Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

All week I've been bemoaning the fact that I haven't had the time to do much cooking/baking and take photos. I wanted to get my blog up and running! I wanted to cook! I wanted to shoot photos! I wanted to eat something yummy!

So Friday afternoon I'm in the kitchen, cooking up things for dinner. Faced with a pile of ripe bananas, I remembered this great banana bread pudding recipe I originally got from Assaggio, an Italian restaurant in the Sellwood district of Portland, Oregon, and then later found on Epicurious.com. And no, it's not what you might be thinking: it's not bread pudding made with banana bread. It's bread pudding made with bananas. In my perhaps not all that humble opinion, a way better use for ripe bananas than banana bread, any day. I grabbed the recipe and was into the initial prep when I remembered my blog. Egads! My chance! So I grabbed my camera and started cooking and shooting.

I was in a hurry so I didn't do the usual kind of setting up and presentation that I might normally do. Not that I get all elaborate but given more time and more thought I would have done things a little differently. But at least I'm getting started.

Here's where you'll find the recipe.

And now, without further ado, here's Banana Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce!



So here it is: bananas are cooked and the first stage of layers is complete.




Second photo, layers are all assembled, custard is poured over. The only change I made from the recipe was to add a light sprinkle of cinnamon on top.



Third photo: Ah, the rum sauce -- pure decadence! Ingredients in the pan: butter, heavy cream, dark brown sugar...









Fourth photo: rum sauce, cooked, about to be removed from the heat for the addition of dark rum. Can you smell the rich caramel? Too yummy, and I'm not even a big caramel fan!








Photo five: the bread pudding after soaking about 20 minutes and just before going in the oven...










Photo six, just out of the oven. The smell is heavenly and so is the sight. Can you say, "Yum!"?


And photo seven, the final delight just before digging in. The rum sauce makes the whole dessert sing. Not a great presentation of the finished dessert, but trust me, it was delicious!

Cook, eat, dance, love!