Holiday Maple-Bacon Bread Pudding

I LOVE BACON and this was so yummy, I had to share! It's great during the holidays for brunch or dessert and will have your guests begging for the recipe! Be warned - this is not your grandmother's bread pudding! Serves 8-10.

HOLIDAY MAPLE-BACON BREAD PUDDING
6 cups - 1/2" cubes stale bread
4 large eggs
3-1/2 cups - heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 cup 100% pure maple syrup, divided
1-1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. pure vanailla extract, divided
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened + more for preparing the baking pan
1/3 cup coarely chopped toasted pecans, plus more for garnish
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1-1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 lb. bacon, cooked, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly butter a 9x13 baking dish. Pat bacon with paper towel to remove excess grease. Crumble half (8 oz.) of cooked bacon and leave the other half (8 oz.) in strips. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Whisk in 3 cups of the heavy whipping cream, milk, 1/2 cup of maple syrup, brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, pecans, salt, and spices. Add the bread and stir well. Mix in melted butter. Let sit for 30 minutes so the bread will absorb the egg mixture. Stir in the bacon cumbles to the bread mixture.

Pour into the prepared dish. Bake about 1 hour - until firm when pressed in the center. Cool about 20 minutes. Serve with Maple Cream Sauce.

MAPLE CREAM SAUCE:
In a small saucepan, heat the remaining cream, syrup, brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Cook until the sauce just begins to bubble. Remove from head. To serve, cut the bread pudding into 8-10 pieces. After plating, drizzle with the sauce with 1/2 slice of bacon and a small amount of toasted pecans. TIP: You can crumble the rest of the bacon if you don't want to serve slices...