simply amazing.

A few days ago while exploring the blogosphere I came across a few posts (closet cooking, genesis of a cook) regarding the peanut butter, banana, honey combo. This is one of my favorite comfort foods. And the simplicity of the ingredients lends itself as a convenient, everyday indulgence. Just great. My goal was to take the flavor combinitaion in a different, more pre-conceived direction. Enter: bread pudding. It's rich, homely, and an extremely flexible base for flavor exploration/exploitation.



PEANUT BUTTER - BANANA - HONEY BREAD PUDDING
::2 c milk
::1/2-2/3 c crunchy peanut butter (the more the better!)
::1/8 c butter
::1/4 c sugar
::salt
::2 eggs
::day old bread (like this one)
::honey
::hot water
::butter
::2 ripe, large bananas
-Bring milk, peanut butter, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil, stirring often, and reduce heat until thickened.
-Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm.
-Beat in eggs and add 3/4 of the bread in large chunks.
-Mix some honey with hot water and a table spoon of butter.
-Cut 1/4 of bread into small chunks and cover/saturate with honey mix.
-Cut bananas into large chunks and caramelize with butter in sauté pan.
-In a buttered pan place bananas and honey-soaked bread then cover with custard-bread.
-Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

I have been really eager for this since conceiving it a few days ago. I even baked a bread solely for use in this recipe (prior post). Once I started preparing its components I became even more excited; smililng to myself as I bounced around the korridor. I knew this was going to be really outstanding. With custards/bread pudding it is easy to produce satisfying, but homogeneous flavors. One of my goals was to preserve the individual flavors. I did this successfully by using large pieces of banana and by pre-saturating a portion of the bread with honey. The results were just as I had hoped: rich, distinct bites of honey and banana amidst a sea of peanut-buttery goodness. And using chunky peanut butter gives a needed crunch to the otherwise custardy custard.

Next time I use plain base, reserving the peanut butter for either a marbled saltiness or as a luxurious whipped topping. Enjoy!