Breakfast Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 170 grams crusty baguette stale
• 7 ounces sausage meat 
• 3.9 ounces cheddar cheese 
• 0.3 cup cup heavy whipping cream 
• 0.3 cup maple syrup for serving
• 1 cup milk 

Equipment

• bowl
• frying pan
• oven
• whisk
• sieve
• casserole dish
• grater

Directions

1. If you're sausage is in casings, squeeze them out of their casings.
2. Heat a frying pan over medium high heat and cook the sausage, breaking it up into bite-sized chunks, but do not crumble it up too small. Dump the cooked sausage into a metal strainer over the sink to drain off any excess oil and allow it to cool completely.
3. Cut the cheddar into ¼-inch cubes. You can also shred it using a cheese grater, but I like having visible chunks of melted cheddar. In a large bowl, add the eggs, milk, cream, and maple syrup into a bowl and whisk together until smooth.
4. Cut the stale bread into 1 1/2-inch cubes and add it to the egg mixture along with the cooled sausage and cubed cheddar. Gently mix everything together until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the bread and then transfer the mixture to an oven safe casserole dish. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, remove the casserole from the fridge.
5. Put the oven rack in the middle position and pre-heat to 350 degrees F (170 C).
6. Remove the cover and bake the bread pudding until browned on top (about 30-40 minutes).
7. Drizzle with maple syrup and serve hot.