Easter Bread Bread Pudding

So this evening while cleaning the kitchen while cooking dinner, I lamented over the thought of throwing away an entire loaf of this weekend's Easter bread, now stale. As I opened the trash I thought "gee, what a waste".  Then it hit me.  A beautiful, but simple, fantastic, and exciting revelation: Bread pudding.

One of the amazing things about bread putting is that it takes something that otherwise wouldn't be used and makes it into something beautiful delicious.  Not only does my husband love Easter bread, but he loves bread pudding.  Major wife bonus points.  (Especially since dinner was only going to be pasta.)

Unfortunately, there aren't any pictures of the prep.  Such is the case of things that have been turning out quite well lately- I never know what to expect of them. And all the things I expect to share with you, documenting along the way, turn out acceptable, but not share-worthy.

So needless to say, here is the recipe, without any pictures of the process.

Easter Bread Bread Pudding

Makes one 8x8 pan bread pudding

Ingredients

1 Nine-inch loaf easter bread, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 eggs

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

2 cups milk

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Whisk together the eggs, butter, milk, sugar, and vanilla.  (If you do it in this order it will keep your butter from seizing.  However, it will still be delicious if you don't and your butter seizes.  Not like I did that or anything...)

Place one layer of cubes snugly into an 8x8 baking dish.  Pour egg mixture over top until just covered.  if you have more egg mixture and more bread, add another layer of bread and pour more egg mixture over top.  For me this ratio was just about perfect.  The egg mixture shouldn't be way over the top of the bread, so if your loaf is smaller, use less egg mixture.

Bake for about an hour, until the top is browned and the mixture has soaked in a good bit.  I used a clear baking dish that allowed me to see that the sides were browning as well as some of the custard soaked in and cooked.

I severed my bread pudding with a Jack Daniels sauce, but I think in the future I would make a Grand Marnier sauce to serve with it.

Easter Bread Bread Pudding
It may not look beautiful, but there is a beauty in keeping something from going to waste.

How do you like to 'upcycle' leftovers?