Pinoy Bread Pudding

My first of my bread pudding series.  A delightfully steam-baked breadpudding that will melt in your mouth.

What do you do with old bread sitting on your kitchen benchtop or freezer?  This has always been a problem in our house.  My husband tends to buy lots of bread not realizing that we still have plenty at home.  Most of the time, we would just feed the birds in the back lawn with bread...worst they would end up in the bin.  Each time we do this, I can't help but thinking of those in the Philippines that would not even have the money to buy a loaf of bread or tasty (as they are called famously in the Philippines). 

I remember the tasty bread at Caroline's Bakeshop at the town center in Hagonoy.  I have always loved them until the size gets smaller and smaller but the price gets bigger and bigger.  It is interesting to note too that every Christmas and New Year, no matter how much or how small or big these breads are, the Filipinos would always buy them.  Most tables won't be complete without them during these celebrations.  People would even resort to panic buying just to make sure that they would get some.  Funny, whenever I went to the town center years ago, all I could see were tasty breads.  I must say that they are that popular.

There is not really a fixed recipe for a bread pudding and anyone can create theire own recipe.  The only basic ingredient in all the recipes would be the stale or left over bread.  You can be as creative and adventurous as you can be.

Ingredients
3 c milk (fresh or evaporated)
2 cups (7 pcs) white bread,cubed
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 c jackfruit or any fruit that you like
3 eggs
4 tbsp melted butter

Procedure
Heat up 3 c of milk until bubbles form.  Remove from fire. 
Add the cubed bread and soak them for 40 minutes.  Mash the bread with a big metal spoon to make the mixture smooth.
Put in all the other ingredients (except the fruits) and blend well.  You can use an electric mixer if you want. 
Fold in the fruits ( I used jackfruit by the way).  Set aside.
Caramelise 1/2 c sugar and pour onto a loaf pan or round pan.  Pour the batter mixture onto the baking pan.  Make sure that you grease the side of the pan before you do this.
Put the bread pudding pan on top of a bigger pan.  Pour hot water (about 1 inch deep) onto the bigger pan. 
Steam - bake for 1 hour in a preheated oven at 180C.

A comment or two will be appreciated...