Bread Pudding

Bread is a staple food and every single household has it: it`s cheap and you can pair it with anything from savory to sweet. It acts both as a dessert and a appetizer. But what if you get bored of the plain butter+jam combo and want to try something warm to your soul? What if there is too much bread in your pantry? What if you want to offer your family a breakfast treat but you don`t have more than bread, milk, eggs, sugar and a bit of jam? You make a BREAD PUDDING!

Maybe it doesn`t look very appealing, but I bet this is comfort food at its best: easy, quick, cheap, warm, comforting. Besides, you can adapt the recipe however you like. Feel free to substitute bread for Croissants, Babka(this is a type of sweet bread with different fillings in it, such as walnut, poppy seed, Turkish Delight, cinnamon and sugar), Brioche Bread, Muffins that are dry and no one want to eat them any longer, sponge cake or any other type of bread that soaks up liquid.

So, I don`t want to get too boring. All I`m trying to say is that you can add, substitute and reduce/increase the amount of ingredients to your preference. You could make it savory by eliminating the sweeteners (sugar, raisins, sweet biscuits) and adding grated cheese, pepperoni, bacon (OMG!), your favorite veggies or/and leftover pieces of meat from yesterdays lunch. I think I`ll come with a savory Bread Pudding recipe in the near future. I promise!

Ingredients:
half a loaf of bread, cut up into cubes
250 ml milk
120 gr sweet crackers (such as Nilla Wafers, Oreos etc) crumbled with your hands
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup raisins
2 Tablespoons walnuts
4 Tablespoons Fruit Jam (strawberry, apricot, plum etc)
4 teaspoons sugar for sprinkling on top
35 gr butter 

Preheat oven to 180 d C/375 d F. Grease a small casserole dish with butter and sprinkle some of the crushed up crackers/biscuits/cookies on the bottom, even it out so that it covers the entire bottom of the pan in a thin layer.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract. Set aside.

Spread half of the bread cubes amount in the casserole. Sprinkle raisins and walnuts over it. Add the jam over it.Top with half of the amount of crackers/biscuits/cookies. Then, finish with another layer of cubed bread and cookies. 

Pour the egg and milk mixture slowly over the other ingredients (bread, cookies etc) in the casserole. Take a spoon or a fork and slightly press the bread cubes to assure they are all coated in the milk mixture. 

Just before inserting it in the oven, place small dots of butter over the top and sprinkle the sugar. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until it is set, the bread is puffed up and golden brown. I guarantee your house will smell delicious.