Blueberry Vanilla Bean Bread Pudding

This recipe is incredibly simple and quick to throw together. Some of my bread pudding recipes are loaded with a long list of ingredients, but this one requires just a handful of basic pantry/fridge staples and some berries. Everything comes together beautifully to create a dish that can be served for breakfast, brunch or dessert.

If you have some day-old bread, milk, eggs and sugar, you have the foundation for bread pudding. From there, it's pretty much just about flavoring(s) and any add-ins that suit your fancy. I love the combination of blueberries, lemon and vanilla. (Here, I've utilized a vanilla bean to amp up the vanilla flavor, but a good-quality vanilla extract would work wonderfully, as well.)

Whether you serve this hot out of the oven, at room temperature or cold out of the fridge is entirely up to you. I have found that most people who enjoy bread pudding have an opinion on which of the three they prefer. So, it's totally up to you.

Yields 6 - 8 servings.

Blueberry Scones with Lemon Drizzle Glaze

Blueberries and lemons collide in this simple-to-make scone recipe. The dough itself requires just a handful of basic pantry ingredients - flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Fresh lemon zest added to the dough perfumes the scones with a hint of citrus. The addition of butter and cream make these scones super flaky and tender. Blueberries get folded in, then eventually burst into juicy perfection during baking. Once cooled, a simple powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze gets drizzled atop each scones - this is the component that really drives home the tart, zippy, citrus notes.

These scones are just divine. I kick myself every time I make these that I didn't double the recipe. Maybe that's actually a good thing. With a good dose of heavy cream and lovely little bits of real butter, they probably aren't the healthiest thing I could be eating. But, they sure are heavenly, flaky triangles of loveliness.

Regarding the blueberries, I have made this recipe with both fresh and frozen blueberries. Either works great. If I use fresh, I do pop them in the freezer for about thirty minutes prior to incorporating into the dough. This helps the blueberries "hold up" a little better during the mixing and baking process so that the dough doesn't become too discolored. If using frozen, bagged blueberries, use them straight from the freezer.

Yields 6 - 8 scones {depending on how big you choose to cut them}.