Homemade Bread Pudding!

I love bread pudding! It is one of my favorite desserts. 

When done right, the textures and flavors create a unique dessert 

that will leave you full but not overloaded. (Unless you eat a whole bunch of it! LOL!)

I decided to search out the recipe in my old cookbooks from my Grandmother. I know I can search the internet, but these were published nearly 50 years ago - I believe classic recipes are the best and I know I am getting the basic, classic recipe when I look through these books. This Bread Pudding recipe comes from the 1968 version of Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.

Ingredients: 2 slightly beaten eggs, 2 1/4 cups milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 cups day old bread cubes, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup raisins.

Instructions: Combine eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt; stir in bread cubes. Stir in brown sugar and raisins. Pour mixture into ovenware safe dish. Place pan in larger shallow pan with about 1 inch deep of water. Bake at 350 degrees about 45 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Makes 6 servings.

I used both cinnamon bread and leftover buttermilk rolls for my bread pudding. This recipe was originally intended to use up leftovers, so use up your leftover bread! My bread was still really soft and you need it to be dry to soak up the mixture. I set my bread out for a day in this pan. It is best to cube it while soft and allow it to dry in pieces.

My bread is dry and ready to be put into my mixture!

Stir it up!

Because my boyfriend HATES raisins, I made 

mine in the cast iron dish and added only 1/4 cup golden raisins. 

This dessert takes about 45 minutes or longer to bake. If you want to have a quick dessert, you can make these ahead of time and leave about 10 minutes left for them to bake. Restaurants do this all the time so they have the desserts hot and ready when ordered. If you bake it all the way and then bake it for another 10 minutes, you may have a very dry bread pudding - we all know no pudding should be dry! Try to not overcook this!

I had mine with spumoni - I love bread pudding and ice cream! This recipe was delicious and used up old bread - I will be making this again! I love the fact that the whole time I was using my Grandmother's cook book, I felt like she was with me. What is your favorite old-school classic dessert?

Love, 

Heather