accomplishedStrawberry Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
2 stale strawberry mini bagels
1 cup half-and-half
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla pudding cup
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Put cooking spray in 4 holes of a muffin tin. Tear 2 stale strawberry mini bagels into small pieces, using half a bagel to fill each muffin hole.
In a small pot, cook 1 cup half-and-half until a skin forms. Remove from heat and add 2 tablespoons butter. Stir until butter melts. Allow to cool to lukewarm.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine 1 egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. Beat with a fork for about a minute. Gradually add the half-and-half mixture, continuing to beat with the fork, until fully mixed.
Pour the batter over the bagel pieces, distributing it evenly among the 4 holes. Gently press the bagel bits into the batter so they soak it up.
Bake at 350ºF for about 30 minutes, until the tops of the bread puddings are lightly browned and no longer wet.
Remove from oven; place muffin tin on a rack and cool for 3-5 minutes. Scoop each bread pudding out of the muffin hole and transfer to a dessert bowl. Top with a spoonful of vanilla pudding, distributing the contents of the pudding cup equally across the four bread puddings.
Notes:
I happened to have strawberry mini bagels. If you don’t have mini bagels, substitute one normal-sized bagel for two mini bagels. This recipe would probably taste just as good with blueberry or other fruit bagels. It’s designed so that most of the flavor lies in the bread.
If your bagels are very fresh, you can dry them by toasting them lightly and then letting them sit for a while. But bagels tend to be on the tough, dry side so usually they work fine in bread pudding without that step.
I originally intended to make just 2 servings, but forgot how much bread expands when torn into bits. This was just as well since the mix came out right with a single egg – to halve this recipe, you’d either need to use half of a broken egg or work with egg replacer instead of fresh egg. But you could probably add another mini bagel and a bit more half-and-half to get 6 servings, or just double the whole thing for 8.
Yes, I cheated and used store-bought vanilla pudding, since we like pudding cups. It seemed like the best way to get a small amount of pudding. Feel free to make your own pudding, especially if you’re increasing the number of servings.
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August 8 2009, 13:30:12 UTC 11 years ago