Making Pumpkin Bread Pudding out of Failed Pumpkin Bread

Sometimes there are those recipes that don't quite go the way you think they will.  I started out with one of those yesterday. 

I started out with what looked like a delicious recipe for Pumpkin Gingerbread.  Easy enough, right?  Well I wanted to make it healthy of course, so I made two subsitutions.  #1 I subbed in Splenda for half the sugar.  I don't think it made a very big difference and if I were going to do it again, I would still sub some Splenda in.  #2 was more important: I subbed in whole wheat flour for half of the white flour.  In retrospect, when working with something as moist and dense as pumpkin, adding in a dense flour like whole wheat was not wise.  I digress.

I also didn't read all of the reviews on the bottom of the recipe.  Had I done that, I would have known to let the bread cook for an hour AND 30 minutes, instead of just an hour like the recipe suggested. So rewind to me yesterday, take this super dense hunk of bread out of the oven about a half hour before I should have.  I tested it with ye old toothpick, but it seemed to come out clean.  Fast forward to a little while later when I dump it out on the cooling rack.  It went "thump".  Not a springy bouncy thump, but like a moist brick thump.  I tried a piece and found that it had the consistancy of Pumpkin Pie.  Good in pie, not good in bread.  So I thought, how can I salvage this????  It reminded me a lot of bread pudding!  Ah ha!

I looked around and found several recipes, but none that was exactly what I wanted.  So I made up my own.  Here it is:

Failed Pumpkin Bread Pudding

• 1 loaf failed Pumpkin Bread (I bet it will work with any pumpkin bread, and not just a failed loaf)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Cube your loaf of Pumpkin Bread into 1 inch pieces.  You can let it sit out for a few days, or if you are speedy like me you can toast it.  I arranged my 1 inch cubs on a baking sheet and toasted them at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes.

2. Take all the pumpkin bread pieces and put them in the bottom of an 8 inch pan (I used a casserole dish).  Drizzle the butter on top of them and let it soak in.

3. Drop your raisins on top of the bread (this is optional for people like my little bro who hate raisins).

4. Mix the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla together.

5. Pour it on top of the pumpkin bread.  Make sure all the pieces get mushed down into the sauce.

4. Stick it in the oven on 350 for 45 minutes. 

Voila!  Pumpkin Bread pudding out of failed pumpkin bread :)