Sunday is my favorite day of the week. It’s the one day a week where I can just take it easy and be lazy if I want to. One of the best things about Sundays is Sunday brunch. Hosting Sunday brunch with great friends is so fun but who wants to wake up early to prepare brunch on a Sunday? Not me!! So that’s why I love this make ahead recipe, where I can just stick it in the oven on a lazy Sunday morning. On top of that, I use all the leftover challah scraps from Shabbat!

Cranberry Bread Pudding with Orange Custard Sauce

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Bread Pudding

1/2 loaf of challah bread, rip or cut into imperfect cubes

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

2 cups of milk

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

3 tablespoons of sugar for inside the mixture plus 2 tablespoons sugar to sprinkle over

pinch salt

2 eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted plus more to grease the baking pan

Orange Custard

3 large egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 orange peel strip (1 inch thick)

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

Bread Pudding: Rip or cut the challah bread into imperfect cubes and place in buttered baking dish with cranberries. You can hand place the cranberries into the nooks and crannies of the bread. Melt butter and let cool on the side. In a separate bowl, mix in the grated orange peel and sugar with your hands. The juice from the orange zest will mix into the sugar giving it more flavor. Keep 2 tablespoons of this sugar mixture on the side to use at the end. Next, mix in the milk, salt, eggs, and butter. Evenly pour over the challah in the baking dish. Let it soak in the fridge for 15 minutes or even overnight if you are making ahead of time. When you are ready to bake, sprinkle the leftover 2 tablespoons of sugar over the challah to give it a little sugary crust. Bake in 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. The bread pudding will be wobbly when ready. Serve warm.

Orange Custard: Wisk egg yolks and sugar in saucepan. Stir in cream and orange peel. Cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes until it is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Stir constantly and DO NOT let it boil. Once ready, transfer to a bowl and immediately place in ice-cold bath for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Place in fridge to let cool until ready to use. Serve with bread pudding. Don’t reheat.

**Tips:

-Dry out the bread the day before to make it a little more stale. This will let the bread absurd the liquid mixture better.

-Since the bread pudding is warm when you serve it, the custard can be cool. You can keep reheating the bread pudding but do not reheat the orange custard because it will curdle.

-Great make a head of time dish! You can let the bread pudding soak in the fridge overnight and you can make the custard the day before.

-If you have leftovers and don’t want to throw it away, you can freeze the bread pudding and just reheat it whenever you would like!