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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Bread Pudding

Comfort food.

Spoon food.

Food. Of. The. Gods.

Bread pudding is one of my very favorite things in the whole world.  Custard soaked bread flavored with warm spices....heavenly!


I like it for breakfast.    Warmed up.    We generally make it the night before because it bakes for a while.   In the morning, we can either pop the whole thing back in the oven for 20 minutes or just microzap individual servings  because some like it hot and some don't. 

The recipe we based ours on comes from Breakfast in Bed: 90 Recipes for Creative Indulgences, by Jesse Ziff Cool.    [No kidding about the name.]

We adjusted it, of course, to fit what we have around, and I always use less sugar and butter than her original recipe.   Here's the recipe as I make it.

Bread Pudding
www.rurification.com
  • 2 - 2 1/2 quart baking dish, 9x9, etc. greased.
  • Stale bread:  Slices, crumbles, whatever.  Doesn't matter what kind - white, wheat, cinnamon, whatever.   6 thick slices or about 1/3 - 1/2 of the dish full - less if you want a finished pudding with more custard and less bread. 
  •  8 eggs or egg yolks or whites or a combination of what you might have on hand or left over from another dish.   A couple more or less isn't going to hurt things.
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 3 1/2 cups milk.   Or cream.  Or half and half.  Or evaporated.  Or whatever.   Again - a bit more or less isn't going to hurt things. 
Preheat oven to 350.   Grease dish and put the bread in the bottom of the dish.   In a large bowl or mixer, mix everything else together.    Pour the egg mix over the bread in the baking dish.    Press the bread down so it soaks up the custard.    Put the pudding dish in a larger baking dish or pan and fill the large one with hot water so that it comes about half way up the pudding dish.    Bake it for 1 hour.     Serve warm or cool.   Store in refrigerator.