This is probably the easiest and best bread pudding you will ever eat. You know how I hate to waste food and love using leftovers to create new dishes. That way my family doesn’t even know it’s eating leftovers. Well, this is one of those recipes for a delicious dessert that’s super simple and quick. You can throw it in the oven while you’re making dinner and it will be ready for dessert either warm right out of the oven or cold like my husband likes it that evening or the next day. Your family will love you for it and you will love yourself because you are so smart.

Just a little background on how I achieved this or came up with this wonderful recipe. When I owned my bakery back in New York I, like all bakers had leftovers. All the leftover cookies or at least the oatmeal and muceli cookies that we had we turned into granola which, by the way, sold like hot cakes for $9 a pound even back then, so you know it was good and people loved it. My love of leftovers goes way back and it’s not just about waste but also for financial reasons. Instead of taking a loss on the cookies I actually made more money off of the granola than I did the cookies. Another item that I had in the bakery case that sold really well but occasionally I had leftovers of were my muffins. I had like five or six different varieties and sometimes I would have leftovers. It took me a minute to think about this and figure out what to do with them, but then one day I was thinking about it and a light went on in my head and I thought, “bread pudding why couldn’t I make bread pudding out of leftover muffins?” That’s when the best and simplest bread pudding recipe that I had ever tried or had was born. It became a huge hit in the bakery and when I didn’t have it because I did not have leftover muffins I would get complaints from the customers so I ended up having to turn it into a weekly staple.

You’re going to want to make sure that you use older, even stale muffins or sweetbreads like pumpkin bread, banana bread or even raisin bread. This is because the newer fresh made breads and muffins will actually become mushy while baking in this recipe. Whereas, the older breads especially if they’re slightly stale will absorb the milk mixture and turn into a nice bread pudding. If you want to use fresh breads or muffins and have everything turn out correctly leave them out overnight or all day so the air can dry them out. Many times at local bakeries or health food stores that offer baked goods you can find these items in their day old section. It’s great to purchase these at a discount and create something special. The firmer the better, made with whole grain flour is better too.

Here’s the recipe 😊

Leftover muffins or sweet bread in whatever amount you have

Milk, goat milk, or creamy milk alternative enough to just cover your bread mixture **

A tablespoon or two of sweetener I use monk fruit blend by Lakonto (this is at your discretion if your breads are very sweet you may not want to add this extra sweetener)

Now you need your toppings or mix-ins like; nuts, raisins, shredded coconut, dried cranberries and even chocolate chips

How to do it: Lightly spray a loaf pan or casserole dish the size that will hold you muffins with oil. In a bowl break up your muffins or bread into large bite sized pieces. (Do not crumble it or you will have mush) Mix in 1 or 2 of your mix-ins, don’t go overboard or it will be too rich and over the top. Spread this into you pan/dish. Sprinkle the top with nuts or coconut (I like to put my nuts or coconut on top because they get toasted that way and to me it’s more delicious) Add your sweetner if using, to you milk, stir it up and pour that over the whole thing making sure that you almost cover the mixture. Now, using the back of a big spoon press the mixture down a little bit so it is covered by the milk. Place the pan in a preheated 350° oven for about 40 to 45 minutes depending on the size. It should be bubbly around the edges and toasted on top. Remove from the oven to cool.

This is great served with vanilla ice cream or by itself warm or even cold. My husband loves it best cold he claims the flavors meld together better and he enjoys the combined flavors.

** About the milks you want to use for this recipe. I don’t do dairy so I prefer goat milk or other milk alternatives that are very creamy. Something I have recently discovered is Silk brand Half & Half a blend of oat milk and coconut milk. It is very creamy has no added sugar and only one gram of carbohydrate. I love it. So I use half that and half goat milk in my recipes. This is a great recipe to get creative with. I’ve even made large batches of banana bread, bread pudding topped it with chopped pecans and coconut then drizzled it with warm caramel sauce (made from monk fruit cuz remember I don’t do sugar) before I served it and it was a huge hit at a dinner party. The other cool thing about this is you can even make it for one if you have one old muffin or one old chunk of sweet bread and you’re just bored to death and need something special for yourself. And of course

Enjoy!