Pumpkin Pie Bread Pudding

Yes! More bread pudding. There was a LOT of leftover bread. This Bread Pudding is a sweeter version than the Sausage Pudding from the other day. It tastes a lot like French Toast, with the added benefit of a vegetable. Hooray for pumpkin puree! Is there anything that you can't be snuck into?I took inspiration from two sources for this recipe:
1.) pumpkin pie bread pudding from barefoot kitchen witch

2.)pumpkin bread pudding from bakedbree.com

I just sort of smashed the 2 recipes together. The biggest change was that I cooked it at a higher temp. I hate really gummy bread pudding. If you are looking for a dish that is going to be crispy on top, this is not it. Even in reheating the leftovers I couldn't get a toasted crouton like top. The pudding goes from soft to burnt. There is no in between.

Blockette was happy. She prefers the softer version of bread pudding. She was happy that there were no crunchy bits on top. Even though I like the toastier versions of bread pudding, this recipe was really delicious. If you have a major sweet tooth you could add syrup. It is completely unnecessary though. The dish is tasty enough to stand on its own.

Here's what I did:

Pumpkin Bread pudding

8 cups of cubed bread (I used a combo of white, wheat and cinnamon raisin because that's what I had on hand. Go crazy and use whatever floats your boat.)

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c maple syrup (I used the fake stuff and it tasted fine)

4 eggs

2 c milk

1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree

1/2 T vanilla

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp salt

1 c chopped toasted pecans

topping:

2 T sugar

2 T turbinado sugar (I don't know that this is necessary, but it does crystallize nicely on the top of the finished dish. I only had some because I like to "liberate" packets from places that sell coffee.)

1 T cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 375. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Stir 2 sugars and cinnamon in a small bowl to make the topping. Set this aside. In a large bowl combine brown sugar, syrup and eggs. Add milk, pumpkin, vanilla, spice and salt. Combine. Add bread to the goo and stir to coat. Let the bread soak up the goodness for about 15 min or so. Fold in the toasted pecans. (Mrblocko says "Raisins would be a tasty addition to this dish." Personally, I only like raisins in savory dishes, oatmeal cookies, or by themselves. I don't even like them in cinnamon bread. If you do, feel free to add a cup of your favorite shriveled grape!) Pour the bread-y mixture into the prepared dish. Sprinkle the topping mixture evenly over the top. Bake for about 40-60 min until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly before serving so you don't burn the roof of your mouth for heaven's sake!