Berry Bread Pudding: what to do with leftover cranberry sauce

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. My family enjoyed good food, all the traditional favorites, football of course, played a board game, and skyped with family. Afterwards the amount of leftovers was staggering. Thankfully, on Thanksgiving, the 'leftover' stigma takes a holiday, possibly because everyone's too busy rejoicing over the five-day turkey sandwich extravaganza that's about to ensue

Speaking of leftovers, I had so much cranberry sauce that this beautiful new bread pudding recipe was born. It's was a delicious solution. It's special enough for guests and special occasions, Holiday breakfasts or brunch or a weekend with the family. 

This new recipe was actually my first bread pudding experience. It was a hit! The combination of cranberry tartness, sweet cinnamon sugar, rich egg-y bread, and crisp apple and pear was incredibly impressive. No one will even consider the word leftover, while savoring this red festive dessert.

 the original recipe, it was adapted from 2007 issue of Rachael Ray's magazine Everyday. 

Ingredients:
1 loaf of cinnamon raisin loaf bread, sliced (approx 1 lb)
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 Tbs melted unsalted butter (melting them separately is easiest)
1 Tbs unsalted cold butter, cubed
1 cup leftover or fresh cranberry sauce
4 Tbs  + 1/2 cup sugar, divided
1/4  tsp + 1/2 Tbs cinnamon, divided
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 large apple, washed/peeled/diced
1 pear, washed/peeled/diced 
powered sugar (optional)
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (your favorite.... I used almonds)

Prep:

1. Combine the pear, apple, 3 Tbs sugar, the lemon juice, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1 Tbs melted butter to a medium sized bowl. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, half & half, milk, buttermilk, and 1/2 cup sugar. Set aside. 

3. Prep a large 11"x17" baking dish by spreading 1 Tbs melted butter to prevent sticking. You can use nonstick spray here to make it a bit more figure friendly.

4. Melt the 3rd Tbs of butter. Spread butter and cranberry sauce on each slice of bread. Stack the bread into 2 stacks so they don't fall over on ya.

5. Cut the 2 stacks of bread diagonally into triangles. 

6. Spread out and stagger the first stack of the bread in the buttered baking dish. It will overlap that's fine just don't stack it in. 

7. Next top the bread with the apple pear mixture.  

8. Cover the fruit with the remaining triangles of 2nd stack of buttered cranberry bread.

9. Pour in the dairy/egg  mixture. Wrap the baking dish with plastic wrap and still in the fridge for at least an hr to let the flavors blend for up to 2 days

    Baking:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven preheats let the pudding come to room temperature outside of the fridge.

2. Chop your nuts if not chopped. To create the topping for the pudding: in a bowl combine the nuts, with 1 Tbs sugar and 1/2 Tbs cinnamon. Sprinkle this over the bread pudding.

3. Top with the 1 Tbs cold cubed unsalted butter

4. Bake for 1 hour - will be golden and delicious and your entire house will smell like cinnamon :)

5. Let it rest for approx 10 minutes. The longer you let it rest the firmer it will be.