Bread pudding (Pudina tal-hobz)

In our house, sometimes, there's so much bread that we could feed a small army. However, since no hungry army ever showed up, we end up wasting the bread and it is a pity.
In these times when people go hungry even in first world countries, food wasting is not something to be proud of.
So, I have been looking at almost whole loaf of bread and thinking what to do. Then it dawned on me, bread pudding!
Usually, this pudding is eaten in winter, but trust me, after you pop it in the fridge it can be a real treat on a hot summer day.
Thanking my mother in law for the recipe, I'm sharing it with all of you who stop by.


Ingredients:


1 stale loaf of bread (or bread rolls, baguette, whatever makes up about 400 grams)
1 heaped cup of flour (plain or self-raising)
5 tbsp of sugar (I used Demerara sugar)
1 egg
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 heaped tbsp mixed spice
1 heaped tbsp cinnamon
handful of dried raisins
10-12 glacee cherries
about 2x5cm lemon, orange and mandarin peel, diced
handful of hazelnuts
10 dates, roughly chopped
4 tbsp candied peel
30 ml of brandy, whisky or bourbon (optional)
some butter for greasing the baking dish (if you're using non-stick dish, you can omit the butter)


Method:


Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Tear the bread into chunks and soak in plenty of water for 15 minutes.
Squeeze out as much water as you can and put the bread into a mixing bowl. Knead well with your hands, so there are no lumps. Add the rest of the ingredients (in no particular order) and mix well with a wooden spoon until you have the consistency of a lumpy porridge.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish, level the top with a spoon and loosely cover the dish with foil.
Bake for 40 minutes like that and then remove the foil and return to the oven for additional 15-20 minutes, so the top gets little crust.
Let it completely cool in the baking dish before serving.