Thanksgiving or Christmas breakfast bread pudding

I am a bread pudding nut, and on these festive holidays, there is nothing nicer than to sit in the kitchen in the morning with the fire on, drinking champagne and smelling the aroma of something cooking slowly in the oven. The beauty of this dish is that it can be prepared up until cooking, the night before and refrigerated until needed.

Serves 4

1 lb good quality pork sausage-meat
6 cups cut or torn up up French bread, about 1/2″ thick
3 cups whole milk
8 large eggs, organic preferably
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 sage leaves
5 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tsp maple sugar
butter for the pan

The night before- cook the pork sausage-meat until it is nicely browned. If the sausage is in links, then remove the casings and crumble the sausage.
Mince the sage and toss it with your torn/cut bread in a large bowl
Whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper then pour it over the bread. Stir it around several times, let it sit, then stir again.
Butter a 9″ by 9″ baking dish.
Stir the bread again. Most of the liquid should be absorbed.
Spread half of the bread mixture in the bottom of the greased baking dish.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage-meat from the pan and spread it over the bread.
Now dot the cream cheese in with the sausage. Top with the remaining bread and pour any unabsorbed custard over the top.
Cover and stick in the fridge overnight. Go to bed.
The next morning…. Preheat the oven to 350 F
Pull the pudding from the fridge and drizzle the maple syrup over it, then sprinkle with the maple sugar.
Put it in the oven. Now it’s going to take a while as it’s dense, so go and enjoy yourself with your family while the aroma slowly seeps around the house.
It will turn a dark golden brown, be crunchy on top and puff up a bit. It might take up to 1 hour 30 mins, but check after 1 hour.
When you think it’s done, take it out of the oven and let it rest for a little bit. This goes really well with mimosas!