Heat oven to 350° F.

Slice up bread or pastry into even slices or chunks.

Mix up the binder: the glue that unites, and flavors, your bread. We start with the eggs. Don't worry too much about this step -- the bread will absorb most of the liquid you give it, and whatever's left at the end you'll just pour over the top.

Next comes the sweetener. I used white granulated sugar, but feel free to sub in molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup. For 5 eggs, I used one cup of sugar, but the amount depends completely on your tastes.

Next, add in your milk-like liquid. You really shouldn't use anything with less fat than whole milk. You're already making bread pudding, for goodness sake, you might as well do it right. If you want to up the indulgence factor, feel free to swap out half the milk for heavy cream. If you want to be everyone in the entire world's best friend, switch out some of the milk for melted ice cream. If you're avoiding dairy, almond and soy milks are also fine substitutes. I used almond milk this time.

You want the amount of milk-like liquid to be about equal to the amount of beaten eggs. If you want your bread pudding to have a more custard-like texture, add in less milk. If you prefer it gooey, add in a bit more.

Bread pudding is a very personal thing, and you must use the flavors and textures you enjoy the most.

For my apple chocolate chip rum version, I added in about a shot's worth of dark rum. It adds that sense of a caramelized, rich flavor in the background of each bite, but don't actually detect the booze itself. You can also use bourbon or grand marnier but steer clear of floral or clear liquids.

Add in a dash of salt, do not forget to do this!

At this point you could toss in the grated zest of an orange, a teaspoon of vanilla, a splash of almond extract, or a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg. Just remember less is more.

Pour the wet ingredients evenly over the bread. Toss to make sure it's all coated evenly.

Now's time to add your "chunks." you can skip this step if it's not appealing to you. I added in apples and chocolate chips, but you can add in nuts, raisins or other dried fruit.

Leave the bread mixture alone for 30 minutes so that the liquid has time to absorb.

Butter your pan. I prefer using butter instead of the spray or oil.

Sprinkle your buttered pan with some sugar. When you bake your bread pudding, the bottom will caramelize into a delicious, sticky crust. If you want more of a crunchy bottom à la lasagna, stick your sugared pan in the preheated oven for a few minutes until the sugar melts and begins to turn brown. Once this happens, take it out and pour in your bread mixture.

If there's an excess of liquid leftover, pour it over the top of the bread -- it'll turn into custard, which is never a bad thing.

Bake the bread pudding until, when you pull it apart slightly with a fork, no liquid comes out. This should be about 30 to 45 minutes depending on the size, but start checking it after 20 minutes. If the bread browns too much, cover the pudding with tin foil and continue baking.