Budin - Costa Rican Baked Pudding - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 medium baguette (about 4 cups) or 1 medium French bread, day old, cut into chunks (about 4 cups)
4 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar (I use half white, half raw)
3 eggs

Preparation

Butter a baking dish, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place bread into large saucepan, add milk and let stand for five minutes.
Add vanilla, cinammon, butter and sugar to the saucepan, then bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and let cool for five minutes.
In separate bowl, beat eggs and set aside.
Place bread mixture in a blender jar (fill only halfway at first, start blender). Then, with blender running, ladle rest of mixture into blender. Process till smooth and return mixture to saucepan.
Take one cup of hot mixture and ladle slowly into beaten eggs to temper them. Then add egg mixture to saucepan. Stir well to incorporate. If adding other ingredients (raisins, coconut, etc) add now.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool to room temp for easy cutting.