In Hawaiian culture, ‘ohana means family, and seeing as how I will be adventuring on a family vacation this week I thought it was the perfect time to make my favorite ‘ohana bread pudding with Bananas Foster. I found this recipe while on vacation in Disney, as it was the feature for the Hawaiian vendor’s booth at the International Food and Wine Festival. I fell in love with the island-inspired bread pudding filled with pineapple, coconut, banana and glazed with a rum sauce.
The recipe calls for an egg-based bread, so I used a bag of Kings Hawaiian bread for an extra sweet taste. I also used cubed pineapple instead of crushed for texture reasons. The next time I make the bread pudding, I will use more banana and less coconut. I skimped on the banana in this pudding due to the Bananas Foster that was going to be poured on top. For the coconut, I mixed it into the bread pudding. The texture was a little off to me, so next time I plan to toast the coconut and sprinkle it on top of the bread pudding as opposed to having it mixed in. It will add a good crunch to the dish.
This was my first time making Bananas Foster, and I was really excited about learning how to flambe. After melting down the butter and brown sugar I used Meyers Spiced Rum for an extra kick and then lit my sauce up. If you don’t know how to flambe, I suggest watching a video or two on how to do it. After the rum was cooked off, I sliced up some bananas and threw them in the sauce to add some more flavor.
Serve the bread pudding and Bananas Foster warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The dish had me start wishing for an island vacation, and it was the perfect dish to kick off my family vacation to the beach. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- For the Bread Pudding
- 5 eggs
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 cup coconut
- 3 bananas
- 2 cups pineapple, cubed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 10 cups Hawaiian bread, cut into 2 inch pieces
- For the Bananas Foster
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup spiced rum
- 1 cup banana slices
Instructions
- For the Bread Pudding
- In a bowl mix eggs, milk, salt, sugar and nutmeg. Set aside.
- Cut bread in medium (usually 2 inch) pieces and place on cookie sheet pan. Put in 350 F oven.
- Bake bread until lightly toasted, about 15 minutes. Remove bread and place in egg and milk mixture.
- Combine fruit with bread mixture.
- Place mixture in a greased 10 inch cake pan, and bake at 325 F for 1 hour.
- Let stand 5 minutes.
- For the Bananas Foster
- Combine sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and half of heavy cream in a large pan. Bring to a boil and slowly add remaining heavy cream keeping mixture at a steady boil.
- Add spiced rum and flambe.
- Remove from heat and add vanilla.
- Add sliced bananas.
