Wednesday, November 30, 2011

wnwn bread pudding

bread pudding
I had a bread pudding conversation with my brother-in-law over Thanksgiving. He's a tremendous cook who loves bread pudding, but has never enjoyed the recipes he's tried. Hmmm. I don't use a recipe. It's one of those throw-it-all-together dishes that I like to make, and my family loves to eat. Made me think I should share what I do, in case you have a hankering for some good comfort food and some stale bread on hand. In the past, I was the main "heel eater" of the family. I gave up wheat last spring (a whole post in itself!) and the bread ends/heels started piling up. I keep all old bread in a bag in the freezer. Sometimes they turn into bread crumbs and croutons, but mostly I wait until the there is enough to fill a shallow baking dish (approximately 8" square). This lends itself to child participation... or even complete kitchen independence. Always a good thing.
  
Waste Not Want Not Bread Pudding
  1. Gather bread, thaw if frozen.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  3. Make custard. Beat 4 or 5 eggs into 1 cup of milk.
  4. Mix 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of sweetener (syrup, honey, sugar) and a dash of vanilla.
  5. Rip bread into bite sized pieces and fill baking dish. Pour on custard and let sit for 10 minutes.
  6. Add 1/2 cup or so of mix-ins like dried fruit, chocolate chips, citrus zest... you get the idea. Use a fork to simultaneously mash the bread and mix in the extras. I tend to keep the crust sides down for a lighter appearance. Just a little something that makes it more appealing to my kids.
  7. Bake until golden on top... around 45 minutes. Serve warm.

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I find reinventing leftovers and food bits as exciting as any other repurposing! Do you enjoy clever transformations of the edible variety, too? Pin It

11 comments:

  1. I love repurposing food too! One of our (child-less household) favorites is clean out the fridge soup. It started from a recipe found online here: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/healthy/from-the-email-fridgeclearing-lentil-soup-071256. We usually sub yellow split peas for the lentils, often leave out the meat, and then use up whatever veggies are looking a bit sad: zucchini, potatoes, cauliflower, eggplant, mushrooms, etc. Sometimes we even buy a pack of "scratch and dent" veggies from our local store and make this soup without waiting for our veggies to go south.

    My roomie, who doesn't like a lot of the veggies listed above, LOVES this soup. And if you have some timid veggie eaters, you can puree the soup and the flavors are just excellent. I am pretty sure the knob of ginger is part of the wonderfulness of this recipe.

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  2. This looks lovely! I think I'll try it with honey as the sweetener, lots of orange zest, and some cinnamon. . .

    Thanks!

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  3. Your recipe sounds a lot like mine.... a family "have to have" comfort food. My mother-in-law made a chocolate bread pudding without eggs and silly me, I never got the recipe nor have I seen it! ps... that pan would have never made enough around here!

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  4. Ooh sounds good. I need to make this. I also keep meaning to make it with stale croissants, but they never have time to stale in our house!

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  5. Gluten free bread practically starts out stale ;) so maybe I should try this with the end pieces now that my youngest has outgrown her egg allergy!

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  6. I regularly recycle leftovers into something quite different. Some are by recipes, some by happenstance. As long as it looks different, my grandson (20 yr old) will eat it. But warm up something in the fridge--ain't going to happen.

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  7. Oh My! My mouth is watering!! I'm a carb addict and this must be tried! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  8. One of my best kitchen moments as a mom, was when I discovered that I can get my kids to eat ANY leftovers if I simply chop it up a little in the food processor, warm it, and wrap it in a tortilla with a bit of salsa and cheese. Sneaky!

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  10. I am soooo trying this for my boys! Delish looking.

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  11. This looks so wonderful Maya! Going to have to try this with some good gluten free bread!

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