Extreme bread pudding

I've been searching for a good bread pudding recipe for my whole life, and I finally figured it out myself. My husband and I took his mother out to eat for Mother's Day. I like to go to locally owned restaurants that make their food from scratch, partly so that I can get ideas for cooking at home. When it was time for dessert, the waiter described this bread pudding that sounded out of this world -- he said they made it with their homemade bread and their creme brulee. I ordered it without hesitation and was so terribly disappointed. There was way too much bread, and the bread tasted terrible. It made me wonder if they stretch the definition of homemade. Maybe he just said baked fresh or something that made me think of homemade, but really it was a frozen bread dough or something. I didn't eat much of the pudding at all, but it gave me an idea for making my own. Frankly, I can't believe I never thought of it sooner. Everyone loves my créme brulée pie, so I simply made a couple of adjustments and came up with this!

1/3 to 1/2 loaf of bread

2 cups goat milk (or whole cow's milk)

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 eggs

1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Cube bread and place in buttered 9 X 9 baking dish. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of bread. Mix milk, sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a blender on low for about 15 seconds. Pour over bread crumbs. Bake in 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

I like adding the chocolate chips because I like chocolate, and honestly, it doesn't take much chocolate to satisfy a craving. You wind up with six or seven chocolate chips on each serving, which means you get a bit of chocolate in every bite, and that makes me happy!

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