Have you ever had so many breads laying around and didn’t know what to do with it? Got some stale bread from a few days that hardened? This is the perfect recipe for that! You get to clean all the bread you got around and haven’t eaten but we’re turning it into something new and sweet. This is a classic in Puerto Rico, for breakfast, as a snack or just for dessert. You can use any kind of bread, sandwich bread, burger buns, brioche, potato rolls, sweet rolls, I even add leige waffles if I have some around, they add a lovely undertone.
I think spices go well here since bread is not really that flavorful and we’re adding other ingredients that benefit from a little more flavor like a good vanilla, cinnamon, and some people like to add spice tea. I prefer to just add a pinch of powder spices and vanilla to stay on the cakey flavor side, but you can always try adding a few tablespoons of spice tea, works great too. Many people like adding raisins but I’m not a fan so I leave them out; if you wish you can add about 1/4 cup of raisins in hot water or rum to rehydrate them, then add them to the batter at the end. You can also add a pinch of bourbon to the mixture and it pops beautifully. I like my bread pudding to have some body so I don’t blend it, but you can always throw everything in a blender to get a smoother consistency. I also find it easier to just clean one bowl than the blender but it’s up to you.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 lb bread
1 can evaporated milk
1 can condensed milk
1 cup of milk
2 tbsp vanilla
3 large eggs or 4 medium
1 tbsp cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a large bowl beat the eggs.
Mix in all the wet ingredients with the beaten eggs. Add the spices.
Mix until everything is evenly combined.
Cut or break with your hands the bread in small pieces.
Put the bread in the wet mixture and mix until evenly combined, you can help yourself with a whisk which helps break it down a little more.
At this point you can just let it rest a few minutes to let the bread soak and get saturated. If wish you can blend it so it has a homogeneous texture. I find it’s fine for me without blending, I just mix everything, let it rest a few minutes and bake it.
Grease a pan and pour the mixture in.
Bake for about an hour, then check on it, if you insert a pick and comes out clean is done, if it looks wet leave it a fee more minutes until it comes out clean.
Let it rest for a few minutes.
I like to serve this while it’s still a little bit warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Enjoy!
