Bread Pudding Any Way You Like

You know what, my whole life I always hated bread pudding.  "Old" people would talk about it, and I'd hear people ordering it in restaurants, and my dad loved it but I never really knew what it was or what it tasted like.   To me: bread + pudding = barf city.  It looked like burnt gross soggy mush in a bowl and I didn't want any part of it.

Last summer, while working abroad at the resort, I had to make bread pudding as it was something we were going to try out for the breakfast buffet.  Apparently people worldwide love this stuff.  While I had an aversion to the stuff, having never tried it due to the inner child going "yuck!" inside me, I naturally had no sweet clue how to make it.  I looked up recipe after recipe and it seemed weird and complicated and none of the recipes sounded any good.  I thought, "I love everything I bake, even the stuff I don't like too much.  How on earth am I going to put heart and soul into this mush dish that I can't figure out?"

After much frustration I approached the sous chef who was a 29 year veteran of this particular resort, and he gave me his simple and surprisingly to myself, absolutely delicious recipe for fluffy, sweet, wonderful bread pudding.  The thing I love the most about this recipe is it is so interchangeable.  You always start with the base recipe, then add whatever you want whether it's maple syrup & brown sugar, or cinnamon & raisins, or once I even made it with apples, cranberries and pears.  It is amazing.  I hope you give this one a try sometime, even if you don't like bread pudding, and change your outlook as I did.  You'll find that there is something ready to tantalize your taste buds around every corner!  Enjoy!

~Sally


Reid's Bread Pudding

Old bread (enough to fill 9x13 pan)  Use any kind, white, wheat, raisin...mix it up for the best recipe.

Base Recipe:
1 liter coffee cream
1 liter whipping cream
1 liter eggs (cracked or carton bought, but cracked taste best)
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F
Grease a 9x13 rectangle baking pan

1. Chop bread into bite size chunks and spread evenly in greased 9x13 pan. It doesn't have to look pretty, just spread around til the bread is as high as the edge of the pan or just over.
2. Mix base recipe until well mixed.  Pour over bread chunks in the pan.  The mix should come up just about to the lip of the pan.
3. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, press the bread into the egg/cream mix so that all the pieces have been soaked into the mixture.
4. You can bake it at this point for 30-35 minutes or until the egg/cream mix is not runny and the bread is brown on top or go to step 5.

5. Add whatever you feel like to the mix.  If you want cinnamon raisin bread pudding, add in 2 handfuls of raisins (sprinkle onto the bread mix before pouring the egg/cream mix) and throw a teaspoon of cinnamon into your egg/cream mix before pouring it.  It also tastes great if you sprinkle a handful of brown sugar over the top of the whole mix before putting it in the oven.

Note: If adding fruit or nuts, always sprinkle it into the bread before pouring the egg/cream mix on.
If adding flavoring (like cinnamon, maple syrup, brown sugar, etc) mix it into the egg/cream mix before pouring onto the bread.  Just a little will go a long way.