Creamy, custardy bread pudding flavored with Asian milk tea will set you off to a great start in the morning. It is also a great way to repurpose leftover stale bread
Grease 9 x 9 baking dish or 1 1/2 to 2 quart baking dish with some oil, cooking spray, or butter
Prepare the tea:
Pour whole milk into a saucepan and bring just until it starts to simmer. Don't let it boil. Turn off the heat and put all the tea bags into the milk and let them steep for 10 minutes.
Then remove the tea bags, squeeze out as much milk as you can from the tea bags and discard. Let the mixture cool down to lukewarm
Prepare the bread pudding:
Cut the stale bread into about 1/2-1 inch cubes. If your bread is fresh, you can bake them in the oven at 350 F (180 C) for about 10 minutes to “dry” them out so they can soak up more custard, which makes the best bread pudding
In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs, milk tea, heavy cream, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt
Add the bread cubes to the egg mixture and let the bread soak for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Make sure they are soaked in the milk mixture.
Transfer to a prepared baking dish
To make ahead: Add the bread cubes to the egg mixture and pour it to the prepared pan. Make sure they are soaked in the milk mixture. Cover with a cling wrap, pop this into the fridge to let them soak overnight and bake the next day.
Baking:
10 minutes before the end of the soaking time, preheat your oven to 375 F (190 C) for conventional oven, 350 F (180 C) for convection oven. If you put it in the fridge overnight, get it out from the fridge about 30 minutes before you plan to bake
Place the pan inside the oven on the middle rack and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the edges are brown and the middle just a bit wobbly. Rotate the pan halfway through baking. The internal temperature at the center should be around 170 F (77 C)
To serve:
Serve the bread pudding warm with drizzle of condensed milk
To store:
Store the already cooled-down bread pudding, covered in cling wrap, in the fridge for about 3 days
How to reheat bread pudding:
You can reheat it in the microwave in a 30 seconds increment. I recommend heating it in the oven. Wrap the bread pudding in aluminum foil and bake at 350 F for about 15 minutes. Uncover the foil and let the top gets crispy again for about 3 minutes