Leftover Thanksgiving Ingredients=Bread Pudding

 

Bread pudding is SO GOOD you guys. And it’s so easy to make. AND you can make it with leftover ingredients from hosting Thanksgiving. Are you sold yet?

I hosted Thanksgiving this year in our new house, and I was so stressed. I made apps, turkey roulade, all the fixins’, AND desserts. I was only cooking for four people, so it didn’t wind up being too overwhelming. What is overwhelming, however, is all the leftover ingredients you have! It’s one thing to have leftover turkey & stuffing, its a complete other thing to have leftover dried bread, milk that you won’t drink (side note: I haven’t had a glass of milk since I was like, 14) and all the holiday spices that you don’t use regularly. Not to mention the pecans.

I was most thrown off by the leftover dried bread. I made my stuffing in the crock pot this year, and I way overshot how much bread I would need to fill it. As a result, I was left with about 2 1/2 cups of dried white bread chunks. What to do… what to do… ah, right, bread pudding, of course!

I’m not much of a baker (you have to follow rules when baking and rules, my friends, are not my strong suit) but lately, I have been diving head first into the world of baking. The extent of my knowledge on bread pudding was that it never bakes in time in the Chopped kitchen. FACT: no one has ever completed a bread pudding in the dessert round of Chopped (disclaimer: I just used the word “fact” very loosely). ANYWAY, I did a little research and then tried my hand at creating a recipe with some leftover ingredients. The result? One amazing bread pudding. The husband LOVED it. He said its his favorite thing that I have baked so far! Try it out and let me know what you think!

 

Week After Thanksgiving Bread Pudding

Time: 1 hour

Servings: 6

 

Ingredients

• 2- 2 1/2 cups dried bread (to dry bread, cut slices of white bread into 1 inch cubes and bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes)
• 3 Tablespoons butter (separated into 2 tblsp, 1 tblsp)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups milk (or heavy cream, I used whole milk)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice)
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• Optional: Chocolate chips!

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Use 1 tablespoon butter to grease a baking dish. Melt the other 2 tablespoons in the microwave.
3. Put dried bread into the baking dish.
4. Drizzle melted butter over bread.
5. Mix remaining ingredients in a bowl (eggs, milk, spices, sugar, vanilla and pecans… you can also add the chocolate chips here) and pour mixture over bread, covering the bread evenly.
6. Bake for 45 minutes.

I love using the dried bread because it gives the pudding a little bite, instead of just getting soggy, like some bread puddings. When serving, pair it with some ice cream! P.S. always heat in the microwave before serving leftover bread pudding!