Caramelized Banana Bread Pudding - By Summer

Oh dear - I am so behind in making the rest of the May recipes.  My only excuse is that I am 9 1/2 months pregnant and desperately trying to get ready for baby number 2.  I think we are finally ready, so now I can get back to the baking.  Unfortunately at the beginning of this week, the weather was in the 90's and 100's!!  Craziness!  I could not justify turning on the oven during those temps.  But it's nice and cool now, ad nI am hoping to finish up in the next couple of days!

I was really excited that Lisa picked this recipe.  I was very close to picking it for this month myself.  I haven't ever had bread pudding, but the caramelized and banana part sound really good to me!  The recipe calls for a 9 x 13 pan, which I know is far more than we could ever go through, so I decided to cut the recipe in half and made it in an 8 x 8 pan instead.

It's actually quite easy to make this, so I don't know why I was putting it off.  I didn't have any trouble finding the Challah bread.  My only problem is that the loaf was really big (24 oz) and the recipe calls for 12 oz.  But never fear - I would not let that bread go to waste.  I figure it would be perfect for French toast and it was!  I also realize as I am typing up this post - I did a great job of halving everything in the recipe, but the amount of bread!  I used the full 12 oz, so it may not have as much pudding . . .

 Mine didn't cook for quite 60 minutes, which probably isn't surprising given the fact that I had way more bread than needed and the pan was smaller.  I liked the taste of the bread, but I wasn't a fan of the bananas in it.  They were way too sweet for me (I know - shocking - too sweet!).  I am definitely interested in trying this again, but with the right proportions and maybe minus the bananas.