Bread Pudding

I had about a third of a loaf of French baguette that went stale while laying out on my kitchen counter for a couple of days.  I had completely forgotten about it and before I knew it, it had gone completely stale.  I don't like wasting so I perused my brain and decided it's about time I make some bread pudding.  When I think of the words bread pudding, I think of my mother.  She used to make a killer bread pudding out of croissants and marmalade when I was still under 5' tall.  She didn't make it often so when she did, I would get so excited and eat so much of it that my stomach would beg for mercy.  Bread pudding can be pretty heavy with all the heavy cream and whole milk involved, however, my mother's bread pudding even with all the butter from the croissants was light but with all the moistness of a heavy cream laden bread pudding.  I don't have my mother's recipe so I attempted to recreate the fluffiness of her bread pudding.  I must say, it was easy-peasy and turned out really well!  It has the fluffiness and moisture throughout with a crispy top.  Yum!!

Bread Pudding

1/3 of a French baguette, stale and broken up into pieces no larger than an 1"
6 tb chocolate chips
1 cup fat free milk
1 egg
1 tb brown sugar

Makes 3 servings.

- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Evenly distribute baguette pieces and chocolate chips between 3 ramekins.
- Combine milk, egg & brown sugar in a bowl and mix well.
- Pour mixture into ramekins and allow baguette pieces to soak in the milk mixture while the oven is preheating.
- Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes.  The bread pudding is done if a toothpick inserted into the middle of a pudding comes out clean.