Puerto Rican Bread Pudding Recipe

So when I was at my Mother's house for the holidays I made some Challah bread french toast for breakfast.   By the time I came back from shopping at Publix for the ingredients half of the people I was planning to feed had left the house to go shopping and surfing.   I made my challah bread french toast which was AMAZING but I had some extra ingredients.   Specifically I had an extra loaf of Challah bread.   

For those of you who have not eaten challah bread it is delicious.  It is eggy and wonderful.   So I thought to myself what can I do with an extra loaf of challah bread that would be delicious...

hmmmm.....

PUERTO RICAN BREAD PUDDING YUM

Puerto Rican Bread Pudding is one of those dishes that I grew up with and reminds me of being a kid.  A delicious dessert that is absolutely to die for.   My mother used to make it whenever I had to send food to school for a party or something like that.    I simply adore bread pudding.  ADORE...A DORE

The recipe that my mother used was from Carmen Ahoy Valldejuli's Cocina Criolla.   Here is a pic of the recipe from the book

Now the recipe is amazing but Carmen Valldejuli had a tendency to use too much sugar.   So the changes I made to this recipe are quite simple:

USE A LOAF OF CHALLAH BREAD

ADD RAISINS (not too many but maybe a small box you give a kid to go to school with)

HALF THE SUGAR

And boom.   Pure deliciousness.  I added a special touch of a smiley face to make it not only yummy but something that makes ya smile :) xoxo

Pic of the smiley puerto rican bread pudding out of the oven:

Picture of the mix before putting it in the baking dish

YUM YUM

PUERTO RICAN BREAD PUDDING