MAKING BREAD PUDDING FROM SCRATCH

One rainy afternoon and I was craving for some comfort food. Checked out the fridge, found nothing but milk, eggs, and some plain white breads (that have been there for nearly a week). Thank the cold temperature they didn't go stale whatsoever. These pitiful breads gave me the idea of making a humble bread pudding from scratch ,just like what my grandmother always does on a cold, rainy day.

Not exactly a comfort food, but you can say it really does give you a comfort sense to your buds. The combination of eggs, milk, breads, and some spicy Spekoek (i'm being fettish on it lately, LOL)  is just perfect and gives me warmth on a rainy afternoon. 

A really, REALLY, simple recipe is all that it takes :

Ingredients :

- A loaf of white bread  

- 1 cup milk

- 2 tablespoon condensed milk

- 4 eggs

- 1/2 cup white granulated sugar

- A pinch of salt (just to balance things up)

- 1 teaspoon Spekoek spice 

- 1 stick Cinnamon

- 4 pcs dried cloves

- Pandan leaves (not necessarily required, i just love using it on milk-based dessert recipes)

Directions :

1. Mix the eggs, sugar, and condensed milk until thoroughly combined.

2. Soak the shredded breads in the wet mixture

3. Add the salt, Spekoek spice, and Pandan leaves.

4. Butter the 20x 20 rectangle tempered-glass mould (I use Pyrex, they're the best)

5. Pour the whole batter into the mould

6. Arrange the cinnamon stick in the center of the batter, the cloves on the four sides of it, and the cut Pandan leaves on the surface (just to decorate it)

7. Bake the batter with au-bain-marie method for about 20 minutes in a 150 degree Celcius oven.

PS : You could simply steam the batter instead of baking it.The reason why I bake it is because the aroma of the batter would come out better when baked than steamed.