My Peach Bread Pudding Recipe

I especially love baking in the winter months.  It makes the house smell so delicious and the oven creates passive heat in the kitchen.  Lately I have been baking lots of fresh breads...I am a carbaholic!  But even as much as I love fresh baked bread, there are times when a part of a loaf will go stale.  I hate to waste good bread so I slice this bread in to sandwich bread thickness and store it in Zip-Lock Freezer Bags in the freezer.  When I have enough to make 3/4 of a pound of bread (equal to about 12 slices of sandwich size bread) I thaw it out and make Bread Pudding.

One of my favorite versions of bread pudding is Peach Bread Pudding, and here is my recipe.  If you don't like peaches, you can use raisins, pears, or cooked apples in its place.  I hope you enjoy the recipe.

Peach Bread Pudding

You will need:

About 12 Slices of White or Wheat Sandwich Bread. Stale breads are best for this recipe. 
**If you don't have any stale bread you can buy an inexpensive loaf of sandwich bread at the grocery, let 12 slices sit out on a dish on the counter for half a day, rotating the pieces periodically so they get equally stale.  The stale bread absorbs the wet mixture much better.

9 Large Eggs

1 Cup of Sugar

1 Can Evaporated Low Fat Milk -12 oz

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1/2 Teaspoon Orange Zest (I use McCormicks Ground Valencia Orange Peel)

3/4 Cup Diced Peaches packed in water, drained. (* you can replace this with equal amounts of canned pears or  apples, drained, or even raisins).

1.5 Liter Glass Loaf Pan (or equivalent size baking dish)

Butter Flavored Cooking Spray

Foil

Shallow Baking Sheet to catch any overflow while baking.



How to Prepare:

Place oven rack in center of oven.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl tear bread slices into approximately quarter size pieces.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest, and eggs.

Pour diced peaches on top of bread pieces, then pour egg mixture over the bread and peaches, gently blend with a large spoon just until all pieces of bread are wet. Do Not Over Mix!

Spray the baking dish with a butter flavored cooking spray.  Pour the bread pudding mixture into the dish, sprinkle a bit of Cinnamon on the top.  Drape the top of the dish with a foil tent, making a few small holes in the top, allow the foil to sit atop the dish but do not press the foil against the sides, it is only used to keep the top of the bread pudding from becoming too dry or too browned during the baking process.  Place the dish onto a flat baking sheet with a lipped edge to catch any spill-over fluids.  Place in the center rack of the oven.  Bake for 60 minutes.

Remove the foil tent and bake another 15 minutes.  Top should become a pretty golden brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool at at least 10 minutes before serving.  This dish is wonderful all by itself, but it is even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side :-)  Not ready to eat it now? After it has completely cooled, cover the top of the baking dish with a cover or plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator...bread pudding is wonderful hot or cold!

I hope you enjoy my Peach Bread Pudding as much as we did.  I would love it if you would share what you thought of the recipe when you made it.