Look what I made: Eggless Bread Pudding

....And this happened when my brother had this idea of soaking bread slices in sugar syrup, "Yes, it'll taste awesome", he said and I suggested using milk instead to add some richness. Well, this is one of the usual scenes from an average Saturday afternoon at our house; he gets a little over-ambitious in the kitchen and we either have a disaster or a winner. Today, he unknowingly pointed in the direction of bread pudding and that struck me as I was improvising his idea. He did go forth with his original  intentions and that did end up as a sickeningly sweet disaster but I got determined to try making a bread pudding, the recipe seemed simple enough and no special ingredients were required, in spite of those facts I messed up a bit by forgetting to add the vanilla essence! However, mom saved the day and hence, the flavour still was terrific. But again I hurried to demould the pudding and in that haste I broke the caramel  top. Sigh. But its taste that matters, right? So here is the recipe (just make sure you don't hurry to demould!)...

Ingredients:

• 5 bread slices
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar + 4 tblsp for the caramel
• Few drops of Vanilla essence
• 4 tblsp water

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, tear bread into small pieces. In that add 1 cup milk and 1/2 cup of sugar which has been powdered.
2. Mix them well and leave it aside for a while so that the bread pieces soak up the milk.
3. While the bread mixture is soaking, make the caramel by heating 4 tblsp sugar and 4tblsp water in a heavy bottom vessel until it is golden in colour. It took me 3-4 minutes.
4. Pour the prepared caramel in the dish assigned to steam the bread pudding in and let it cool down. Note: Maybe you should grease the dish before pouring the caramel in it. I didn't but maybe that's why the caramel layer broke while I was demoulding it.)
5. Now, add Vanilla essence into the bread mixture and  mash up the bread mixture using a masher or just blend it into a blender (I used a masher).
6. Transfer the mashed/ blended bread mixture onto the cooled down caramel (You'll notice that the caramel has solidified, don't worry it's normal).
7. Now, seal the dish using aluminium foil and punch some holes in it. Steam it, either in a steamer or a wok (make sure you put the lid on) for 20-30 minutes or until there is no liquid left in the dish.
8. Make sure the steamed pudding is cooled down completely before demoulding it. After you demould it, you can have it straight away or chill it in the refrigerator for a few hours. (I had mine before sending it to the refrigerator and it tasted beautiful.)

Tip: Use that kind of bread which has no specific aroma, or else the entire pudding would taste like according to it.

1. Bread Slices 2. Torn bread 3. Bread mixed with milk and sugar 4. Mashed bread mixture 5. Caramel poured into the dish 6. Foil covered dish with holes in the foil 7. While steaming (Keep the lid on) 8. Pudding steamed until no liquid left 9. Read to eat Bread Pudding.

Recipe source: Evergeen Recipes