Foodie Friday -- Bread Pudding with Warm Bourbon Sauce

Yes, I already have a bread pudding under my Foodie Friday tab, but I was telling my swim mom buddy, Margaret, about this recipe and promised to send it to her . . . three days ago.

Yikes! I hate making promises and then taking so long to make them happen, which is why I tend to drop all other work to judge contest entries. . . maybe I have things a little skewed in my head.

It's been known to happen.

Okay, this recipe is the one I made for this last Thanksgiving--it's a big pan, so I tripled the recipe! It's the dessert in the pretty blue pan. Sauce is not shown in this picture. The reason I like this recipe is due to the fact it's made from raisin bread--I don't like raisins, but I do like raisin bread!

 

 

Bread Pudding with Warm Bourbon Sauce

4 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups day-old cinnamon raisin bread with crusts, cut into 1/2-inch squares

1/2 cup pecans, chopped and toasted

 

Butter 8-inch square baking Whisk, first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Place bread and pecans in prepared dish. Pour milk mixture over and let stand 5 minutes. Push down bread into custard. Refrigerate 2 hours, pushing bread into custard occasionally.

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bread putting in large metal baking pan. Add enough boiling water to baking pan to come 1 inch up the sides of the dish with the bread pudding. Bake until pudding is puffed and golden brown on top, about 50 minutes. Remove dish with bread pudding from water and cool slightly.

 

Cut into squares. Serve bread pudding warm with sauce.

 

Bourbon Sauce

 

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tbls. whipping cream

2 Tbls. bourbon

Pinch of salt

 

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Simmer until thickened, whisking often, about 3 minutes. Cool slightly.

 

Tips & Tricks:

• make sure you have two pans, one that fits inside the other one before you start making this pudding. Yes, it has to have the 'steam' factor so it doesn't over cook on the sides and bottom
• I bought fresh raisin bread, but cut it up and let it dry in the baking dish for a few hours before making this. I would toss it occasionally to get all the pieces dry.
• you can refrigerate the unbaked pudding in the refrigerator overnight, instead of only two hours, and bake it in the morning
• place the pudding pan into the empty steaming pan and place on oven rack before you pour boiling water into the steaming pan. This way you don't take the chance of sloshing the water into your pudding or on yourself while getting it into the oven.
• Bourbon sauce is GOOD! *nom, nom, nom, slurp*
• Use a high quality of whiskey and the flavor will be outstanding. I used Devil's Cut Whiskey. Actually, I use this whiskey to make caramel and my chocolate truffle filling. It has the best flavor!

Enjoy, Peeps!

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