Keeping bread in a cloth bag versus a plastic one has several
advantages; it doesn't mold, it keeps its crust longer, no worries
about weird chemicals. But, the one drawback is that you have a little
less than a week to eat it. Go past that and you have a bread brick on
your hands. Probably excellent for building small shelters out of.
Not so excellent for eating... unless you bring it back to life as this
fantastic bread pudding!
I'd been looking for a good bread pudding recipe for whole wheat bread and this is it. I tweaked it a bit, substituting peaches and pecans for apples and walnuts simply because that's what we had on hand. But I think the original recipe would be just as good. I love that the recipe only uses honey as the sweetener. It's not overwhelmingly sweet, but just sweet enough. And I felt perfectly justified in having it for breakfast several days in a row.
The recipe tells you to let it soak for about ten minutes, but I let mine soak at least half an hour. This is a crucial step, especially if you have seriously stale (read: brick-like) bread. I also used just a hair less bread than it called for. I like to err on the side of more mooshy and rich than less. Nothing ruins a good bread pudding like too much bread and not enough pudding. It was absolutely perfect with a scoop of caramel vanilla ice cream on the side. For breakfast plain yogurt and maple syrup are delicious. I may eat dessert for breakfast, but certainly not with icecream; I have to draw the line somewhere!
