Mom’s Old School Bread Pudding

Hey all!

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! I hope y’all had a great day celebrating with Mom, or being spoiled by your kids. I figured today would be a great day to share this recipe with you guys – it’s one that I remember my mom making about a million times when I was a kid, and it tasted amazing every time. She used to make it with my grandma when she was a kid, so it’s definitely a family favourite.

Like all awesome mom-recipes, this one doesn’t have a recipe. Confusing, right? Its one of those dishes that mom just whips up, and she barely even notices she’s doing it. You know those ones I mean? It could be the ultimate chocolate chip cookies, or her famous Sunday-dinner roast chicken. She doesn’t even think about it – it just happens, and it’s AMAZING.

This bread pudding is like that.

However, despite the deliciousness of a mom-recipe, it’s extremely challenging when the next person comes along (aka, me) and tries to re-create said recipe. The conversation goes something like this:

Me :”Hey mom, what’s the recipe for your bread pudding?”
Mom: “Oh, you know…”
(By the way, can I just say how much I love it when a sentence starts with ‘oh, you know’. Because I can pretty much guarantee that I do NOT know.)
Mom: “It’s got eggs, and milk, and sugar. Cinnamon. And yeah, you just soak the bread in that, and then bake it.”
Me: “Ok, but… like… how much of everything?”
Mom: “Oh, you know…” (there’s that sentence again.) “I just eyeball it.”

You can see where this going.

I did finally manage to pull the recipe out of her, after much discussion – and the result is this glorious golden-brown pudding. It’s all fluffy and delicious on the bottom, and perfectly toasted on the top. As my mom says, there’s really no way to go wrong with this recipe. You can use whatever kind of bread you want – though I do highly recommend using cinnamon raisin bread! If you’re not a raisin person, you can pick whatever you like best, and it’ll turn out just as delicious, I promise. (Or if you’re a extra raisin-y type, then feel free to toss in a few handfuls!)

This recipe is super quick to toss together, so even though it may seem like a weekend-only kind of a dessert, you can for sure work it into your weekday schedule. Just make sure you don’t skip the bread-soaking step. That’s where all the magic happens… where your everyday, boring, dried-out bread turns into something awesome!

You can serve this hot out of the oven – which I often do, since I can’t stand the waiting! – or it’s still great cold out of the fridge the next morning (it’s an awesome breakfast, after all, it’s like eggs and toast!). Serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a dollop of whipped cream.  Or, you can keep it really old school and eat it the way we always did in my family, and the way my mom did growing up. Dish yourself a big bowl, and pour over some cold milk – just like a big bowl of cereal. I know, it sounds weird… but there’s nothing like it!

Hope you guys enjoy this! And just think – if you make it enough times that you just forget the recipe, and could practically make it in your sleep, twenty years from now you can frustrate the heck out of your kids when they call and ask for the recipe!

Talk soon! =0)
~The Baking Nerd

• 8 cups stale cinnamon raisin bread, cubed*
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 4 cups cold milk (or cream, if you want it extra rich!)
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish, and set aside.

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, melt the brown sugar and butter together, until smooth. When it starts to bubble, remove from heat, and whisk in milk. Whisk in the eggs. Add in the salt, vanilla, cinnamon and raisins.

Add the bread cubes to your baking dish, and pour the egg mixture over the top. Let the bread sit and absorb the egg mixture for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle some extra cinnamon over the top, if desired.

Bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. If the pudding is very wet in the middle, bake another 5 minutes. (A very slight jiggle in the centre is ok, but it shouldn’t look like jell-o!)

Remove from the oven, and devour.

*If you’re using fresh bread, cut it into cubes, and leave it out on the counter for several hours to dry out. Or, lightly toast the cubes in the oven. Using dry or toasted bread allows it to absorb even more of the delicious eggy pudding mixture!