Bread Pudding with Pears

This is one of the best tasting dishes,
a simple egg bread pudding to make.
It goes together quickly into the oven.
A sweet dessert bread pudding that tastes
great served warm or cold with ice cream.
The top gets all nice cinnamon brown.
You can omit the raisins if you wish.
I like the way the pears stay on top
and there's a creamy pudding below.

Ingredients:
2 fresh pears
4 cups stale bread, cubed
1/2 cup dried raisins
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup cinnamon sugar for top
3 large eggs
1-1/2 cups milk, or more
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
vegetable shortening for preparing dish
along with 1 tablespoon flour

Directions:
Prepare baking dish by coating with
shortening and flour, set aside.
Cut crust off of bread and cube,
place bread in baking dish.
Peel and core pears, cube and add
to the bread in baking dish.
In a seperate bowl combine eggs,
milk, sugar, vanilla and salt.
Pour into baking dish to allow for
the bread to soak it up some.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Press down the bread with a fork.
Add more milk if needed to just
cover all of the bread and pears.
Sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar.
Cover and bake for about 1 hour.
Remove to cool some before serving.