This is an easy and delicious way to use leftover bread, adapted from Smitten Kitchen. I like using challah, but pretty much anything will work. You could also swap in other fruit—even frozen would work.
I baked these as individual portions, but you can also use a 13″x9″ dish to bake it like a casserole.
Blueberry Bread Pudding
Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 1 lb bread diced in 1" cubes
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- 1 cup blueberries fresh or frozen
- 6 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp lemon zest from 1 lemon
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 eggs large
- 3 cups milk preferably whole milk
- 1/4 tsp table salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush bread with melted butter. If it's already stale, no need to toast it. If it's fresh, toast it in the oven for 5-10 minutes until it's dry but not browned. Lightly butter your baking dish.
- While bread is toasting, put lemon zest and sugar into a small dish. Use fingertips to rub lemon zest into the sugar, breaking it up and releasing its flavor.
- Whisk eggs and milk in a large bowl. Add vanilla and salt and combine.
- Arrange bread in baking dish(es) and sprinkle blueberries over top, nestling a few in among the bread. Sprinkle half the lemon sugar over the bread.
- Pour custard over bread, then top with the remaining lemon sugar. Let mixture soak for 15 minutes at room temperature, or up to overnight in the refrigerator.
- Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until custard sets and a knife inserted into the center of the pudding and turned slightly causes no liquid custard to spill into the crack.