Too much of a good thing

One of the only drawbacks to the amount of challah I have been baking is the fact that we simply can not eat that much that quickly! I have some in the freezer destined to become breadcrumbs, but I had almost a full loaf in my fridge calling out to me to turn it into something fun. My mother in law, sister in law and two nieces came to visit today, so I decided that this was as good a time as any to make bread pudding. What can I say, after the Daring Baker's challenge, puddings have been floating in my head!

I did not grow up eating bread pudding. Leftover challah was always turned into French toast. Which, I must say, was always enjoyed and appreciated! But I have learned that bread pudding it, for the most part, the same thing as French toast, just a little easier, since you don't have to cook each piece separately. Also, I didn't know who would be hungry when they got here, and bread pudding could be dessert-y or light meal-ish, so it wouldn't be wasted. I also remembered that I had some cranberries in my freezer, so the bread pudding would even be fun and colorful!

I had a good feeling about how this pudding would turn out when I remembered to butter the baking dish before I started! I usually get at least half of my ingredients in before I realize what a hard time I am going to have freeing my food from the pan. But I remembered this time, so I knew I was off to a good start!! Pan greased, I cut my challah into cubes. Then it was custard time. I am sure that there are plenty of recipes that will give you milk to egg to proportions. I don't use one of those. I used three eggs, a bunch of soy milk, a handful or two of brown sugar, a sprinkling of cinnamon, and a generous splash of vanilla. It looked good to me, and made enough custard to cover the bread. In went the cranberries, then, after a good mix, everything went into the fridge to soak. After something like an hour and a half (though it could have been more like two hours...) the bread looked nice and soggy, so it was time to bake. Well, almost time to bake. First I had to shake some cinnamon-sugar on top of everything - just to make it extra yummy.

The final product was even yummier than I had expected. I was really happy with how it turned out! And so was my family, which made it even better!