Last week I baked four loaves of Challah bread. We ate one and froze the others to eat later.
Yesterday, Rebecca suggested that I make some bread pudding. We wanted to try a new recipe, and I found a good one in the Baker’s Companion from King Arthur Flour. The book is packed full of recipes and baking tips.
I made a double recipe — one for us and one for a neighbor. It’s the same amount of work to make twice as much food, and it’s good to share.
For a double batch, cut up a loaf of bread into about 20 cups of one-inch cubes of eggy goodness. Toast the bread in the oven at 200 degrees for about 40 minutes. Dried bread soaks up all the milk and egg mixture and makes a great bread pudding.
The mix-ins are next. This is the step where your cooking can get creative. I added 2 cups each of chopped walnuts, dried cherries, and chocolate chips. I like the contrast between the tart cherries and chocolate. And who doesn’t love walnuts? Any other dried fruit — craisins, raisins, blueberries — would work as well.
At this stage, add your sweetener. I used 2 cups brown sugar, but any other sweetener would work as well.
Because this is a double batch, I melted a cube of butter in 2 quarts of milk.
Mix 8 eggs into a bowl with 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg, 4 teaspoons cinnamon, and 2 teaspoons vanilla.
Slowly whisk the egg mixture into the milk mixture. Then pour the combined mixture over the bread bread and fruit. If you use chocolate chips like I did, they will melt in the warm milk mixture.
Pour the mixture into a greased 9-inch pan, making sure to distribute the fruit, chocolate, and nuts evenly through the mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. (Because we made a double batch, it took longer for the bread pudding to cook.) The pudding is done when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Enjoy.