St. Patrick’s Day Bread Pudding?? LOL!

Okay, this is not your typical St. Patrick’s day food or post. I’m not Irish and didn’t grow up in a community with many Irish. In fact, I didn’t even know I was supposed to eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s day until I was in my mid-20’s. I thought corned beef came from a can that I had to open with a “key” that was attached to the side. I know… sad. I’m happy to say that my awesome husband did make corned beef this past weekend and it was AWESOME. My kids were so-so about it so he had to turn the leftovers into corned beef hash, which they ate up!

So, you may ask, what led me to my bread pudding. Well, we got a free loaf of french bread the weekend before. I think we had the intention to make spaghetti with french bread, but never got around to it. I didn’t want to throw away my free bread and sat there on Saturday wondering what I was supposed to do with this huge loaf of stale bread. Well duh… bread pudding. Okay, I have to say this is the BEST bread pudding I’ve ever made. I’m not sure if it was the bread or the vanilla bean PASTE that I used, but wow… YUM. Below is the recipe I used and I encourage you to try it. It was very yummy, especially when we topped it with vanilla bean ice cream from a local creamery. 🙂

BTW, I didn’t say it was healthy. Lol!

BREAD PUDDING (adapted from allrecipes.com)

• 1 loaf day old French bread
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 8 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 cup Splenda (or white sugar)
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Break bread into small pieces into a 9×13 pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread and sprinkle with raisins.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.