Damaeus wrote:

> > Mebbe so, but historical reasons aside, the idea is to have a reduced
> > moisture in the bread so as to better absorb the custard. I rarely
> > actually have "stale" bread around, as it either is eaten or frozen.
> > However, I often buy a fresh loaf for bread pudding or bread and butter
> > pudding, and put slices on a cooling rack to dry out a good bit.
>
> Hmmm. That gives me an idea. I wonder what bread pudding would be like if
> you toast the bread before using it. :-)

Good. I did that last week to make it go stale faster. I don't know if you
would technically call it stale, but I put fresh bread in the toaster just long
enough to warm it up and dry it out a bit, then cubed it. The results were very
good.