Eggnog Bread Pudding

I made my first bread pudding on Thanksgiving about 7 years ago.  Everyone politely took a bite.  Enough said?!  LOL  I found this recipe online (for the oven, since this was way before my slow cooking days!) and decided to give it a go on Thanksgiving.  It tasted "eggy" and was extremely soggy. It took FOREVER to cook!

Fast forward to the present!  I wanted to give bread pudding a try again.  But, I didn't want to make traditional bread pudding.  I had two ideas.....one was eggnog bread pudding, and the other was chocolate bread pudding.  My step-dad requested the eggnog bread pudding when given the choice, so that's what I went with!  I'm SO glad I did!

This bread pudding has the delicious flavor of eggnog and just a hint of the yummy Kahlua I soaked the raisins in!  (Yes, I soaked the raisins in Kahlua.....and YES!  It's as yummy as it sounds!)  It wasn't too sweet, but just sweet enough!  It actually turned out to be almost like a monkey bread, where you can tear cube by cube off of it and munch on it!  It's wonderful topped with some whipped cream!  Your family, co-workers, neighbors, etc. will LOVE you if you make this for them!

Note: I used a 6.5 Quart Crock for this recipe.  It made enough to feed around 16-20 people!  Half this and cook it in a smaller slow cooker if you have a smaller crowd :)

Eggnog Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

2 loaves of french bread, cubed and set to dry out over night

8 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

4 Tbsp. butter, melted

4 cups Eggnog

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup Kahlua

Directions:

The night before, set your cubed bread on a baking tray and let the bread dry out over night.  Yes, this is an important step.  If you don't dry out your bread, you'll end up with a soggy mess.

The day of, while you're making you're assembling all of your ingredients, get your raisins soaking in the Kahlua while you prepare everything else.

In a bowl, mix together the eggs, vanilla, nutmeg and salt.

(I used my fun new Breville Kitchen Gadget!!!! Yay!)

Next, add the melted butter, sugar and eggnog.  Mix well.

Now that you've mixed all the other ingredients, it's time to dump in those delicious soaking raisins and Kahlua!  Give it a stir.

Slowly add in your bread cubes, stirring as you go.

Keep adding your cubes until they are all evenly coated/soaked with the mixture.

Place into your greased Crock.

Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours, or until your knife comes out of the center clean.

The last hour or so, place a couple layers of paper towel under the lid to help soak up some of the moisture and to keep the top from getting a bit soggy.

Serve with Whipped Cream on top!

Enjoy!