Bread pudding is one of those classic repurposed dishes for leftover bread, like French toast or strata. It’s something that appeals as a homemade dessert because of its simplicity for the cook: cut the bread into cubes and cover it with a sweet, eggy custard before baking. Well, it just got easier—and a little more festive, too.

Bread pudding should be decadent and buttery, marbled with a soft and flavorful custard. Most recipes will tell you to cut the bread into cubes and place them in a large, wide baking dish. This arrangement ensures that the bread makes lots of contact with the custard and soaks it up. Unfortunately, I have found that this method results in a dry, dull bread pudding. The surface is so exposed that the bread pudding ends up more crusty than custardy.

My easy bread pudding takes advantage of two perfectly compatible items: the pre-sliced bread in your grocery store and the loaf pan in your kitchen. Prepare to be surprised: Small loaves of sliced bread fit perfectly into the average loaf pan. It’s as if they were made for each other. A whole sleeve of sliced cinnamon raisin bread, or (my favorite) Thomas’ croissant bread, fits easily into an average loaf pan (an eight- or nine-inch by five-inch pan) with just enough room to accommodate a rich custard. It completely eliminates the need to cut your bread into cubes.

I also use a water bath in my recipe. The deeper bowl of a loaf pan combined with the gentle heat of a water bath prevents the custard from overcooking and becoming rubbery, creating a soft, pudding-like texture.