Panettone Bread Pudding

Recently, there was a 50% off sale on holiday items at World Market. Holiday bake mixes, chocolates, cookies, candies, etc. were all included in the sale. My family bought a loaf of panettone for only a few dollars and we've eaten it by itself, as french toast, and now bread pudding. One loaf is about 1 pound and even now, I still have some left... Anyways, the bread is sweet and fragrant with the dried fruits baked within it so no extra flavors really need to be added when making break pudding. I looked at Giada De Laurentiis' recipe, which can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/panettone-bread-pudding-with-cinnamon-syrup-recipe/index.html but adapted it to my tastes. Her recipe calls for a large amount of sugar and makes a pretty large serving size so if you want a smaller and less sweet recipe, try out my adaptation:

Panettone Bread Pudding

*I made 3 small individual bowls of bread pudding but you can use a larger baking dish to make one whole pudding*

1/4 of a loaf of panettone bread
3 eggs
15 Tbsps of whole milk
10 Tbsps of half-and-half
6 tsps of granulated sugar
butter

1. Grease three small baking dishes with butter.
2. Cut the panettone into roughly 1-inch cubes and place the cubes into the dishes.
3. Whisk the eggs, milk, half-and-half, and sugar in a separate bowl to make the custard.*
4. Pour the custard over the bread cubes and lightly press the cubes into the liquid to help the bread soak up the mixture.
5. Let the bread continue to soak up the custard for around 15 minutes** and preheat the oven to 350°F.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes (the bread pudding will rise/puff up and when the center is set, it's done)

*I whisked the ingredients together in a measuring cup so that pouring the mixture would be easier.
**Giada's recipe sets aside 30 minutes for the bread to soak up the custard but I couldn't wait that long and the bread pudding still tasted delicious after 15 minutes of absorption time. However, I would recommend letting the bread sit in the mixture for a longer period of time if you're using drier/stale bread.

Note: I didn't make any type of syrup to pour over the bread pudding since I thought the pudding was sweet enough by itself. But if you prefer a much sweeter dessert, add more sugar and syrup!