Banana Bread Pudding with Nutella Swirl & Chocolate Sauce

Bread puddings are one dessert which are easy to put together and tastes sensational when served with a dollop of ice cream or whipped cream or vanilla mascarpone cream. My first attempt in baking a bread pudding was long back, when I was newly married. Quite a novice Armed with zero baking skills, I tried the pudding just because we had a microwave-convection oven in our in-laws house. I had a 13-inch baking pan and just one cup of pudding batter to fill it. Donot imagine till what level the batter was in the dish. And to those who imagined, it just peeped from the floor of the pan. That was not the only mistake that I did. I baked the pudding for the time the recipe called for and with such a big baking dish and such little batter I should have cut down on the time but I didn't. I didnt check for doneness in the middle, I simply and blindly baked. Thanks to god it didn't burn. And I don't want to talk about how the pudding tasted. It was good in taste but the texture ~ not soft neither hard... it was rubbery. End result ~ I vowed that I would never bake in my life.

But now I am happy that I changed my decision. Baking soothes me and my soul these days. I bake when I am happy, I bake when I am sad and these days, I don't need a reason to bake. I had my own downs when it comes to baking, never an up in my early days. But lessons have been learnt and I am starting to understand the science behind baking.

Now this pudding, its a simple one if you follow the recipe to the 'T'. I would say its a beginner's keeper. Its just making the custard, soaking the bread slices, putting em together and then baking. We had it for our weekend breakfast brunch, a lazy late morning breakfast and it was just perfect ~ not too sweet and not too bland. 'A' skipped the chocolate sauce but I would say donot skip it if you need something chocolate in everything you eat ~ 'like me'

~*What U Need*~ Milk - 1/2 + 1/4 cup Demerera Sugar - 1 1/2 tbsp Cinnamon - 1/8 tsp Egg - 1 Day old bread slices - 2 cups, cubed Ripe banana - 1 / Mashed Banana - 1/2 cup Nutella - 2 tbsp Butter - 1 tbsp For the chocolate sauce Dark chocolate - 50g Fresh cream - 3 tbsp Powdered sugar - 2 tbsp Milk - to bring it to consistency

How I Made it:
Soak the bread slices in 1/2 cup milk. Mash the banana with a fork. Take cinnamon, demerera sugar in a bowl. Add egg and combine well.

Add 1/4 cup milk and banana and whisk well.

In a greased pan, arrange the soaked bread slices. Pour the custard over the bread slices.

Heat the nutella with butter over double boiler. Pour this over the bread and swirl with a knife. Bake @ 175 C for 30-40 mins till the top turns brown.

For the chocolate sauce, microwave all the ingredients for 30 secs. Whisk till smooth and shiny. If its too thick, then whisk in some milk to bring it to pouring consistency. When serving pour the chocolate sauce over the bread pudding and serve.

For best results, serve warm out of oven.

** My Notes:
** Once out of the oven, the pudding looks so puffed up but it falls once it starts to cool. Don't panic or don't get put off ~ that is how it works.
** You could add some dark chocolate chunks too
** Nuts, they give a good crunch too

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!