New Year's Day Brunch Bread Pudding

     My daughter gave me a new cookbook for Christmas and I couldn't wait to try out some of the recipes. I decided the Breakfast Bread Pudding with Peaches and Blueberries would be perfect for brunch on New Year's Day. After all, this is the day where we eat anything and everything because we know we have to "be good" again starting tomorrow...right?

     The ingredients were simple and easy to put together. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, spray a 9x13 pan with PAM and you are ready to put this breakfast dish together.

     Cut an 8 ounce loaf of stale Italian Bread into cubes (about 8 cups), or if you cook like I do...tear it into pieces. Put the cubes into the greased pan. Add a 1 pound bag of frozen peaches and 2 cups of fresh blueberries to the bread in the pan and sprinkle with cinnamon. The recipe calls for 1/4 tsp., but we like cinnamon...I just sprinkled away! Toss the bread, fruit and cinnamon together in the greased pan.

 In a separate bowl, beat 6 eggs. 

Slowly whisk in 2 cups of whole milk, 1 cup half and half and 3/4 cup of sugar. 

Stir in 1 tsp. of vanilla and a pinch of salt.

     At this point, it looks and smells like it could be frozen custard. Tempting to get out the little ice cream freezer, but I did promise my husband breakfast!

     Pour the egg mixture over the bread and fruit and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. You can also get to this step and put it covered in the refrigerator overnight. Press down on the bread pieces to make sure they all get soaked into the milk/egg mixture. After waiting 30 minutes, put into the 350 degree oven for 1 hour. 

 

When it is done, it looks like this!

     This is the cookbook. The recipe says it makes 8 servings at 344 calories each. True confession: We each ate almost 2 servings. I will worry about that tomorrow!

     I may have mentioned Broadbent's in Kentucky in a previous blog post. We get all of our bacon there and have for so many years I can't remember when we didn't. It is simply the best. My husband also loves the ham steaks and these little biscuit ham slices. I find them too salty (but I had one anyway) for my taste, but the bacon is perfection. We get ours on trips to Florida, but they do have a mail order catalog. 

I usually drink my coffee black, but I had a little 

of that half and half left over...and it is a holiday!

     We were supposed to wait until the casserole cooled a little so it would be in pretty squares on our plates. It smelled so good, we just couldn't wait. This recipe is a keeper. We both loved it! 

Wishing you all the Happiest of New Years!