In a small (6-cup) baking dish, place
the milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla.
Beat lightly with a fork or whisk
until eggs are incorporated.
Spread each slice of bread with a thin
layer of butter.
Lay the bread in the milk mixture,
tearing if needed to make it fit.
Sprinkle the raisins over all and bake
for 45 minutes, until puffed and golden.
Serves 4
The bread for bread pudding can be left
whole instead of broken into pieces, and it's improved by a thin slather
of butter on each slice before it's layered in the baking dish. In this
speedy recipe, the egg and milk is mixed in the baking dish and the
bread is pushed down into it, thereby using only one dish for
preparation.
You can make an edible pudding with white
sandwich bread, but it'll taste much better if you have a good white
bakery bread, and even better if you use a cake-like egg or potato
bread.
