Bread Pudding

An old English food dish, initially prepared as a means to use up stale or left-over bread. Over the centuries, bread pudding has become an enjoyable main dish as well as a dessert dish. It is not a traditional creamy pudding but instead is a soft-textured combination of food items that become solid in consistency but spongy to the touch after being baked or steamed. Consisting primarily of bread cubes or slices of bread, the ingredients used to make bread puddings starts with either fresh or stale bread from any type of dough breads such as French or Italian breads, challah breads, croissants, brioches, and raisin breads. The typical procedure for making the pudding begins by mixing milk, eggs, sugar, and seasonings such as ground nutmeg, vanilla and cinnamon to create custard for the bread. Additional ingredients can be added such as fruits and/or nuts. After the custard is made, the bread cubes are placed in a baking dish and the liquid custard is poured over the bread, allowing the bread to soak up the custard. After being cooked, the bread pudding is ready to be served warm or can be refrigerated to be served cold. It can be served as a breakfast, brunch, lunch, or special occasion food dish.