Sourdough Bread Pudding

Hey, I discovered something new.....it is possible to make bread pudding out of sourdough bread.
In one of my earliest blogs the one about the process of making soudough bread, I described how to knead 1 tsp. baking soda into the bread to take the "sourness" out of the bread if it is too strong. That information comes from Sally Fallon in "Nourishing Traditions" and is a very good trick. Most times when I make my bread I remember, but last weekend I forgot. I tasted that bread and it really was too sour. I didn't want to throw the 4 mini-loaves I made away but the problem was what to do with them. Afte a couple days pondering, I decided that if soda sweetens the bread before baking, maybe it will sweeten it after.

I cut this little loaf up into cubes and added about 1 1/2 cups water with 2 tsps baking soda to it and let the bread soak. I call this a "soda bath". It really reacted by bubbling up. The bread cubes floated on top of the water so I kept stirring and pushing them down. I was surprised the cubes didn't fall apart but for the most part kept their cube shapes. After about 2 hours I tasted the cubes and they were not sour! I drained the cubes and set about to make a sweet egg custard to bake them in. I didn't write this down at the time cause I was sure it wouldn't turn out so the amounts are approximate.....the idea is what's important.

My little loaf made about 2 cups of cubes
2 eggs beaten
2/3 cup honey
1/2 tsp Real Salt
1 1/2 cups milk ( I used old, raw milk that hubby wouldn't drink)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
handfull of raisins
coconut oil for greasing the baking dish

Combine all and bake uncovered at 325 for 45 minutes or more if needed. Nuts can be added.

I warmed some of this up this morning with some cream for breakfast and it was very good and gave me enough energy to last until my prep period. I keep it in the fridge with a lid. The "soda bath" did neutralize the sourness. Yea!