Heat butter or margarine and milk to boiling in saucepan. Cut bread into 1" cubes and put into a large bowl. Add sugar, egg yolks, raisins, sliced bananas and vanilla or butter/nut extract, stir well. Add scaled butter and milk mixture and stir well. Pour into baking dish. Put into preheated 350? oven. Bake 15 minutes then stir with a fork. Bake another 25 minutes (longer if you like a drier pudding). Remove from oven and turn oven to 450?. Beat egg whites adding gradually ? cup sugar and ? tsp almond extract until stiff peaks form. Top pudding and bake until light brown. This is a favorite around Christmas time.