Here’s a really good recipe for bread pudding that we had yesterday for the first time. I’ve made challah kugel before, but this dairy version was much better.
Bread Pudding
- 1 c. raisins (I left these out)
- 2 c. milk, scalded
- 1 stick butter (1/4 lb)
- 12 slices stale bread, torn into pieces
- 1 1/2 c. sucanat (I used 1 cup)
- 4 c. milk
- 6 eggs (you can separate them and fold the egg whites in, but that’s too much work for me for a regular meal)
- 1 t. vanilla
- 1/2 t. nutmeg
- dash salt
Plump raisins in one cup of scalded water, then drain. Mix 2 c. scalded milk and butter so that butter melts. Then add the bread, sucanat, 4 c. milk, and eggs. Pour the entire mixture into a greased pan. Sprinkle raisins on top, and then top with some powdered sugar, if desired (I left this out). Cover lightly with foil, and bake at 350 degrees for at least 45 minutes. Remove foil and brown for the last ten minutes or so. I’d estimate it makes a 9 x 13 pan full – we made one huge pan that’s double a 9 x 13, plus one small round cake pan.
I tried this recipe because I had a few loaves of challah that were overbaked – someone forgot to take them out of the oven. 🙂 I used three loaves of challah, and measured everything else out at triple the recipe, but only doubled the sweetener. The recipe was still plenty sweet, so I’m thinking the above original measurements would probably be too sweet. But I’m leaving it for you to decide.
It’s nice to have recipes like this that can put to use something like stale or dried bread, that otherwise would be wasted. The kids said this was delicious, so I’ll keep it in my collection of recipes to use in the future. (By the way, if you make the bread pieces small, you don’t have to wash for this. I also think it’s more pudding like with smaller pieces.)
Since lots of people find odd bits of challah and bread when they clean their freezers for Pesach, this could be very useful particularly at this time of year!
Avivah
Another really good use that I’ve found for leftover challah is toasting it (after its been sliced) and then putting it through the food processor to make bread crumbs. I often bread my chicken with leftover challah from the week before. Its always a big hit. The breadcrumbs can be seasoned any way you like! Its been great for us because I often re-heat my challah on Friday night, in the oven, with the chicken so…making it into (dairy) french toast is not an option….
Just thought I’d share!
-Rena
Thanks for this idea, Rena! It’s a great tip! I’ve only done this once, and since I rarely bread anything, it stayed in my freezer for a long time. That’s probably only because three of us absolutely stay away from flour, and one more tries to stay away from it. I try to keep the Shabbos chicken (or anything like a protein that can just as easily be enjoyed without flour) as simple as possible to accomodate everyone. (During the week it’s easy to make separate options for those who don’t eat flour or sugar.)
Oh, and I wanted to add that if you want to make a parve version of this, or french bread, you can use rice milk or coconut milk instead of the regular milk. In the past I’ve tried soaking the bread with water, draining it, and then adding everything else (not using any milk substitutes), and it was okay, but not anything to get excited about.
I also have a recipe for bread crumb cookies that I copied from The Tightwad Gazette ages ago…I don’t think I ever made them, though.