French Toast Bread Pudding

I got this recipe from my recent House Beautiful.  I didn't want to make dinner, and I didn't have that much to make it with, so when I got this in the mail I thought I would give it a try.  It was really good.  (but took a ton longer than french toast!)

French Toast Bread Pudding

Preheat oven to 350

1 loaf of thickly sliced bread

(she said Challah bread, I had a loaf of Ciabatta and it worked fine!)

8 Large Eggs

5 cups milk (I used 1 %)

1 Tbsp freshly grated orange zest (I used dried)

3 Tbsp Honey

(next time I am going to use maple syrup, The honey didn't mix in, and I think maple syrup would make more sense in french toast rather than honey)

1 tsp Vanilla

1/4 tsp Salt

1. Place bread in 2 layers in a 9x13x2 inch pan
2. In a large bowl beat eggs, then add milk, honey, orange zest, vanilla and salt mix thoroughly.  Pour mixture over bread press the bread to soak completely.
3. Place the filled baking dish in a larger roasting pan, add hot tap water to the roasting pan, to come an inch up the side of the baking dish.  Cover the roasting pan tight with tin foil, tenting it so that the foil doesn't touch the pudding.  Make two cuts in the foil.  Bake 40-45 minutes then remove foil and bake another 45 minutes until the custard is set and the pudding puffs.  ( I had to bake mine about 30 extra minutes because when I put a knife in it came out all wet, I used a deeper baking dish.) 
4. Let cool slightly, then cut into squares and serve with maple syrup and powdered sugar if desired!