Bread Pudding Muffins

Well, it's snowing! Between tonight and tomorrow, they're actually predicting over a foot of snow. And you know what that means - everyone in the area rushes to the store to buy storm staples - milk, eggs and bread. I always laugh... somehow snowstorms make everyone crave french toast.

I was thinking about that today and, well, you know... power of suggestion... suddenly really felt like french toast. Knowing I had some bread cubes in the freezer, as well as two bread-ends waiting to be cubed, first I thought about making french toast casserole for us to have for breakfast for the morning, but then decided on something very similar, yet a little different - bread pudding muffins.

I love these muffins.

Little miss helped a lot with these.

She added the cinnamon:









whisked the dry ingredients:









poured the dry ingredients into the bread-cube mixture:









She wanted to mix the whole thing up, too, but it is pretty thick, so I handled that part...

Half an hour in the oven, and viola:









Little miss had one for dessert tonight. She loved them. When told that maybe we could have them for breakfast tomorrow, too, she thought that was a pretty good idea, telling us that these are "breakfast-able!" I definitely agree.

Bread Pudding Muffins

(from joyofbaking.com)

7 cups of bread cubes cut into bite sized pieces

1 cup half & half or light cream

1 cup milk

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and set rack to middle of the oven. Spray 12-well muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

Place the bread cubes in a large mixing bowl and add the cream and milk. Let stand for five minutes. Then stir in the beaten eggs, sugar, vanilla and melted, cooled butter.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon. Stir this mixture into the bread cube mixture.

Evenly divide the mixture amont the 12 muffin cups, using two spoons or an ice cream scoop. Place the muffin tin on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Place on wire rack to cool.

Dust with confectioners sugar before serving, if desired.

Enjoy!