Cinnamon Toast Bread Pudding

In honor of her blog's second anniversary, my friend at Not Derby Pie is hosting October's Sugar High Friday event. Her theme? Toasted. A dessert featuring something toasted--nuts, coconut, marshmallows?

As I thought of this challenge, I contemplated toasted things, and acknowledged my favorite toasted thing--bread. Toast. Just toast. I love toast. I love the smell of toast. I enjoy it with butter and jam, cheese toast, garlic toast, toasted sandwiches, and the quintessential cinnamon toast.

I decided to make cinnamon toast bread pudding. For the cuteness factor, I bought a loaf of appetizer-sized, 3 inch square, very thinly sliced bread and proceeded to make tiny little cinnamon toasts.

Cinnamon Toast Bread Pudding

36 slices cocktail bread

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 cup golden raisins

18 pecan halves

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups milk

2 Tbsp. sugar

Place little bread slices on baking trays and butter liberally. Mix together the 1/4 cup sugar with the cinnamon. Sprinkle over the breads. Toast in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 7 or 8 minutes, until lightly toasted.

In the baking dish, arrange 9 slices of the toast in a single layer. Sprinkle each slice with a few raisins. Add another layer of toast and top each one with a couple pecan halves. Add a third layer of toasts and top this one with raisins again. Finally add the fourth and last layer of toast.

Beat together the eggs, 2 Tbsp. sugar, and the milk. Pour over the toasts and bake at 350 for about 40-45 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cut into squares, between the lines of toast, and top with lightly whipped cream. Top with some additional cinnamon sugar.