Panettone Bread & Butter Pudding with a Banana Toffee Topping

If you're watching your weight, don't look any further. This is so, so naughty...

Actually quite difficult to photograph...

Ingredients

For the pudding:

Left over panettone (or stale bread), about 8 slices

Butter

2 apples

A good handful of stoned dates

50gm caster sugar

200ml milk

70 ml double cream

3 eggs

Tspn vanilla essence

For the topping:

110gm Demerara sugar

1 ripe banana

60gm butter

2 tablespoons milk

There seems like there's a lot to do here, but it's all easy and quick.

De-core the apples and then chop them and the dates into pretty small chunks. Put them in a bowl and pour over about 70ml of boiling water. Allow to cool.

Whilst that's happening, butter the inside of an oven proof dish and the slices of panettone.

Make the custard by combining the caster sugar, milk and cream in a mixing bowl and...er....mixing. Beat the eggs and the vanilla essence. Add them to the mix and mix some more. When the apple & dates have cooled, add the water to the mix and stir.

Place a layer of panettone in the bottom of the dish and spread the apples and dates across it. Then add a top layer of panettone. Pour the custard over it.

To make the topping, melt the butter in a pan and add the sugar and about two tablespoons of milk. Finely chop the banana and add it too, stirring occasionally while the sugar and banana become toffeeified (don't use this word in Scrabble). Pour over the bread and butter pudding and then pop it into the oven for about 35 minutes on 180, perhaps a touch less if you're using a fan oven.

Serve with custard or cream. Considering the calories in this dessert you might as well have both...