Bacon-Waffle Bread Pudding With Blueberry Syrup

• Waffle Bread Pudding
• Bacon! (I used ~6 pieces but let your conscience be your guide. There's no such thing as too much bacon. No, really.)
• 6-7 cups torn waffles (I used Aretha Frankensteins Waffles of Insane Greatness)
• 8 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup cream
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• butter or bacon grease for the pan
• blueberry syrup (recipe below)
• Bloody Mary
• Blueberry Syrup
• .75 pounds blueberries, rinsed
• 2 cups water, divided
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 1" strips of lemon peel
• .5 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Fry bacon and drain on paper towel. When it's cool enough to handle, chop into ~1/2" pieces. If you would like to, you may go ahead and grease your 8x11 baking pan with leftover bacon fat (recommended!) or with butter.
2. Mix eggs, milk, cream and pepper in a bowl. You should add salt here if you're not using bacon, but I left it out on account of salty-bacon goodness.
3. Put half of the waffle pieces on the bottom of your greased pan and generously sprinkle with bacon pieces. I won't judge if you hum, "It's raining bacon, hallelujah!" under your breath while doing this. I do. Pour half of the eggy mixture on top. Repeat.
4. Cover your pan and refrigerate overnight.
5. The next morning, preheat your oven to 350. Drizzle 1/4-1/2 cup of blueberry syrup over the top and cook until the eggs are set and the pudding is nice and deep brown and puffy - about 70-90 minutes. If the waffles start to get too crispy before the eggs are set, cover with foil for the last bit of cooking.
6. Serve with a Bloody Mary because it's a weekend morning and the pudding is super rich. If you're making this on a weekday, you are far too much of a go-getter and I dislike you on principle. Oh yah, and extra blueberry syrup because, duh.
7. In a pot, combine the blueberries with .5 cup water. Smash up the blueberries and bring to a simmer. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Strain blueberries, pressing on the skins to get as much liquid out as possible. Discard the skins.
8. Rinse de pot. Combine sugar, lemon zests and remaining 1.5 cups water and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.
9. Boil the syrup over medium heat until it registers 225 on a candy thermometer, about 20 minutes. Add blueberry and lemon juices and boil over high heat for 1 minute. Let it cool then discard the lemon peels.
10. Note: The syrup may set up a bit overnight in the fridge. Just pop in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up and thin the consistency.

waffle bread, bacon, torn waffles, eggs, milk, cream, black pepper, butter, syrup, bloody mary, syrup, blueberries, water, sugar, lemon peel, lemon zest, lemon juice

Taken from food52.com/recipes/36309-bacon-waffle-bread-pudding-with-blueberry-syrup (may not work)