Use any of your favorite fruit jam, jelly, or preserves you have stashed away in your pantry to create this creamy decadent Fruit Jam Bread Pudding dessert.

I’m not going to claim this recipe is healthy. No. It’s quite the opposite. I suppose eggs and milk are healthy, but you can easily find people who will argue the opposite. In addition to those two ingredients, we have ourselves white bread, peach jam, and lots of butter – not healthy. But fortunately, I’m one of those “everything in moderation” folks and as long as I don’t eat the entire pan of bread pudding in one sitting, I can easily rationalize that there’s nothing wrong with this treat!

Last summer I attempted to make peach jam during my peach canning frenzy. Actually, it was peach vanilla bean jam because I usually like to throw a vanilla bean in anything that benefits from the amazing flavor of vanilla. Alas, I screwed something up and my jam never set properly. This hasn’t stopped my kids from loving it, but I didn’t want to give any of it away (which I often do with homemade canned goods) because it was super runny. The taste was amazing – it just didn’t turn out as I had expected. Fortunately it worked perfectly in this bread pudding!

You basically make a bread, butter, and jelly sandwich. Sounds pretty darn perfect, doesn’t it?

Then you cover it with an egg and milk mixture with a few extra added goodies to make it amazing. This soaks into the bread and makes the most creamy, decadent custard. Sprinkle some extra sugar on top because… you don’t really need a reason, do you?

Then bake until it’s set and you have the most delicious smelling golden brown perfection.

Then all that’s left is for you to put a fork in it! You can most certainly serve this bread pudding with a hefty scoop of vanilla ice cream or heavenly whipped cream, but I was too impatient and just dug right in sans the heavy cream. It was wonderful. I think this stuff tastes best warm out of the oven, but I won’t judge if you eat the leftovers cold for breakfast.

Use any of your favorite fruit jam, jelly, or preserves you have stashed away in your pantry to create this creamy decadent Fruit Jam Bread Pudding dessert.

Ingredients

12 ounces bread I used Trader Joe's par baked panini
1 cube butter plus more to grease dish
1 jar of fruit jam I used homemade peach vanilla jam
4 cups whole milk
6 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon Grand Marnier
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Additional sugar for sprinkling over top before baking

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Grease 9" x 12" baking pan generously with butter.
Make sandwiches of bread, butter, and jam.
Cut sandwiches into quarters and arrange loosely in a greased baking dish.
In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, Grand Marnier and pure vanilla extract. Pour over sandwich quarters.
Generously sprinkle top with sugar and bake 40-45 minutes in preheated oven until the custard is set and the top crust looks golden brown.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if desired.