This dish is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

In our kitchen, rapidly browning bananas usually mean banana bread or muffins are on the menu— but this time I felt like shaking things up a little. I've recently been thinking about the last great dessert I had [honestly, when am I not thinking about dessert?] It was a pear-croissant bread pudding from Sutro's at the Cliff House in San Francisco (over Christmas). It was one of those desserts where you just wanted the taste to linger on your tongue. I swear I didn't drink anything for at least 20 minutes after my last bite. 

Anyway, back to my bananas...   

I tried my hand at creating a banana version of the croissant bread pudding. I started with this recipe and adapted it to get the taste I was going for, which is usually somewhere between decadent and sinful. 

Here's my set up:

I use ramekins for a lot of my desserts, mostly in an effort to predetermine those portion 

sizes.

12 "mini" croissants. Buttery and delicious. 

Cube those suckers (wouldn't even try tackling this without a quality bread knife). 

Meanwhile, whisk together wet ingredients in a large bowl. I probably would've thrown this in the stand mixer if I'd thought about it sooner... 

...but a little elbow grease never hurt anyone!

Whisk in the semisweet chocolate bottom-dwellers chips. 

I transferred the croissants by the handful into the bowl of wet ingredients—I prefer this method to pouring the custard over the bread. 

Fold until well-combined, but not mushy! Mush = zero texture after baking. 

Place the ramekins in a shallow baking pan, and fill with water to the halfway point. 

Spoon your bread pudding until you have even amounts in each dish, but not too much over the brim. The bread will absorb the custard and expand while baking, so the top will rise ever-so-slightly. 

Pop in the oven, bake at 350º for about an hour...

et voila!

And now for a barrage of photos, because I think these came out beautifully...

Banana Chocolate Chip - Croissant Bread Pudding - ☆☆☆☆☆
4 eggs
1 ¾ C heavy whipping cream
¼ C milk
¾ C raw sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
12 mini croissants (or 6-8 regular croissants)
2-3 overripe bananas, mashed
1 C semisweet chocolate chips

• Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º. 
2. Place baking dish(es) in a shallow pan, fill halfway with water. 
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk whipping cream, milk, eggs (one at a time), sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Stir in bananas, and chocolate chips.
4. Transfer croissant cubes into the wet ingredients. Fold until well-combined. Let sit for 5 minutes. 
5. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a knife/toothpick/etc inserted in the center comes out clean.

If you're into bread pudding (and I certainly am), this is a 10. Enjoy!