Last week was particularly stressful. I had no mood to cook, no mood to talk to anyone, no mood to read, no mood to sleep and no mood to eat…Why? Because my son was taking a test. But that’s not a big deal. We all take tests and there are all kinds of tests. This was different. We realised on the day of the test that there was probably 500 kids vying for probably 60 places. This is my estimation. Anyway, it was overwhelming all the same.

What made this whole test thing stressful was the lack of information on what the test would be like. How the students will be tested - would they be in a classroom of 30? or in small groups? Would the kids be able to ask the examiner to repeat the question or would it be a fixed number of reading and no more repeats after? What type of questions will they ask? And so I was plagued by the worry of what many would consider an irrational mom! Anyway, now that it’s over and we wait for the results, I am suddenly feeling the lightness of being unburdened.

So here’s to celebrating the worry other irrational moms like me go through every once in a while.

Ingredients:

8 slices white bread - buttered and sliced half (diagonally)
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 oz butter or half a stick
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
2-3 tbsp water
1 ripe banana sliced

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 360 degrees.
2. In a saucepan, put the brown sugar and water. Swirl and place on medium heat until the sugar melts and starts to bubble. Do not stir. Instead swirl the pan if you think the sugar is not melting evenly.
3. Add the butter and milk. Whisk lightly until the butter melts and the mixture is well mixed.
4. While the mixture is left to cool, grease an 9 inch cake pan with butter well.
5. Butter both sides of the bread slices and arrange the triangles neatly in the pan so that there is no space between. No need to press the bread.
6. Slice the bananas and spread it evenly between and on the bread slices.



7. In a bowl, break the eggs. Whisk lightly to mix the eggs well.
8. Add the eggs to the cooled sugar mixture.
9. Pour the mixture slowly from the edges of the bread and work to the centre. Make sure the mixture is poured evenly over all the bread.
10. Lightly press the bread slices so that the mixture evens out and can be absorbed by the bread.



11. Leave the bread aside for 15 minutes to soak the mixture. It should look like this.



12. Sprinkle some brown sugar lightly over the mixture just before putting it in the oven.



13. Place the bread in the oven for 30-45min or until a skewer poked in the center comes out clean and the top of the bread is nicely brown.



14. Serve warm with Vanilla Sauce.

Tips:

• Use bread which have expired but is not stale or moldy. They give a better texture and absorb the mixture better while holding its shape.
• Instead of spreading the butter on the bread slices, I left small slivers/dots of butter on both sides of the bread to save time because my butter was not soft enough to spread it.
• Instead of bananas, use raisins/sultanas.
• Use an oven safe dish or baking pan and fill with layers of bread and bananas leaving about 1inch at the top. When baked it will rise. Once cooled, it will deflate.
• The more layers of bread you have, the  thicker the layer of pudding you get. I had only 2 layers.
• You can serve the pudding with ice cream or chocolate sauce and fresh fruits.
• This makes a great tea time treat if you’re having guests over! So simple and so yummy.