Bread Pudding

There is a lot of bread pudding recipes out there.

From Bread Pudding

This is a revised recipe from one I learned back when I was still in Medicine days. I used a recipe by Milkmaid, which originally called for coffee granules, but which I omitted simply because I like the taste better without it. I used to sell these to my classmates back then. I would make an 8 x 8 in and cute them into 9 (small) squares, and I sold them P8/piece to make a profit that would cover my labor. Despite being quite pricey, they were always sold out! I steamed them, but now that I have an oven to use, I bake them using a water bath. I still love them to this time, and I made them for the first time here. My sons love them. My hubby did not, which did not surprise me, as he is not a big fan of custard, and this recipe is based on leche flan ingredients.

Like I mentioned earlier, I had been experimenting with using the microwave for caramelizing sugar. I used an 8 x 8 in baking glass dish for this and it took forever to caramelize the 1-cup sugar I placed in it. (I probably won't do that again!).

Ingredients:
As I said in my previous post about custard cake, I used the rest of the leche flan mixture for this purpose. I only added shredded bread (8 slices, edges removed), maraschino cherries, sliced almonds (small pack), and several drops of almond extract. (If you are going to try this, and have the whole leche flan mixture available, you might have to add two more slices. The bread pieces should be soaked with some more liquid in excess so as to come up with moist, not dry, bread pudding.)


Instructions:

Prepare caramelized pan. Cut maraschino cherries in two, and place each half at the middle of each piece (i.e., 9 pieces if cut into 3x3). Let cherries sit to set.

Shred bread pieces and soak in the flan mixture for at least 30 minutes (you may leave in the fridge overnight).

Pre-heat oven to 350. Carefully pour on top of each cherry half a ladle-full of pudding mixture. Once every cherry is covered, pour the rest of the pudding into the pan making sure it is well distributed. Put the pan in a larger baking pan to have water bath, with water level up to half the sides of the smaller pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until set. Test with a toothpick inserted at the center. Cool on wire rack for about 10 minutes. Loosen sides and invert onto a platter.

If you are going to try this steamed, use medium high heat to steam for 30 minutes or until set. As usual, cover with foil when steaming.