Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Bread Pudding
By: The Duo Dishes
Published: Saturday, December 5, 2009 - 5:45pm

Ingredients




Bread
4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
5 bananas, mashed
2 eggs
2 tablespoons Frangelico
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
3/4 cup chocolate chunks
Pudding
3 cups milk
3 cups half-and-half or cream
5 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup shredded coconut, minced
1/4 cup chocolate chunks
2 teaspoons vanilla
 cup Frangelico or hazelnut liqueur
Cream
1 cup heavy whipped cream
1/2 cup half-and-half
6 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon Frangelico or hazelnut liqueur

Preparation

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line two 9×5 inch bread pans with parchment paper and spray with baking spray.  Set aside. 2 Combine flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. 3 In separate bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, vanilla, Frangelico and mashed bananas.  Mix well. 4 Add flour to banana mixture.  Stir in chocolate and nuts.  Pour into prepared pans. 5 Bake 55-65 minutes.  Let sit at least 30 minutes. 6 Once bread has cooled, cut into 1-inch cubes.  (You may only need one and a half loaves to fill your dish.) 7 Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Move to a 9×13 baking dish sprayed with baking spray. 8 Whisk together milk, half-and-half or cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla and Frangelico.  Add cinnamon, allspice and coconut and stir well.  Pour over banana bread cubes.  Let soak for 5-10 minutes.  Sprinkle with chocolate. 9 Cover loosely with foil and set in a pan of water.  Cover with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Remove foil and continue baking another 30 minutes or until middle has set. 10 As pudding cools slightly, combine remaining ingredients for cream topping.  Whisk well until slightly thickened.  Pour over or layer under pudding before servings.

About


There’s no witty anecdote behind this post.  What we’ve got here is a creation of necessity with the need being a free trip to Chicago…STAT!  Many Foodbuzzers know that the deadline is today to submit an entry to win a trip for two to Outstanding in the Field.  We love Chicago, we love to cook, there are two of us…it only makes sense that we should give it the old college (*ahem* post-grad) try.  The challenge:  Use at least one of these ingredients in a recipe–bananas, cashews, cranberries, macadamia nuts, raspberries, almonds, chocolate, coconut or cherries.  This is the first time we’ve entered a foodie competition that requires the use of specific ingredients, and it’s safe to say it won’t be the last. Here’s hoping we are winners of course, but in the end, the fun and games of it all is the best part.
See, here’s the thing.  We figured, ‘Hey.  All of these ingredients are great on their own, so why not in combination?’  Never could we have known!  This was so good, we had to slap each other around a few times just to make sure we weren’t dreaming.  Whether we win the trip or not, we succeeded in eating half of this sweet treat straight out of the dish.  So in the end, we’re still winners.  This ain’t yo momma’s bread pudding, and that’s all we can say about that!