Bread Pudding for One

The grocery store had some little pretzel dinner rolls on "manager's special" today, which is their way of saying, "Old bread, on clearance. Please buy it before it molds." I had no firm plans for lunch, so I thought, "Hey, why not make sandwiches on little pretzel rolls? Could be different. Might be good," and I bought the clearance pretzel rolls.



They weren't terrible, but they weren't wonderful. They were dense and a little chewy, and they didn't especially taste like pretzels. Instead they just tasted like salty bread, and I didn't really want to eat any more sandwiches on them. I didn't want to just throw them away, though, since that seemed wasteful, so I tried to think of what else I could turn them into. They were too thick for French toast, and I didn't have anything I could use as sauce to make mini pizzas on them. I could have gone to the store again, but it's cold outside, so I had to think of something to do with them using ingredients I already had.

"Bread pudding? Is it possible to make bread pudding for just one person?"

Google suggested that it was. That recipe seemed a little flexible and vague, so here's what I ended up using as the base ingredients:

3 slider-sized pretzel rolls, diced
4 tablespoons skim milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
3 eggs
pinch of cinnamon

I had some baker's chocolate left from making fudge, so I roughly chopped two pieces:



and I mixed in a handful of raisins:



After I pushed on the bread with the spoon to try to get it to soak up as much of the liquid as possible (you may want to let it sit for a few minutes if you're using dense bread) I split it into two Pyrex 700s, which are tiny little 10 ounce casserole dishes:



and then I put them in the microwave for two and a half minutes, then let them cool for five minutes.

When done, I had decent bread pudding:



Is it the best bread pudding ever? Well, no. It's bread pudding I made in five minutes in the microwave.

If you have some bread to use up, though, or have a craving and don't want to spend 45 minutes baking in the oven, or want to make just enough for one or two people and not a whole pan, this worked out pretty well. I'm thinking of doing a savory breakfast version without the sugar and with bacon bits, a couple of slices of wheat bread, and some shredded cheese.