Apparently it’s a sweet tooth kind of day here at The Lean Clean Eating Machine. Given some of my recent posts, you would think that I enjoy my fair share of desserts, but I am actually not all that big on sweets in general. I am a more of a savory kind of girl, but oddly enough, I really enjoy baking. One of the benefits of running a food blog means that there is always food in our house, but one of the disadvantages is that sometimes there is more food than two people can reasonably consume. Remember the Banana Nut Muffins from a few days ago? Ben and I both ate a good chunk of them by ourselves, but there were still over half a dozen left yesterday, so I figured I would get creative and make one of the few desserts I actually enjoy. If you have never tried bread pudding, you are missing out! It is truly spectacular, but what makes it even more amazing is the fact that I was able to create a gluten free, dairy free and vegan friendly version. That is almost unheard of. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but you would be hard pressed to find one that tastes this close to the original. This can be done with any type of gluten free bread, but I used the Banana Nut Muffins to give it a twist (and because they were there), and thankfully, this turned out awesome. This banana nut bread pudding would make a fantastic holiday dessert for those who are gluten, dairy or vegan conscious.
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- 6 cups light packed, day-old, gluten-free bread, cut into 1-inch pieces (preferably the recipe for Banana Nut Muffins made into loaves or any other gluten free banana bread)
- 2 bananas, thinly sliced
- 3 Tbsp. Cinnamon
- 1/2 cups stevia baking sugar
- 6 flax seed ‘eggs’ {1 Tbsp. ground flax seed + 3 Tbsp. water = 1 egg}
- 1.5 cans organic coconut milk
- coconut oil to grease baking sheet
- 100% organic pure maple syrup
- Mix together 6 flax ‘eggs’ and whisk thoroughly with a fork. Place in refrigerator for at least 10 minutes.
- Thoroughly grease an 8″ x 11″ x 2″ glass baking pan with coconut oil.
- Scatter bread chunks evenly across the baking dish.
- Thinly slice 2 peeled bananas and distribute evenly across the top of the bread chunks.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together 1.5 cans of organic coconut milk and 6 flax seed ‘eggs’ until thoroughly blended. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. of cinnamon into the coconut milk mixture and whisk until blended.
- Gently pour coconut milk mixture over the top of bread. Top with remaining cinnamon and stevia baking sugar. Set the dish aside for 20 minutes, periodically pushing the bread down with the back of a fork, until the bread has absorbed most of the coconut/flax egg mixture
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- When oven is ready, set baking dish on middle rack and cook for 50-55 minutes.
- When finished, let cool for 10 minutes and top with 100% organic maple syrup.