Fuel Diner Bread Pudding

A couple of friends and I started Fuel Diner. Our goal is to feed the hungry in our neighborhood. We've got some repeat customers (they don't pay) and are looking with great anticipation to feeding more.

One of our goals is to not be a stereotypical soup kitchen. I don't even like those two words together. We have a lot of fun coming up with recipes and some of our best could not be repeated if we wanted to. Karen is absolutely amazing at taking leftovers and turning them into masterpieces.

A few weeks ago I made bread pudding not realizing that Karen had made bread pudding while I was in South Africa. Now there is a running joke about bread pudding in the Diner.

I was really thrilled with how this bread pudding turned out, so I made sure I had everything written down. The fun thing about it is just about anything will work in it.

Fuel Diner Bread Pudding (according to Nancy)

The equal to 4 or more loaves of bread. You need to have at least 2 inches worth of bread on the bottom of your 24 x 16 pan. I used Country French, Sourdough, Italian Wheat, and Sweet Italian.
1 gallon milk
5 sticks of butter, softened to room temperature
16 eggs
5 cups granulated sugar
8 Tablespoons vanilla
4 cups brown sugar

Crumble the bread into a bowl. Pour milk over it and let stand for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 24-by-16-by-3 inch pan with 4 tablespoons of butter.

In another bowl, beat together 12 eggs, the granulated sugar and the vanilla. Stir this mixture into the bread mixture.

Pour into prepared baking pan and bake until browned and set. This could take about an hour and 30 minutes, depending on your oven.

To make the sauce, melt the remaining butter on the stove top. Add the brown sugar and stir together until the sugar has dissolved and is extremely hot. Don't let it burn. Stir it constantly.
Remove from heat. Beat the remaining 4 eggs and stir them quickly into the sugar mixture.

Pour the sauce over the pudding and serve.

Depending on how it is cut it can make at least 45 servings.

I didn't say it was healthy, but it is really good.

Hunger

I'm sitting here listening to Outside The Camp practice and, while they are excellent musicians, they are extremely loud. So, if there are any mistakes in this post it will be their fault.

The following statistics come from UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. I found them through Compassion International. My comments are in italics.

• 925 million people worldwide are chronically hungry - almost one in seven. Almost 73 million people in the United States of America are obese.
  

• 75% of the world's hungry live in rural areas, primarily in villages in Africa and Asia.

• 146 million children in developing countries are underweight, the result of chronic and acute hunger. And here in the USA we can find news stories everyday about our children being obese. One out of three are considered overweight or obese.
  

• 17 million children each year are born underweight, "inheriting" malnutrition from their undernourished mothers. Malnourished mothers have trouble breastfeeding their babies and in developing countries other feeding options aren't readily available.
  

• 7.7 million children die each year before age 5. In 53% of these deaths malnutrition is a factor. One child is too many. It is completely unacceptable.
  

The effects of hunger on the body:

• Normal growth is compromised.
• Physical activity is difficult.
• Resistance to disease is lessened.
• Learning ability is diminished.

The following are the numbers that really got to me.
Nutrition Comparisons: On average, the body needs at least 2,100 calories per day to allow for a normal, healthy life.

In 2007, these three countries averaged the most calories consumed per person per day:

• United States - 3,770
• Austria - 3,760
• Greece - 3,700

These three countries where Compassion works have the least calories consumed per person per day:

• Haiti - 1,850
• Ethiopia - 1,950
• Tanzania - 2,020

There's more than a tad bit of difference there.

Click here to find out how you can make a difference in the life of a child.