Cheesy Bread Pudding

It started on Facebook. After being diagnosed with gluten sensitivity, I looked on Facebook for groups where I could get more information and some support.

(N.B.: I love gluten. And I’m a picky eater.).

One of these groups I discovered is run by a local woman whose gluten free (GF) baked goods are served in local restaurants and available in local groceries:

Andrea’s Gluten Free   https://www.facebook.com/AndreasGlutenFree/

Her chocolate gooey butter cookies are amazing!

Anyway, she had a giveaway promotion on FB and I won. A case of frozen GF stuffing mix, which consisted of cubes of a rye/pumpernickel-like bread with holiday spices (sage, etc). Well, Thanksgiving was over, and I knew I couldn’t eat a whole case, so I shared some of my bounty with a few GF friends.

But I still had a few containers in my freezer. After talking with my friend L, who is my GF guru (she is a great cook and now that she’s GF, she makes things that taste wonderful, even without the gluten), I decided to see if there might be a savory bread pudding recipe that I could try.

And I found one!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/85714/savory-rosemary-bread-pudding/

But I still didn’t try making it. Life happened. (A future post).

So, last month another FB group, Gluten Free Dinner Club STL had a potluck at Andrea’s house. https://www.facebook.com/groups/258143504525549/

Finally! My chance to use the bread cubes and the recipe!

(NB: I had never made bread pudding before.)

Let’s just say the cubes, though thawed, were too dense for the batter to soak through. Sigh.

But it smelled wonderful, and some of the bites were tasty, so I was determined to try again.

 

Yesterday was the day. I used the recipe above, but I reduced the amount of ingredients and adapted it. The result is below:

 

 

I cut the recipe into 1/3 of the original, using only two eggs, two GF bread crusts, half a small onion, and about 2/3 cup of cheese. I substituted 2/3 cup of half & half, rather than using heavy cream and 2% milk. (Keep it simple stupid!) I also only cooked the bread pudding for half an hour, since it was a smaller dish.

It was delicious! It tastes a lot like a quiche.