One my favorite things to do with the kids during the Christmas season is making gingerbread houses.
This year I cheated. I totally bought a Gingerbread House Kit, complete with pre-baked gingerbread and Royal icing mix.
It was awesome! The kids had a ton of fun decorating it...and I didn't have to roll out any dough!
The one downside was that it wasn't as soft as the homemade variety...especially after sitting for a week on the dining room table. It was like rock.
So...after the kids had scavenged the last bit of candy decor from the house, I told them it was demo time.
The kids really wanted to eat it...but I didn't want to have any extra dental bills this month. (Sugar is bad enough...but add to that rock hard gingerbread? You're just asking for broken teeth.)
My kids love bread pudding, so I took a risk and decided to turn the remaining rubble into Ginger Bread Pudding!
And our little house went from this:
to this:
I know. Not a very good 'after' picture. I had intended to take a picture of it right out of the oven...but I had to nurse the baby...and have you ever tried to keep four ravenous children (and one well-meaning husband) away from a warm dessert/breakfast? By the time I was done feeding the baby, half of the pudding was gone!
Anyway, for those of you who like bread pudding, I highly recommend trying this recipe out!
Ginger Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
5 cups of gingerbread crumbs (I threw pieces of our rock hard gingerbread house into our food processor - frosting, candy cane bits and all - and pulverized them into fine crumbs)
5 or 6 eggs, beaten
4 cups of milk
1 cup raisins, optional
(I didn't add any sugar, cinnamon, ginger or nutmeg to our pudding, because I felt like the crumbs were already sweet and seasoned enough.)
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spread crumbs in the bottom of a 9x13 glass or stoneware baking dish.
3. Beat eggs and milk together. Pour over the crumbs in the baking dish, pressing into the crumbs
4. Place another baking dish filled with hot water on the bottom rack of the oven. This helps the pudding to bake evenly.
5. Place dish with pudding mixture on middle rack of oven.
6. Bake for about 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Enjoy!!
