Banana bread and butter pudding

Thank you all so much for the lovely, heartwarming comments made yesterday. Congratulations to the winners of the stitcheries - Sharonskan, Vickie and Julie. Please send me your postal addesses and I'll get them in the mail early next week.

I had a few things to catch up on yesterday morning. I got the bedsheets washed and hung out to dry by mid-morning, remade the bed with fresh linen and warm quilts, fed the worms, talked to the chooks and fed them a feast of green leaves from the garden. Inside again, I baked bread, wiped the kitchen benches over and made a big pot of vegetable and barley soup. I put aside a few small containers of it to have for work lunches. Late in the day I made a banana bread and butter pudding.

Hanno went to the Foodbank on Wednesday to collect food for Centre and picked up a couple of large black bags of Baker's Delight bread while he was there. We pack the bread up, freeze it and give it to our people when they come in for food. I took a couple of the loaves home so I had a nice white loaf for the pudding. We also have a lot of bananas at the moment, and too many eggs, so a bread and butter pudding was the ideal thing to make.

You can use any fruit in this, or sultanas (golden raisins), or just spread jam on the bread. It's a very good recipe for a large family, just add more bread slices, use an extra egg and increase your milk.

BANANA BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING - enough for 6 people
8 slices of bread with crust removed
enough butter to cover all the slices
3 or 4 bananas, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
600 mls (1 pint) milk
2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F.

• Butter the bread, cut into triangles and place half on the base of an ovenproof pudding or lasagna dish.

• Sprinkle half the cinnamon and sugar over the bread.

• Place half the bananas over the bread.

• Then repeat those layers of bread, cinnamon/sugar and bananas.
• Press it all down slightly so there aren't too many spaces underneath.
• Lightly beat the eggs, add the milk and mix in.
• Pour the egg milk mix over the pudding, making sure you wet everything with the milk.
• Allow the pudding to stand for 10 minutes to let it all soak in, then place in the preheated oven to cook.
  

What you're aiming for is a soft custard around the bread and fruit. Overcooking with make the custard tough. It won't take long to cook, maybe 15 - 20 minutes. If the top hasn't turned brown but the bottom has cooked, put it under your griller (broiler) for a couple of minutes to brown the top.

I worked on the book proposal all yesterday afternoon with the smell of the soup cooking, and then the delicious aroma of baking custard and bananas. Mmmmmm. There is nothing better on a cold and dismal day than having tasty, simple food cooking slowly on the stove. Hanno and I had a bowl of soup each, a glass of water and then the pudding with blueberries. It didn't cost a lot to make but we ate well last night. Another bonus is that I don't have to cook tonight - and that saves time, electricity and money.

Suzan at Scrub Oak is having a 100th post giveaway. She has a lovely blog and is struggling with some decisions, not to mention, bears, at the moment. I'm sure you'll enjoy visiting her.