cranberry pumpkin croissant bread pudding

Look at this. Thanksgiving hasn’t even happened yet and I’ve already got leftovers on the brain.

Here’s the thing — the holiday is tomorrow. You’ve already got everything planned and ready to roll (and if not, this should help you out). You’re already dreaming of turkey and mashed potatoes in your sleep. You don’t need any more ideas of what else to stuff inside a turkey or stir into a sweet potato casserole or spoon on top of pie.

No. What you need is breakfast.

The idea for bread pudding made with croissants came to me in a moment of mild panic — we were packing up/playing a game of Tetris with our cooler (I had a lot of food I wanted to bring for our move, OK?) and I came across a bag of leftover homemade croissants, leftover frozen pumpkin puree and leftover frozen cranberries. Being that one of my biggest fears in life (besides spiders and clowns and the thought of face-planting on a treadmill) is wasting food and our industrial-size cooler was already busting at the seams, I knew something had to be done. Enter this bread pudding.

Allow me to elaborate on the magic that is this delicious breakfast: It’s made with torn buttery croissants that are then doused in a sweet pumpkin sauce and sprinkled with fresh, tart cranberries and baked up into soft, gooey perfection. It tastes like the holidays in breakfast form. Oh, it’s also ridiculously easy to make. And I’m guessing you’ll have some form of all of the above ingredients leftover from tomorrow’s meal and a gathering of hungry guests the following morning, so… problem solved. You can save the extra turkey and stuffing now for lunch.

Oh, and have a very happy Thanksgiving, ya’ll. I’ll see you at breakfast.

Cranberry Pumpkin Croissant Bread Pudding
Recipe adapted from Food Network

Yields: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

6-8 day-old croissants (enough to fill a 1 1/2-quart baking dish), torn into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place torn croissants in a 1 1/2-quart baking dish (add enough to nearly fill the dish to the top). Top evenly with cranberries.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, pumpkin, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Pour mixture evenly over croissants. Bake until set and golden brown, about 1 hour. Serve warm.

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