Some time ago, I made two babkas filled with chocolate chips, Nutella and pecans. I gave away one, but only ate a few slices from the second loaf before freezing away the rest. After spending three days on preparing and cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving, I didn’t want to invest more time and energy on a dessert, so I went scrounging through the freezer and pantry, to find out what I had available already.
I found the frozen babka and decided to make bread pudding. Instead of making a vanilla custard sauce to serve over the pudding, I warmed up some leftover caramel sauce.
I ended up having enough babka to make two small and one medium bread pudding. Each small pudding served two while the medium pudding was enough for four generous servings. A tasty transformation of leftovers out of the freezer with little effort.
Chocolate, Nutella and Pecan Babka Bread Pudding – serves 4
4 cups cubed babka
1 cup 2 % milk
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk ** (or 3 tbsp sugar)
1 tbsp sugar (optional as the babkas weren’t too sweet)
1 tbsp margarine or 1 tbsp melted butter
1-2 tsp vanilla extract.
2 eggs
** Leftover sweetened condensed milk used cause it was available
Divide up the babka cubes among 2 unbuttered mini aluminum foil pans.
Warm up milk, stir in condensed milk, sugar and margarine until the sugar and margarine has dissolved. Let cool in the fridge, then stir in vanilla and eggs and whisk well.
Pour over the bread cubes, cover and let the custard soak into the babka cubes in the fridge overnight.
Next day, preheat the oven to 350 deg Fahrenheit.
Place the pans in a larger container, fill to about half way up the pans with hot water and bake the puddings for 30-40 min or until the custard is no longer wet in the middle.
Slice and serve with ice cream or a vanilla custard sauce.
ETA: Although you can use frozen babka to make the bread pudding, I do NOT recommend freezing the finished/leftover bread pudding. On thawing, it ends up soggy and unappealing.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
Babka is such an awesome word. Babka Babka Babka Babka. What exactly is babka? And where do you buy it?
Click on the link above to see the post where I made 2 babkas.
Not sure but ‘baba’ means old woman or grandmother in various Europan countries). It’s a very melodic name, isn’t it?
As to where to buy it … check out if there are any Central and Eastern Europe bakeries in your area and give them a call. I’m a firm believer in ‘letting your fingers do the walking’. Maybe find a Jewish bakery. 🙂