Cranberry Chocolate Bread Pudding

I have just come in from looking at the garden, I am so happy to see all the new babies. It rained yesterday and really hard during the night, and again this morning at 6am it was pouring buckets. The earth is saturated. If it rains again, our wash will fill and be running. I love the rain. Yesterday Kev came to work with me and we stayed in town to go to Wednesday night Bible study. On the way there, we saw a gorgeous rainbow. It was a double rainbow which circled the sky and we could see clearly one end to the other. Kev took a few shots. It was so brilliant - the photos can't do it justice. Here's a picture - it came out gold-tinted so it's photoshopped.

Kev wanted me to make my bread pudding, my Pioneer Woman knock off. I didn't realize he wanted it on the dinner table so I got yammered at (by Kev and the dh) for twenty minutes when I had a piece of it for breakfast.


I changed the recipe again. Here's what I did this time:

2 eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sugar (cut down from 1 1/4 cup)
3 1/2 to 5 cups wheat challah bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 cup almonds, chopped finely
1 handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 handful of fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat together eggs, butter, vanilla, and milk. Add sugar and mix until sugar is dissolved. Arrange bread cubes tightly in a nine-inch baking dish. Pour liquid over the bread, making sure you get all of it good and soaked. Sprinkle chocolate chips and cranberries on the top. Take a spoon and smash the bread cubes down so they soak up some of the liquid. Sprinkle walnuts all over and bake for 55 to 70 minutes, or until crust is golden brown all over the top.

In the previous recipe, at 55 minutes, there was still liquid in the center. So I took the dish out and used a spoon to mash down so that the liquid seeped throughout the bread. I cooked it for another 25 minutes and then it was done.

The bread I used today was a loaf of artisan wheat challah bread that's been in the freezer for several months. I got it from work (we get food donations). I think the bread was drier, or maybe because it was wheat? I did use 5 cups of cubed bread. At any rate, when I checked it at 55 minutes, it was puffy and light. We also got a big donation of almonds a few months ago, so I used those instead of walnuts.

I poured some heavy cream over it. It was delicious.

Until next time.