Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Bread pudding to die for
Does it seem like I’m posting lots of recipes lately? Don’t hear no one complainin’.
This is the Dubai Deal of bread pudding recipes: it feels all wrong, but it tastes so good. Do you suppose that’s why the Bush Administration wants to sell our ports to the United Arab Emirates company — because those UAE guys taste so good? Is that how these closed room deals are made? It makes as much sense as any other explanation I’ve heard.
First, let me explain why this recipe rocks. Most bread puddings are heavy — nay, leaden. Karen’s recipe is much more akin to a souffle than a pound of lead shot. It’s crispy GBD* on top, light and moist inside. With a nice bourbon cream sauce, it’s heaven, and no, I can’t eat it, cannot cannot cannot. But I can dream.
Amounts are approximate. Like me, Karen never measures.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Extras (whatever you like: lemon peel, orange peel — whatever strikes your fancy)
Mix these ingredients well, and set aside. Cut the crust off several slices of white sandwich bread. Wonder Bread works fine. Just the cheapest damned icky white bread you wouldn’t serve to your dog. You should feel ashamed even buying such a loaf of bread, and you should be anxiously telling the check-out person that it’s for ducks, and, yes, you realize even ducks shouldn’t eat this bread, but there you have it.
Do not make this with French bread or anything else you would feed a human. We tried it once, and it was too heavy.
Take the crustless slices and cut them into small cubes of bread, perhaps 1/2 inch on a side, and fill your ramekins with the bread cubes, not quite to the top. If you want dried fruit in your bread pudding (raisins, currants, dried cherries, and so forth), sprinkle these in as you add the bread. Any fruit on top will tend to burn.
Now add your liquid mixture, filling the ramekins not quite to the level of the bread. I can’t tell you how many slices of bread to use, or how many ramekins you’ll need. That depends on your needs and the size of your ramekins. You can always make more of the liquid mixture if you need to do so — it’s an easy recipe.
Karen does not butter the ramekins, but she does dot the tops of the bread puddings with butter, and then she sprinkles granulated sugar over the tops, too. That helps give it a crunchy crust.
Bake until GBD. How long you need to bake will, of course, depend upon the size of your ramekins. The internal temperature should be 170 to 180F. With our sort of largish ramekins, we sometimes need to bake for close to an hour.
Serve as is, or with a custard sauce, or with a whiskey sauce. As for the latter, I cannot improve upon the bourbon cream sauce from The Commander’s Kitchen cookbook:
(Scale down as needed.)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup bourbon
“Bring cream to a boil, combine the cornstarch and water, and add the mixture to the boiling cream, stirring constantly. Return to a boil, then reduce heat and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn the mixture. Add the sugar and bourbon, and stir. Let cool to room temperature.”
Let me emphasize that this bread pudding recipe is so good, the bourbon cream sauce is unnecessary. A good quality vanilla ice cream is more than sufficient.
But.
Still.
If you want to do it right . . .
You know what to do.
D.
*GBD: golden brown and delicious. Don’t you watch Alton Brown?
I’m gonna make it, I’m gonna get a digital photo of it, and I’m gonna eat it, then I’m gonna post the photo (with link). And NO ONE is gonna stop me. Oh shit, it’s almost Lent.
Ooo! Ooo! I’m gonna make this!
And then when I gain 5 lbs, I’m gonna blame you!
Further notes from Karen:
This is an approximate recipe (haven’t I already made that clear?)
There are only two ways to screw this up.
(1) If you cook it too hot (e.g., 375 is too hot), the custard part solidifies and leaves a watery layer behind. Don’t do this.
(2) If you don’t cook it long enough, the center won’t cook fully. Use an instant read thermometer, or do the old stick-a-skewer-into-the-middle routine (if it comes out clean, you’re done).
Otherwise . . . it’s a piece of cake!
Which reminds me. Must make chocolate cake this weekend. Karen had a birthday this week and I promised her chocolate cake.
Over here “bread pudding” is a cakey stodgy (but yummy) dish. What you describe is what we would call Bread and Butter Pudding, despite the lack of butter (all that cream should be plenty).
The last B&B Pud that I made featured raisins soaked in eau de vie (de pruneaux, as it happens, but de noix would have been stonking). The real magic ingredient was, however, the bread. You are so right about good bread making the dish stodgy, but try it with pannetone. Scorchio.
I meant to say, I made your Rudelach the other day and it went down a treat! Used pecans and was asked twice for the recipe :o)
I’ll be making this too!
omigod – This looks delicious. Copied & saved already – and now it seems I need to check out your Rudelach and a few other things.
THANKS for posting this! (sigh) I so love good food & recipes.
Here’s the URL for the rugelach post. Since Jona spelled it wrong (JONA . . .!) you would have a devil of a time searching for it. I haven’t categorized last December yet.
Stephen, pannetone sounds like a wonderful idea. It has the same airiness as Wonder Bread with one hundred times the flavor. Trouble is, we can only find pannetone in the grocery store near Christmas. I could, of course, try to make my own pannetone. There’s a thought.
Those of you who make this, let me know what you think.
I add dried fruit like cranberries when I make this stuff.
I LOVE bread pudding. In New Orleans, there are dozens of variations at different restaurants including a to-die-for Bananas Foster Bread Pudding. Darn you, Doug, for sharing this recipe when I’m being so good on my diet. Must make.
Hmmm… I’ve already invited friends for dinner tomorrow night. That can be my out. I’ll make it for them and then I won’t have loads of leftovers in the house to pig out on.
Justifications are a wonderful!
Bananas Foster bread pudding sounds great.
This morning, Karen suggested using croissants instead of pannetone. I might try that tonight.
*sigh* Just shaddup about the bread pudding. I love, love, love bread pudding, & I’m drooling here, but it would kill me to make it. Nobody else in the house will eat it, so I’d be forced to eat the entire freaking thing. It wouldn’t be pretty.
On the other hand… bread, milk, eggs… sounds marginally healthy, right?
Ack! I missed the bread pudding extravaganza!
We we’re in New Orleans last April and Bread Pudding is common on the menus there. I introduced my son to this delight and he fell in love with it. When I informed him that, not only did I grow up with this, I could make it, his eyes lit up. And then we went to a restaurant (no of course I can’t remember the name) where the bread pudding was… sublime. We were all in heaven, I looked at my son and said, ‘I can’t make this! But I’m sure I could if I just knew their secret ingredient, dammit.
X
P.S. Yes, to Stephen, I also call it Bread and Butter pudding. cut the cream and butter the bread, and there you have it.
X
I wonder, X, what was the secret ingredient? A spice? The type of bread? If you ever figure it out, let me know.
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