Bread Pudding

The best dessert we had on our trip was bread pudding at Elephant and Castle in Boston.  I've already talked about it in a previous post, and as promised, I made my own version recently.  I will admit that it did not even compare, but it was still yummy nonetheless.

I had 2 recipes to choose from and I went with my mom's (surprisingly) more healthy version with 2 eggs as opposed to the recipe with 15 eggs!  Can you imagine?!  I did make one change in my mom's recipe to try and emulate Elephant and Castle's.  My mom's, as is very common in bread pudding, calls for torn up pieces of regular sandwich bread.  I used some leftover French bread and I tried to keep it in the biggest pieces possible.  At Elephant and Castle it was like the whole thing was one solid piece of bread which I think is what made it so unique.  Anyway, the final product tasted good and is really healthy as far as desserts are concerned (translation- no butter.)

I even included raisins which I'm still trying to decide if I like or not.  When I was a kid my mom would make bread pudding half with raisins and half without and I would always take from the without side.  I think when I make this again, it will be minus the raisins.  Just because I want to like something doesn't mean I do :)

Here's my mom's recipe for you to try:

Bread Pudding

4 slices of bread, buttered and quartered

1/3 cup of raisins 

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp vanilla

4 tsps sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Place bread pieces in a buttered 1 1/2 quart baking dish.  Sprinkle raisins over  bread.

Mix eggs, 1/4 cup of sugar, salt, evaporated milk, water, and vanilla.  Pour over raisins.  Let stand for 10 minutes.

Mix 4 tsps sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle over mixture.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.