BREAD PUDDING

Here’s the perfect way to use up stale bread and prevent food waste. Think of bread pudding as a classier, grown up version of the French toast. It is such an easy recipe to follow, it’s so easy to customize and make it your own. Bake it in individual ramekins, regular deep pans, muffin pans, your choice! I keep a bag of leftover bread in my freezer and make this recipe whenever that bag gets full. It can easily be made pareve by substituting the cream with full fat coconut milk.

INGREDIENTS (10-12 servings)

• 1 pound bread (500 grams) – about a regular sized loaf
  • you can use whatever type of bread you have leftover, some sort of white, soft, slightly sweet bread works best
• 3+ cups heavy cream, half and half or whole milk – the richer the liquid, the richer the custard!
  • the heavy cream can also be substituted with full fat coconut milk for a pareve version of the recipe
  • if you’re using fresh bread, use less liquid, the bread won’t soak up as much liquid ad a dried out bread will!
  • if you’re using stale bread, the bread should swim in the liquid, it will soak most of it up!
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• powdered sugar for dusting on top
• you could also add frozen fruits to this, chocolate chips and all sorts of toppings

INSTRUCTIONS

I used a deep ceramic baking dish for this and mixed all the ingredients in there, but feel free to use a separate bowl for this step. Mix the eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla and cream or milk of choice together.

Next, tear the stale bread into pieces (or cut it into cubes) and add it to the previously made mixture.

Next step

Let the bread soak into the mixture for at least 1 hour. You can definitely make this a day ahead and let the bread soak up all that liquid overnight, in the fridge.

Preheat your oven at 180°C (356°F).

Bake the bread pudding until golden brown. The bread pudding should mostly be solid, but it is alright if it has some softer spots. Mine took 30-40 minutes to bake, but it all depends on the depth of the baking dish that you’re using, so just keep an eye on it. You don’t want too much browning on the bread pudding!

SERVING IDEAS

Dust some powdered sugar on top, after letting the bread pudding cool for 10 minutes.

Serve it warm with freshly whipped cream, ice cream, jam or chocolate sauce.

There you have it!

A simple, easy to make dessert, with a unique texture.