Today feels a little blue.
The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful still, crisp winter’s day, but yesterday’s news of the death of David Bowie is still weighing on my mind.
When I think about it logically, I can see that it’s all a bit silly to be sad about the death of someone that I didn’t know…I guess. But on the other hand, there’s something deeply beautiful about appreciating someone who touched the lives of so many people in ways uniquely personal. For me, and I’m sure many others, his music was always exciting and his unbounded creativity was beautiful to behold. But more than that, he was always unapologetically himself, and in so being, proclaimed that it’s okay to embrace your inner weirdo and stand unflinchingly proud to just be you.
So really, I think it’s alright to be affected by the departure of such a bright spirit from our world, and equally to celebrate that we had the chance to have lived in his time, and to have been affected by him.
And so, to ease poignancy of his loss, and to celebrate a magnificent life, today I decided to make some banana chocolate bread pudding.
I think in a time of sadness, smothering the ache with stodgy whole grain bread pudding loaded with serotonin boosting dark chocolate is just the ticket.
This guy named Dean Podesta tweeted this magnificent and timely sentiment on the 9th of January, after the release of Blackstar:
“If you’re ever sad, just remember the world is 4.543 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie.”
I think that pretty much sums it up.
- 300g whole wheat, crustless bread (weight after crusts removed), cut into quarters
- 4 eggs
- 400mL or 2/3C milk
- 125g or 1/3C runny honey
- 2 ripe bananas
- 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 100g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and lightly grease a large baking dish.
- In a large bowl mash the bananas until they’re quite smooth. Whisk in the cocoa powder until well combined and as smooth as possible. Whisk in the milk, eggs, honey and vanilla.
- Arrange a layer of a third of the bread in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Over lap the the quarters of bread a bit, but try to keep them mostly in a single layer. Sprinkle a third of the chocolate on top of the bread and then pour in a third of the liquid ingredients being sure that the bread is all well soaked.
- Repeat this step twice more with the remaining bread, on the last layer sprinkle the chocolate on last.
- Place the dish into the pre-heated oven and leave to cook about one hour. The pudding should still be a bit moist, but not sloppy, and will probably be quite puffy when you remove it from the oven. It will sink back into the dish as it cools, which is fine.
- Serve hot.