do you REALLY have to soak bread pudding?

[allmine]

I have a lot of homemade bread sitting around each day as I am making it again. I want to make my old bread pudding receipe but it calls for soaking anywhere from four hours to overnight...is that really necessary? it's just bread cubes, milk , eggs, vanilla, cinnamon...the norm. Do you think if I made it up and let it sit a few minutes it would cook up all right? or would it be a pathetic waste of ingredients??

[vbactivist]

Originally Posted by allmine

I have a lot of homemade bread sitting around each day as I am making it again. I want to make my old bread pudding receipe but it calls for soaking anywhere from four hours to overnight...is that really necessary? it's just bread cubes, milk , eggs, vanilla, cinnamon...the norm. Do you think if I made it up and let it sit a few minutes it would cook up all right? or would it be a pathetic waste of ingredients??

when I haevn'te let it soak long enough the bread is dry in the middle. I think you do have to let it soak. sorry!

[blumooned]

I've made bread pudding & soaked it for closer to half an hour, & it seemed fine. Not dry. Maybe you could just soak it for a shorter time & see if it turns out OK for you.

[cristeen]

Dont pack it into your dish... Assemble it in all in a bowl, let it sit 10 min, stir, let it sit, stir, let it sit, stir and then spoon it into the casserole without packing and bake it.

The main problem w this technique is the tendency to pack it into the baking dish, which will make it cook unevenly and give it a yucky texture.

[BetsyS]

I let mine sit for around 30 min, and it works fine.

[ollyoxenfree]

I'd just make sure that the liquid ingredients were absorbed before baking. I think 30 min. to an hour should work, but it depends on the density of the bread too. A really dense, hearty wholewheat loaf is going to take a lot longer to absorb the liquids compared to something that is light and fluffy like an egg bread.