Dad’s Bread Pudding

My Dad enjoys cooking. He has done ever since he was in the service, just after high school back in the early 60’s. He was stationed over in Germany and speaks fondly of his time spent washing dishes and learning how to be the pizza cook at the Officer’s club.

Dad’s cooking is far less about following recipes, and far more about using recipes as inspiration for then doing his own thing. Like with his Chicken and Leek dish, that I’ve written about before.

His latest bread pudding creation is no exception. It is far less about the recipe and far more about making the most of the ingredients you have, lest they go to waste. As we come into spring time, if you are a homesteader with chickens increasing egg production and cows newly in milk (and cream), this may well be a recipe for you to use up some of the surplus. And, if you have “day-old” bread that you can toast and use up, so much the better.

Ingredients and preparation

Here are the ingredients Dad used and that we’ve talked about adding:

• Bread — toasted and broken into pieces.
• Cream, milk, eggs, flavouring syrup — in quantities to make enough for your bread to be saturated to make a batter.
• Sugar — a quarter to a half cup of brown sugar per 9×13 pan of pudding.
• Vanilla — a couple teaspoons. Another flavouring — maple or coffee could also work.
• Seasoning — cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves — depending on what you like.
• Add-ins — raisins, craisins, any type of baking chips (we used butterscotch)…

And preparation is straightforward:

• Toast the bread, break it up, grease your baking dish.
• Whisk together the wet ingredients.
• Add the wet ingredients to the toast and stir together to incorporate.
• Add the sugar and seasonings.
• Layer the pudding mixture and your add-ins into the greased pan until it’s full.
• Bake at 350F (180 C) for 40 minutes.
• Serve warm or at room temperature with cream, whipped cream, ice cream and/or caramel sauce.

Watch us make it

You’ll get a kick over watching my Dad make this bread pudding. Check it out over on our YouTube channel, and while you’re there, don’t forget to like and subscribe!

Our thanks to the recipe that inspired this delicious creation!

Jessica Burgess over at Fantabulosity.com did a great job with her recipe which is what Dad used as his inspiration. Check out her blog post, too.

What about you?

Are you a strict recipe follower, or simply recipe-inspired? If you are a strict follower, we hope you’re inspired to move out of your comfort zone with this one and have the confidence to use up ingredients that are getting old by giving them their best life as Bread Pudding.

Share your thoughts with us below, or over on YouTube.

Happy cooking!

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