Yesterday, Mama showed me how to make bread (I’ll tell you all about it some day). She thought we’d have French toast today, but last night, she had other designs. She cut one of the loaves into cubes, laid them in an 8 x 8 baking pan, added cranberries, and poured a mixture of egg and milk over it. Then this morning, she baked it. It took a really long time, but it was really yummy. (I had some after I’d had my oatmeal.) Parts of it were kind of crunchy, and parts were soft and creamy. Then there was the tart zing of cranberry.

I can get used to mornings like this.

Love, Jude

Cranberry Bread Pudding

This one’s really easy:

1 cup bread cubes + 1 cup heavy cream (or whole milk) + 1 egg (increase as necessary)

Added fruits, nuts, flavorings

Generously grease a baking pan. Add cubed bread (day-old works best). Mix in blueberries, cranberries, bananas, dried apricots, walnuts, pecans, or whatever suits your fancy. In a separate bowl, mix together cream/milk and eggs. Add vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, maples syrup, and any other flavorings as desired. Mama says you can even put bourbon in it, whatever that is. Pour over bread cubes, making sure all the bread is submerged. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, uncover and bake at 350°F until set and puffy. (Ours took about 1 hour, 10 minutes. You can see why I needed to eat my oatmeal first.) All you have to do is peek at the center. If it’s still liquidy, it’s not ready. If your bread is browning too fast, tent foil over it for the remainder of your bake time. You can also start with the foil for the first half hour, then remove it for the last half hour.