Recipe(tried): Great Bread Pudding and Blueberry French Toast

This first recipe is my favorite, it is good, rich and very delicious; make sure you don't over cook it...It makes alot, but you can halve the recipeGreat Bread Pudding--Rich!

The second recipe is great for breakfast, but equally delicious for dessert too.

GREAT BREAD PUDDING!

8 cups chunks of bread (about 12 slices of day old bread or try old hot dog or hamburger buns, whole grain bread, french bread or what have you.)
2/3 cup raisins
2/3 cup prunes, snipped into small pieces
2/3 cup walnuts, chopped
6 tbsp butter, cut into small chunks
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
5 cups whole milk
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Very hot water

Oven a 350 degrees and have ready a roasting pan large enough to contain the baking dish described below.

Liberally grease a (if you have it) glass 13x9-inch baking dish. Distribute the bread chunks evenly in the greased dish. Evenly sprinkle the raisins, prunes, walnuts and chunks of butter over the top of the bread chunks.

In another bowl mix together the eggs, vanilla, salt, whole milk, brown sugar and cinnamon. Pour this mixture carefully over the bread mixture in the dish.

Place the baking dish in the large roaster you have ready and then pour the hot water in the roaster untill it comes halfway up the side of the baking dish. Place the roaster (with the baking dish inside it) in the middle of the oven and bake for about 45 minutes. A knife, when inserted in the center of the pudding should just barely come out clean or even a little wet and the top should be nicely browned and the pudding should have risen an be noticeably fluffier.

VARIATIONS:
For low fat bread pudding: Subsitute egg substitute to equal the amount of eggs or use 2 egg whites for every egg used. Use low fat margarine for the butter and non fat milk for the whole milk. You can try using only half the butter (3 tablespoons), melt it and drizzle it on the bread chunks just after you put the bread chunks in the greased dish. If you use the nonfat milk you might want to substitute 2 cans (10 ounces each) of non-fat condensed milk for 2 1/2 cups of the fresh non-fat milk--just make sure that all the milk you use comes to no more than 5 cups.

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Blueberry French Toast