, it's also a good idea to serve a little lightly-whipped whip cream on the side, because it's a fantastic combination to pour a little bit of that whip cream into the banana puddings. Because there's something really delicious about that hot bread pudding
and the cool whip cream. Not to mention, it serves
as a nice flavor combination between the rich banana
and the chocolate chips.

I hope you guys give this one a try and let me know what you think. And for all the printed recipes, you can head to my website,
EntertainingWithBeth.Com, and you can print them out there. Alright you guys, I will
see you back here next time for another quick and easy recipe. Until then, bye!.