Blueberry Bread Pudding

My dad always hated bread pudding.

I made challah a while back for the Daring Bakers Challenge.  Three of my four loaves were already gobbled down, but I still had a loaf of blueberry-whole wheat sitting in the fridge.  I really wanted to try my hand at bread pudding and I figured a berry bread pudding with blueberry challah would be amazing. The only problem: my dad.

I decided, as Father's Day wasn't for a few more weeks, I would make the bread pudding, call it baked french toast, and see if he would eat it.

Not only did he eat the bread pudding, he LOVED the bread pudding.  I guess there is a slight chance he was just being nice.  However, seeing as how my father was the type of person to tell me that if I purchased a ring-tone for 99 cents, he would not pay for any of my college tuition, I don't think he was messing around.

Very-Berry Bread Pudding (inspired by Country Cleaver)

Ingredients:
1 loaf of Blueberry Challah 
3 cups of berries (I used quartered-strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries)
2 cups skim milk
2 cups half-and-half
5 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9 by 13 inch baking dish.
2. In a large bowl, beat milk, half-and-half, and eggs.  Beat in the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
3. Slice the challah into cubes and place in the baking dish.  Pour milk mixture over the bread.  Sprinkle the berries all over the top.  Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until the middle is no longer jiggly when you lightly shake the dish. Serve warm...maybe even get the whipped cream out!

Enjoy :)