Maltese Bread Pudding - pudina tal-hobz

Bread pudding is a great way to use up any stale bread you may have. You can use lemon or orange peel, any type of nuts, and rasins , sultanas, coconut or  any type of candied peel. The fun part is that you can really add anything you want. The pudding can be eaten warm, with custard on top, or cold. This is a really fun dessert to make. There is  a recipe in Maltese on Ghandi Pjacir where I got my inspiration!

Ingredients
1500 gms of 2 day old white bread
(or 2 loaves)
¼ litre milk
1 glass dark rum
(or brandy)
3 eggs (beaten)
100 gms  sultanas or rasins
3 tbs cocoa powder
3 tbs sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
50 gms  butter
grated rind of 1 lemon
50 gms (or 1.76 oz) candied orange peel or glace cherries
1 cup pine nuts (optional)

Method
Soak the bread in water and immediately squeeze out the excess.

Place all ingredients into a large bowl and mix together well.
Turn into a greased tin and bake for 1 hour at 190-200°C.
Pudding is ready when a kinfe inserted into it comes out clean.