Bread Pudding

Not really cheap, but tasty.  And kind of healthy, with all that milk and eggs.  You can also add raisins or cut-up apples, if you have kids who will let you do that.  (Mine hates cooked fruit. L)

You can also add rum sauce or whiskey sauce or vanilla sauce, which are lovely.

Ingredients:

• Six or seven cups of stale bread, cut or torn into little chunks (about one-inch in size, but don’t get neurotic about this) (This white bread works really well, but any bread is fine.)
• 4 cups milk (you can use canned or dry milk is you’re broke)
• 4 or 5 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tbs vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp melted and cooled butter
• ½ cup Raisins or chopped apples (optional)

Put all the torn up bread into a very large bowl.  

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs.  Add the other ingredients and beat well.  Pour these over the bread.  

Mush down the bread really well – make sure all the bread pieces are under the liquid.  Let sit for about 30 minutes.  

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a large baking pan well – I use butter, but Crisco is fine.  Use one of those two, though, not a baking spray.  Get it on there thick

.

After the 30 minutes is up, pour in the bread mix, and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until the pudding is set – you make have to bake for longer. 

Take it out and let it cool a little before you serve.

Meanwhile, you can make your rum sauce. (Or whiskey or vanilla sauce.)

Rum sauce

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ tbs salt
• ½ cup rum

Cook the sugar and the butter and salt together over medium heat until they simmer and thicken.  

Remove from heat; stir in the rum.  (Or vanilla, or whiskey.  Or whatever other flavoring you choose, frankly!)

Pour over the bread pudding. 

NOM NOM!