HTJ's Kitchen - Blueberry & Bacon Bread Pudding

6 slices of white bread (double, if very thin slices)

1/2 large baguette (any French bread)

5 slices of bacon (this can be omitted if one prefers)

8 eggs

4 cups of milk

2 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons maple syrup

2-3 tablespoons brandy (I used Calvados)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

8 ounces (1/2 pound) of blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Butter for greasing the pans.

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

4 tablespoons butter

This topping goes on at the end and helps to form a crisp top layer to the pudding. Place the sugar, flour and butter in a glass mixing bowl and mix together with a fork until the butter is in small chunks well mixed with the sugar and flour. Set aside.

1. Cut the bread into small cubes. Remove the crust from the white bread slices, but use all of the French bread including the crust.

2. Place the cubed bread into a buttered 9 x 13 inch glass or steel baking pan. Arrange so that the bread evenly covers the bottom of the pan, and comes about 3/4 of the way up the sides of the pan.

3. Cut the bacon into small pieces, place in a frying pan, and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels, then sprinkle over the top of the cubed bread.

4. Add the blueberries to the bread mixture.

5. Beat eggs, then add the milk one cup at a time constantly beating until the mix is frothy. Add the brandy, vanilla and cinnamon and mix well.

6. Using a ladle, spoon the egg mixture over the bread & blueberries in the baking dish. Then gently stir everything together in the baking dish so that the bread is evenly coated with the egg mixture and the blueberries evenly distributed.

7. The image above shows all the ingredients mixed. This works best if you can let it sit for about 20-30 minutes so that the bread soaks up the egg mixture.

8. Cover the baking dish with tin foil, and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees (170 C) for 50 minutes. After 50 minutes, remove the foil and drizzle the top of the pudding with maple syrup. I know I wrote 4 tablespoons, but more is better. The image above shows the pudding after 50 minutes and drizzled with maple syrup.

9. After drizzling with maple syrup, sprinkle the top with the flour, sugar and butter topping to look like the image above.

10. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees (200 degrees C.), and return the pudding to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until the topping mixture crisps up a bit. Don't burn the top. The baking time may take a bit longer - eggs and milk are kind of quirky.