Bread Pudding

Time for Dessert? Check.
Rum? Check.
Bread? Check.
Sold!

My day-old loaf of bread is being put to excellent loving use today and becoming bread pudding.  Yes I do have a lot of dessert favorites, I promise I'll post more healthy stuff too.  This recipe is adjusted from a basic one on Allrecipes (original here).  Bread pudding is a lot like french toast if you think about it, so it could make a delicious bake-ahead breakfast or Easter brunch.  For dessert, try serving it with vanilla ice cream or topping it with rum sauce, or both.

Bread Pudding with rum and raisins

Local ingredient features:
Sunflower Honey Oat bread from Crumb Brothers (This is SO good and you should try it if you can!)
Eggs from Clifford Farm
Milk from Winder Farm

My Jessica-version of the instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  This works best if you don't get distracted and do other things for an hour instead of preparing the bread.

2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8" or 9" square baking pan.  Press it down tight so it's all super friendly and if you can fit in another couple of pieces of bread go for it!  I think the best bread puddings are the nice tightly packed ones.  A note about the bread I chose, the sunflower seeds made a great addition to the texture of the final dessert.

3. Pour melted butter over the top of the bread and sprinkle with raisins.  I used half golden and half regular.  I bet the raisins would be great mixed in with the bread squares too but I just left them on top.

4. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and rum.  Beat the eggs before adding the other ingredients, it's tough to beat them properly with all the milk and stuff in there.  Beat until well mixed. 

5. Pour over bread, and then comes the SQUISHING!  Um I mean, lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture. Or you could do it the fun way and (wash your hands first) squish it all down with your hands!  I want to make this again just for this step.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

7. Note that raisins straight out of the oven are super hot.  Also, this is great straight from the fridge for breakfast, but don't eat it cold because it is better warmed up, you will thank me.  45 seconds in the microwave should do it.  Enjoy!


Bread Pudding with Rum and Raisins
INGREDIENTS
8 slices day-old bread
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup raisins (I suggest half regular and half golden)
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp spiced rum (or substitute 1 tsp vanilla extract)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Break bread into small pieces into an 8" or 9" square baking pan.  Press it down tight.

3. Pour melted butter over the top of the bread and sprinkle with raisins.

4. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and rum. Beat until well mixed. 

5. Pour over bread, and lightly push down until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture. 

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.