Well I am not sure how to properly title this. I had a heck of a time googling around to see if it had been done, done successfully, or was being warned against. I found all of the above but little other information. Bread pudding is one of my all time favourite desserts, which is weird, I know. Something about the creamy custard and the rich flavours. It just floats my boat. Anyway, yesterday was Gen’s birthday, so I felt the need to make every meal a fancy feast. My whole plan was to bake some brioche on Friday, slice it up and make french toast casserole on Saturday. Well that’s not how things panned out. I made a mess of the bread, we wont even speak of it. It tastes fine but it is under cooked and very dark… I need to go into a bread baking workshop, I am not doing it right. Anyway, so this morning I was out of luck for that dish, though I did make some delicious omelets with the left-over Jalapeño Popper Dip from the night before. But as I was making pizza (recipe tomorrow), I looked over at the leftover Coffee Cake Muffins and had a brain wave. I kind of winged it, but it turned out delightful. Not too sweet, the sugar in and on the muffins did the trick.

The pictures are not great because I wasn’t entirely sure that this was going to turn out. Also, I switched from the 9 x 13 pan to a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish that was deeper so the custard could reach more of the muffins. It was nice using already so tasty muffins because it meant I had to do little in the line of flavouring to make this tasty. You could certainly use other stale muffins, but the flavours will change substantially depending on the muffins you use. These had a nice hint of nutmeg and cinnamon, and they were studded with the walnuts I had used in the crumb topping. Awesome.

Muffin Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• zest of ½ lemon
• 1/3 cup butter
• 7 slightly stale muffins, in this case my Coffee Cake Muffins
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp sugar (more if your muffins are less sweet)
• 1 cup cream
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Directions

1. This pudding needs 15 minutes soaking time, follow the directions, let soak for 15 minutes and then bake.
2. Break muffins into medium chunks and spread on a baking sheet, place in 350°F oven to toast for 8 minutes.
3. Put the milk into a small pan with the vanilla. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat, add the lemon zest and allow to cool.
4. Meanwhile, butter a medium casserole dish and put the muffin chunks into it, dot with the butter.
5. Beat the eggs together with the sugar until combined. Beat the milk, nutmeg, and the cream into the egg mixture. Pour over the muffins, add any nuts or fruit you might want, and leave for 15 minutes.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 375°F. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top.
7. Place on middle rack and cook for 20-30 minutes. The pudding is done when it is browned on top and set. Serve with half-whipped cream (whip until it just starts to thicken)

Muffins crumbled with butter, then I realized this dish was not going to work.

Perfect!