Key Lime Bread Pudding

3/4 loaf french bread, cubed
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 large can frozen margarita mix
Juice of 2 limes
2/3 cup sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray pan with cooking spray. Put bread cubes in pan. In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese, margarita mix, juice from the limes, sugar and condensed milk. Add eggs one at a time while continuing to mix. Pour over bread, stirring well so all bread is soaked. Let sit a few minutes so all bread gets soggy. Put pan in a larger roaster pan, and fill roaster with water about halfway. Cover larger roasting pan tightly with aluminum foil.

*Bake for about 75-90 minutes. Refrigerate for about 2 hours. Meanwhile, whip the cream with confectioners sugar until light and fluffy. Serve cold with whipped cream on top.

*Caution: The water in the roasting pan will be extremely hot when you pull it from the oven. Be careful that it doesn’t slosh out and burn you. Also, since you are steaming the bread pudding, please be careful of steam burns when you remove the aluminum foil.

This recipe is courtesy of The Hill Hangout. Blogger Ashley Hill previously owned Fishes & Loaves restaurant in Meridian, Mississippi. Her Key Lime Bread Pudding came about at the request of a South Carolina client who was having a dinner party. “She said she’d had it in some swanky place in Charleston and described the taste and texture to me,” says Hill. “I decided to see what I could do with it. When I delivered it to her, I asked her to taste it, and she said mine was better!”