The Pantry Dish

This is one of those "reminds me of Grandpa" recipes because he used to make something very close to this around the holidays and Lent.  His version though (the traditional version) is a bit more complicated and with way more ingredients.  It used to be a family favorite growing up but no one makes it anymore, and to be honest no one can measure up to my grandpas' Bread Pudding which we call Capirotada.  For this particular bread pudding though I went the easy route and used as few ingredients as I could without sacrificing loosing too much of the memory and good flavor.  Turned out to be simple, moist, and quite tasty.  Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients I used:

2 cups Half & Half
4 whole eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (depends on your preference)
1-2 whole bananas diced (optional)
14 slices of raisin bread cut roughly into 1" squares

Combine the Half & Half, sugar, eggs, and cinnamon together and mix well with a whisk (or fork).

Grease an 8x8 or 2qt baking dish and add the bread  and mix in the bananas if you are using them.  Use 1 banana if you only want half with or 2 if you want it in the entire batch.  Here I only used 1 banana in half the batch.

Pour the milk mixture evenly over the bread, then gently press down on the bread so that all the pieces get a chance to soak up the milk. 

Bake in the oven @ 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until it rises.  Take it out of the oven, give it a coat of eggwash then finish baking another 5-10 minutes or until toasted on top.

Grab a nice cold glass of milk, or hot cup of coffee and dig in.  Even better would be to top it off with a dallop of whipped cream.....and then dig in!   

Easiest morning treat ever!!