Breakfast Bread Pudding

Have your cake, and eat it, too

I’m still adjusting to cooking for two. The other day my husband asked me to make a cinnamon kuchen, and I pulled out one of my vintage cookbooks to see what I could find for a recipe.

This isn’t the Vintage Kitchen recipe, although I’ll share that one as a bonus! No, this is what to do with leftovers because we just can’t eat it all.

I’d asked on social media what people thought “1 cent yeast” meant, and had a lot of interesting answers. However, I hadn’t waited for them, I looked at the amount of dough this would make, and used 2 tsp yeast which worked well. This does make two cakes in 9” round cake pans. I baked it at 350F for about 25 minutes. The resulting dough is very soft, like a batter, but yeast risen. The flavor is lovely, but best when very fresh and warm. We took one cake to share with friends, and the other was breakfast for a couple of mornings.

It’s not overly sweet, despite the name cake. And when I looked at the last bit of it, knowing that not even heating it up would help the stale texture, I decided that rather than giving the chickens a treat, I’d make it into something else to finish it off.

So! early morning breakfast bread pudding. This is made protein-rich to be a nice meal.

Bread Pudding

4 servings

• 3 eggs

• 3/4 c milk

• 1/2 c greek yogurt (full-fat)

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 c bread cubes (about 1/2” square, roughly)

• 1/4 c roughly chopped hazelnuts

Butter ramekins and preheat oven to 325F

Beat together wet ingredients.

Stir in bread cubes and nuts. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes to soak up the liquid.

Spoon into 8 oz ramekins (or one 8” baking dish). If using ramekins then place them on a cookie sheet before sliding into the oven.

Bake at 325F for about 40 minutes, until puddings are firm to touch and no liquid moves when ramekin is tilted. They will puff up slightly, then subside on cooling. Serve when cooled, but still warm.