Bread pudding - first attempt

What do you normally do with your almost expired bread when you are fed up with sandwiches? Do you go and feed the fish or throw them away? It is too wasteful to throw them away so I decided to make bread pudding with them instead. I came across few bread pudding recipes from Internet before I really start to make it. I found an easy and simple recipe so I decided to give it a try.

The fun of cooking is you are always the boss, you don't need to follow what exactly the recipes saying but just make sure don't screw up. That's why people says cooking is a kind of art and you have to be very creative to be a cook.

Ingredient

6 slices of bread or more or you can use french bread. If you are using slices of bread, cut them into squares.

3 tbsp of unsalted or salted butter. Salted butter taste better.

200 ml milk (you may need more milk to completely soak the bread)

2 eggs

a handful of raisins

2-3 tablespoon of sugar (white or brown, depending on taste preference)

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon (optional if you don't like the taste)

mozzarella cheese - optional. It is to cover the top if you prefer cheesy like pizza.

Method

1) Heat the milk over medium heat saucepan. Combine butter and milk, stirring until butter is melted. Cool to lukewarm.

2) Combine sugar, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla essence. Beat with the mixer (it will save you a lot of effort if you have an electric mixer) and slowly add in milk mixture.

3) Place bread in a lightly greased 1 1/2 quart casserole. You may spread some butter on the bread.

4) Sprinkle with raisins or any dried fruits. Pour the batter on top of bread.

5) Lastly sprinkle some mozzarella and granulated sugar on top. The granulated sugar will give it a nice sheen after baking. (Optional)

6) Bake at 200 degrees C for about 45-50 minutes or until set. Serve warm.

The warm pudding will taste even nicer if you serve it with some ice-cream or bread pudding sauce. Isn't it easy? Basically only 3 steps - Soak the bread, bake it and serve. :-)