Bread pudding made with leftover hot cross bunny buns

maki — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:39:19 +0100

I am still not up to much cooking, but I did want to share this in case anyone ends up making the hot cross bunny buns, or just regular hot cross buns, for Easter, and have leftovers. I did the trial run for the bunny buns a couple of days before I went to the hospital. Eight (!) of them were consumed almost right away, but the rest ended up getting hard and forlorn since (cough) someone forgot to put them in the freezer fast enough.

Never fear though, they made great bread pudding. It was so good that even I was able to eat a little, in my current uncomfortable-swallowing and lack of appetite state.

Sorry for the lack of photos…it got devoured before I had a chance to shoot. I’ll put some in next time I have leftover hot cross bunnies.

Recipe: Hot cross bunny bun bread pudding

4 stale hot cross bunny buns
1 litre or 1 quart of milk (whole is better)
About 2 Tbs. (or however much you want) of butter
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or a vanilla pod
1/4 cup raw cane sugar (or light brown sugar) plus extra to sprinkle on top

Shred up the bunny buns. You will want to shred them up so that they no longer look anything like bunny faces. Otherwise, once you put them in the milk-egg batter, they will stare up at you balefully, spooking you out. (If you’re starting with ordinary hot cross buns, you will not have this problem.) Put the shredded up bunny bread in a square deep baking pan (I used a brownie pan).

If you’re using a vanilla pod, cut it open in half and scrape out the seeds, and add to the milk. If you’re using vanilla extract, add it to the milk.

Beat the eggs, and add the milk/vanilla and sugar and mix together thoroughly. Pour over the shredded up buns. If the sugar hasn’t melted, don’t worry - just add it to the pan, it will melt in there. The dried up bread will soak it up thirstily. If some pieces poke out, push them in. Cover and let it soak in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Heat up the oven to 150°C / 300°F. Take the pan out of the fridge, and dot with bits of butter, as much as you want.

Sprinkle the top with a little more sugar. Bake for about 35-40 minutes until the top is browned and it’s more or less set.

To be extra indulgent, serve with vanilla ice cream.

IMBB 25: Good uses for Stale Bread: A Simple Bread Soup

Max Wyss — Mon, 01 May 2006 02:00:00 +0200

Posted by Max

In the small household I grew up, there was always an issue with bread. Either it was gone because it was fresh and very good, or it was not that fresh anymore, and stayed until stale. To clear up this stale bread, my mother made a simple soup out of it. This simple recipe fits very well in Is My Blog Burning, edition 25, hosted by Derrick Schneider's An Obsession with Food.

Even now, in my own small household, it can happen that bread is left over, and accumulates over a few days, which means that I occasionally dig out that recipe and take care of that bread. The soup is really warming, and quite filling. And, because of the variety of bread I have available, the results are never exactly the same.

A Simple Breadsoup

Hard stale bread
50 g butter
Soup stock cubes
Freshly grated mature Gruyère cheese

Cut the bread into cubes, about 1 inch wide. It does not matter that much if the pieces get smaller.

Put a soup pot on high heat and melt the butter.

Pour the bread in the pot and stir it, trying to cover every piece with some butter. Continue stirring, dry roasting the bread. This is a bit a smoky matter, therefore make sure that the exhaust fan is working.

When every piece of bread has some charred spots (that will be the case after about 10 minutes), pull the pot off the heat and add water until the bread pieces are well covered. Put the pot back on heat and bring it to boil.

Crumble soup stock cubes for the amount of liquid into the soup. It does not really matter what kind of soup base you are using. Beef makes it a bit stronger, but vegetable or chicken works equally well.

Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The bread pieces will soak up the liquid, and it might be necessary to add a bit more water.

Taste, season if needed (mainly pepper, as the soup stock has brought in enough salt), serve into bowls and sprinkle a little freshly grated mature Gruyère on it. Enjoy.

There are possible variations with this recipe. If the look of the soaked up bread pieces is offending to your eye, you can puree the soup. In fact, this might be the more likely way it is served in a restaurant. You might also crush the bread or grind it up coarsely before roasting.

A note about the pot. Roasting can be a bit hard on the pot, therefore, I would recommend to not use a non-stick pot, but better a rather robust stainless steel pot. When roasting the cubes, crumbs break off and get burned and stick to the bottom. A stainless steel pot is easier to clean...

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