Bananas Foster Bread Pudding Recipe (2024)

Yes -- this is a great make ahead dessert. I made this for our Easter family dinner dessert. I made it around noon and then reheated it in the oven @ 350 for about 15 minutes that evening. I reheated the rum sauce for a few minutes. Served it with vanilla ice cream, and it was a hit. There was a little left that I reheated a few days later & it was still delicious. One thing I did was dip the bananas in a little lemon juice as I was making the layers to keep the bananas from turning brown.

Can this be made ahead?

Everyone wolfed it down (and without ice cream)! I would recommend using 6 (regular-size) bananas instead of 5, though.

Yes. Make it before dinner. Pop it in during.

Another choice for bread is Challah. It is similar in taste to brioche. I use Challah for other bread puddings.

This was EASY and PHENOMENALLY DELICIOUS! We made it for my daughter-in-law's birthday dinner--which included NY Times Cooking's Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Almond-Herb Sauce and Mark Bittman's Chicken Meunier--all DELICIOUS and CELEBRATORY! Once again, Thank you, Sam Sifton and Team! (I accidentally used 1/4 C dark brown sugar instead of white sugar...and the sauce was still really, really delicious!)

I added all the sauce 20 minutes before the pudding was done baking and it was amazing and super moist..I was afraid of it turning out to dry and by adding the sauce it was delightful..I made extra sauce to top when serving.

Challah--I have always thought the taste and texture were similar

Easy, not too rich. Sauce is fab, my husband asked if it was permissible to lick the sauce off his plate.

I agree, more bananas. Not usually a fan of bread puddings--this is an exception. Fantastic, easy and crowds love it.

Yes -- this is a great make ahead dessert. I made this for our Easter family dinner dessert. I made it around noon and then reheated it in the oven @ 350 for about 15 minutes that evening. I reheated the rum sauce for a few minutes. Served it with vanilla ice cream, and it was a hit. There was a little left that I reheated a few days later & it was still delicious. One thing I did was dip the bananas in a little lemon juice as I was making the layers to keep the bananas from turning brown.

Made ahead and reheated for 20 minutes loosely covered at 300. Made the sauce ahead - never thickened -simmered & stirred for a long while. Added cornstarch, which worked well, but upon reheating this thinned a bit. Requires VERY slow reheating but this is not guaranteed. Next time I would add the cornstarch at reheating. Made 1.5x bread pudding recipe and 2x sauce recipe for 12 people Perfect, large servings. Note: Even after baking slightly unripe bananas will taste unripe.

Can you do prep work ahead and keep it in the fridge? I'd like to make this for my husbands birthday next weekend. When we sit down for dinner I'd like to pop it into the oven.

Made this 4 hours in advance including the sauce. It pouffed up beautifully but collapsed within 30 minutes. Reheated both the pudding and the sauce with no difficulty. Took about 30 minutes at 300 degrees to reheat. Even though it had collapsed, it tasted wonderful. Used slightly overripe bananas to enhance their taste.

Made this today to take to work. Baked it in a crockpot ceramic container and then put that in the crockpot to keep warm. Worked great. Everyone was crazy about it.

Fantastic! Used cinnamon brioche, and had no problems cooking at altitude. I also think I will use brown sugar instead of white sugar to sprinkle over the top, or honestly just skip that step entirely. The sauce reduced, but never got any thicker, but it was very tasty.

I live in the north woods, so getting brioche or challah wasn’t an option so I used Hawaiian bread and it worked out just fine. Also our family doesn’t like rum so I used 43 instead and with its strong caramel and vanilla notes it was perfect! I highly recommend adding it to any caramel sauce.I think I’ll sprinkle pecans on the top with the sugar in the last ten minutes just to add some additional texture next time.

Long story short: leftover hot dog buns instead of brioche also works.

I was low on rum so I found banana liqueur in the closet and subbed it for the tablespoon of rum and added a splash to the sauce. Great Christmas dessert!

Delicious, easy, and make-ahead! I make this almost exactly as the recipe states. The only changes are that I use 6 bananas, sprinkle a little cinnamon into the custard, and use stale bread. I often make this the night before - both the pudding and sauce heat up perfectly the next day and taste just as good as freshly made. Remember that the sauce is not supposed to be thick like a caramel…expect more of a warm maple syrup viscosity.

I made half the recipe with croissant bread (buttery flavor), and added chopped strawberries. It was a nice contrast between the sweetness of the bananas and tartness of the strawberries. I baked it 50 minutes. It came out delicious! I didn’t even use any sauce. It’s a keeper.

Followed the recipe except that I used a gluten-free small baguette and a half loaf of Hawaiian gluten-free bread (6 cups total). The guests thought I was joking when I said that it was gluten-free. I had some salted caramel ice cream topping handy that I lightly swizzled over the middle and top layers. I cooked it for 40 minutes in a convection oven and put it in a warm oven while we ate dinner. I served it with a praline ice cream in honor of our Mardi Gras themed meal. It was a hit!

What is the weight in grams of 6 cups cubed brioche? All the rest I can figure out in metric.

I made a gluten and mostly dairy- free version that was delicious. Substituted GF bread and oat milk and soaked the bread mixture overnight. I also needed to add cornstarch to the sauce for it to thicken. Sauce was the least successful element of the recipe, it was too strong to rum. But the bread pudding itself was fabulous. Cooked it ahead of time and reheated as many others have done and it was fine.

Could not get brioche so used artisanal white bread. Needed about 50% more liquid. Good stuff.

Just incredible! I used a large french bread and a couple of hoagie rolls from the grocery bakery. Nothing fancy. I followed the recipe except I use half the sugar in the bread portion. I did not fire the rum as I was scared. No biggie. Just awesome. I served it in very small squares at a holiday party for 50. Everyone raved. I used the rum sauce recipe for the NY Times cookbook - it is my favorite for bread pudding. It was perfect.

This is a delicious dessert that absolutely tastes like bananas Foster. I used sourdough left over from making stuffing, mixed cream with the milk since I didn’t have enough whole milk, and used dark brown sugar in the recipe with turbinado sugar sprinkled on top instead of white sugar: this created a lovely sugary crust. I did not make the sauce as I didn’t think it was necessary but I did dribble in some cream to the pudding as it seemed a bit dry. So good. This is a keeper.

The sauce is outrageously delicious, but if for some reason you don’t want it: add a little extra sugar, rum, and half-and-half to the base — and it is very good all on its own.

This was a huge hit at a dinner party I hosted. Like others noted, the sauce never really thickened, but it was still delicious, and essential. I added crumbled bacon on top of the bananas and it was amazing. I will definitely make this dessert again!

Very tasty. I was making this for breakfast for two, so halved the recipe and did not use rum or make sauce. To compensate a bit, added a scrape of nutmeg dotted the pudding with butter before baking. Used demerara sugar for sprinkling at the forty minute mark.