A Feast of Fridays: Mandarin Orange Habanero Bread Pudding

Oh my gosh, your family will never want anything else for dessert again!

What I had not realized was that my great-grandmother used to make her bread puddings with pepper jelly!  It’s that  “spicy” touch that  absolutely MAKES this recipe fabulous!  (My great-grandmother’s combination of sweet-spicy in her bread puddings was always the hit of any pitch-in, and her pans were scraped clean, while those who brought contributions that were merely “sweet” usually had some leftovers to cart back home.)

Ingredients:

5 slices stale bread, toasted

3 tablespoons soft butter (don’t use margarine)

3/4 cup Texas Mandarin Orange Habanero Pepper Jelly

3 beaten eggs

1 3/4 cups milk – and it’s even better if you use half-and-half or cream

3 teaspoons lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon nutmet

What to do:

Spread each slice of toast (do not remove crusts) with butter and pepper jelly, using ALL of the pepper jelly.  cut into cubes and dump into buttered casserole.

Mix the beaten eggs with the milk, lemon juice, and nutmet, and pour over the toast cubes.

Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.  Serve warm or cold.

Set out whipped cream for anyone who wants it.

This recipe gives each of the four of us a large slice, with two left over for Tim to take in his lunch the next day.  We like ours warm for a dinner dessert, but he likes the leftover slices ice cold for his lunch.