Bread and butter pudding

step 1
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease your baking dish with butter.

step 2
In a pan, melt 3 tablespoons of sugar. If the sugar melts unevenly, stir it a bit to ensure even heating. Once the sugar has melted, and becomes golden brown in colour, add hot water to it. Be careful while you do this, because the caramelized sugar is extremely hot and will splutter. While it boils, add the chopped bananas, and stir for sometime. Remove from heat and let it cool.

step 3
Butter the bread slices generously. Spoon the cooled caramel and banana mixture on one slice of bread and sandwich with another. Repeat for other slices of bread. Divide each sanwich into four triangles, and arrange in the baking dish.

Add sugar to milk and heat till the sugar is completely dissolved. Do not bring to boil. Beat the eggs well, and add them to the milk stirring continuously. Stir in the essence as well.

step 4
Pour the milk and egg mixture into the baking dish, and leave it for 10 to 15 minutes, so that the bread absorbs the milk well.

step 5
Heat the raisins along with brandy (if using) for a minute, and scatter the raisins over the soaked bread. If you are not using brandy, mix the raisins with some butter before you add it to the pudding.

step 6
Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Serve warm, or refrigerate and serve cold.

step 7
The pudding is moderately sweet, but if you like it super sweet, use more sugar. I thought it tasted better warm than cold.