This is old fashioned bread pudding or rice pudding. It works well with any amount of left-over bread or rice. My mom used to make this a lot when we were little. She never used a recipe for it. It was never exactly the same, but it was always so good.
This is especially good with homemade bread that is a couple of days old, but actually works well with ANY kind of bread. You can think of it as French toast in a bowl.
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Crumble or break the bread into chucks and put it into a buttered casserole dish or deep oven-proof bowl… hmm, maybe somewhere between 4 and 6 cups of bread.
Estimate the size of the bowl. You want enough egg and milk to cover the bread.
Use about 1 egg per cup of milk, then I add one extra egg for good measure. Use an egg beater to beat them together.
(You want between 1 and 2 eggs per cup of milk, if you want to be exacting,
1 egg per ¾ c. of milk, but you have a lot of flexibility).
I think I usually end up using a little more than a quart of milk and about 6 eggs.
Add a bit more milk if the bread isn’t covered. Then give it a stir or two.
Next add sugar (about a cup) and cinnamon (this is to taste… maybe a teaspoon), and, if you like them, some raisins; gently mix it all in. You can sprinkle more sugar and cinnamon on top as desired.
Finally, place lots of small pieces of butter on the top. Put it in the oven and bake for an hour. Let it cool for several minutes before serving.
Rice Pudding: You can make rice pudding the same way, except use left-over cooked rice and be sure to crumble it. I usually use about 3 or 4 c. rice, enough milk/egg mix to cover it (same as before, maybe around a quart of milk and around 6 eggs. Add more milk to cover the rice if needed. A little extra milk and egg won’t hurt it. Then add maybe 1 c. sugar, ½ c. to 1 c. raisins, and cinnamon to taste, butter the bowl and put pieces of butter on top. First time you make it start with this, and the next time, you can adjust it to your taste.