Muffin Bread Pudding

As I did not eat up all my muffins from the other day and they got sort of stale, I wanted to see if I could make them into a bread pudding, which I've never made before. According to Joy of Cooking, you can't make muffins into bread pudding, so that made me sad, but I decided to google it before I gave up. SK didn't have anything, but I found a couple random blogs that had recipes, and this one seemed to match what I wanted to do most similarly. The cinnamon in it was really nice, so I would maybe add a bit more next time because I liked it so much. Looking over the recipe, I really didn't even use a lot of what it had, but I got the basics and it turned out pretty well. More cinnamon would have been good, and I guess I could have cooked it for longer, but it was tasty. Especially with some Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream, which will always be my love of loves for simple desserts.

1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups milk
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp almond extract [didn't have]
6 muffins, crumbled (about 4-5 cups) [I only have 5 muffins]
2 Tbl butter, melted [didn't use and didn't even see until now...]
1/2 cup raisins (optional) [didn't use]
1/2 cup slivered almonds, chopped [didn't use]

1. preheat oven to 350 f. spray or lightly butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.
2. beat together sugar, eggs, and milk in a medium size bowl.
3. beat in cinnamon, nutmeg, and almond extract.
4. add crumbled muffins to the pan.  carefully toss with optional raisins.
5. pour melted butter over muffins.  add milk mixture and sprinkle with almonds.
6. bake for about 45 minutes until top is crusty and pudding looks set and is firm to the touch.
7. cut into slices while in the pan.  serve plain or with suggested accompaniments.