Breakfast Bread Pudding

I've been making and/or eating a lot of bread pudding (and strata) lately. After making this savory version a few weeks ago, eating Bruegger's Bagels' Smoked Salmon and Dill Strata, and developing my own strata recipe, I've been a wee bit obsessed with combining eggs and bread together to make something delicious.

I subscribe to Vegetarian Times magazine, and they recently printed a 2013 Best of Brunch Reader Recipe Contest. For the contest, readers were asked to submit a vegan or vegetarian brunch recipe that had only 8 ingredients or less (salt, water, etc. were "freebies"), and it had to include one Vegetarian Times' sponsored product (I used Silk Vanilla Almondmilk). The recipe I developed was inspired by this one, and I followed Bruegger's genius idea to use bagels instead of bread. The end result? A winning brunch dish (if I do say so myself).

Breakfast Bread Pudding

Yields: 4 servings

-3 day-old cinnamon raisin bagels, sliced in half

-2 tablespoons butter, melted

-1/4 cup raisins

-3 eggs, beaten

-2 cups vanilla almond milk (or whole milk)

-1/2 cup granulated sugar

-1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-Pinch of salt

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.) Slice bagels into bite-size pieces and place in an 8x8 baking dish. Drizzle melted butter over the bagel pieces, and sprinkle with raisins.

3.) In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt. Beat until well mixed. 

4.) Pour egg mixture over the bagels, ensuring everything gets well coated. Before placing in the oven, push bagel pieces down with a wooden spoon so all the bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.

5.) Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Serve with maple syrup, or on its own.

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This seriously tasted like French toast, but better. If you don't like raisins, feel free to use another kind of bagel (plain or blueberry would work well), and swap out the raisins for blueberries (or whatever you prefer).

This bread pudding is delicious enough (and not too sweet) for breakfast, but it also made a killer mid-morning snack. Z even enjoyed a slice after dinner one evening!

What's your favorite breakfast or brunch dish?

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