This may be the least photogenic dessert ever.

I used the recipe from Simply Recipesthe recipe from Simply Recipes (minus the whiskey sauce) but only made 2/3 of it and baked it in an 8" square dish. Bread pudding is supposed to be made with stale white bread but the only reason I was making it was to use up some of my broken oatmeal breadbroken oatmeal bread, so I realized that this pudding was not going to be your typical bread pudding.

What I liked about this recipe: since the bread cubes are squished up in the milk the pudding has a uniform consistency instead of being a pile of bread cubes. My cubes were messy anyway. The flavor is also good. I added a bit of nutmeg that wasn't called for in the original recipe.

What I didn't like about this recipe: way too much butter in the bottom of the dish. While it did make for a nicely caramelized edge, the excess kind of hangs around looking gross, seeping out onto the empty area of the dish after serving a piece. I think it would have been just as good if I had taken a paper towel and sopped up the excess butter before pouring in the pudding mixture. Also, it never really set entirely. I finally took it out of the oven after 1 hour and 15 minutes and the center still wasn't set. Maybe I should have used a different pan or put it in a water bath like I saw recommended in a different recipe.

4 cups bread cubes (1/2 a loaf of my homemade bread), crusts removed
2 2/3 cups milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup raisins
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash nutmeg
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Soak the bread in milk in a large mixing bowl. Crush with hands until well mixed and all the milk is absorbed. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and spices together. Gently stir into the bread mixture. Gently stir the raisins into the mixture.

Pour butter into the bottom of a 8 inch baking pan. Coat the bottom and the sides of the pan well with the butter. Pour in the bread mix and bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes, until set. The pudding is done when the edges start getting a bit brown and pull away from the edge of the pan.