From the Kitchen of The Cypress House, March 7, 1980

“Never throw away anything” is my culinary motto. Not even a scrap of bread. And certainly not a bowl full of scraps of bread; they make one of our favorite desserts.

Bread Pudding has been a family stand-by for many years. My grandmother used the traditional egg custard base and so does my mother-in-law. It’s delicious. But my mother once found a recipe on a can of condensed milk and it’s not only easier to prepare, it’s equally as good. Since then, that’s been our bread pudding recipe.

Recently I have shared this recipe with several young cooks with small children. Success! Parents and children alike enjoyed it. You may, too.

Easy Bread Pudding

1 can sweetened condensed milk

3 cups very hot water

3 cups finely diced day-old bread

3 eggs, slightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon melted butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine condensed milk and hot water. Pour over bread and let stand until lukewarm. Stir in eggs, butter, salt and vanilla. Pour into buttered 1-1/2 quart casserole or baking dish. Set in shallow pan of hot water. Bake in 350° oven until a knife blade inserted near the center comes out clean, about one hour.

Serve with vanilla sauce, chocolate sauce or your favorite plum jelly. Or plain! It’s that good.

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From the Kitchen of The Cypress House, March 15, 1981

And now to the sauce. To the bread pudding, of course! The Vicksburg Post had not even arrived at our house last week when the first call came.

“The recipe for the sauce? Where is it?” friends and readers queried.

I should have known better; bread pudding isn’t bread pudding without sauce. We like the vanilla sauce best, but chocolate is good and homemade plum jelly is also.

So to continue last week’s column, here is the recipe for vanilla sauce.

Vanilla Sauce

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups boiling water

2 teaspoons vanilla

In a saucepan combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in water. Boil, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until sauce is thickened. Add rest of ingredients.

Serve on bread pudding, pound cake or warm cake squares.

NOTE: for lemon sauce use 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, pinch of salt, 1 cup boiling water, 2 tablespoons butter and 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Make as above. Serve on warm gingerbread.