Before today, I never tried to make bread pudding but have seen my grandmother make it and have had a lot of experience baking custard pies. But here I am trying this to bake this recipe for a friend of my husband’s with word sent that I make no promises. Surely it couldn’t be too difficult?
When learning something new, I look at my mom’s old Better Homes and Garden Cookbook for inspiration. Since I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided to update the recipe. Tweaked the milk, took out the egg whites, added more spices and decided to do a water bath. Custards are prone to over-baking, splitting, weeping or curdling without cooking in a water bath. Actually, since this was my first try, I decided to bake one with and one without to see what happens.
One thing to note. You’ll need stale bread. If you don’t have any leftovers, you can make a loaf or even buy one. Since you’ll only need about 2 cups worth or around 4 – 5 slices, perhaps you’ll enjoy this crouton recipe for the remaining bread?
Since I’m always trying to see how people respond to healthy cooking, I decided to try a little social experiment. I gave our friend Ben the desert two pans and claimed one was American and one was British. The American was sweeter, I told them in deceit. Both were baked at the same time, the “American” version was simply baked without a water bath and therefore was over-baked. He said he actually preferred the American version as it was sweeter. (Sorry, Ben. They were identical recipes. You just ate overcooked bread pudding.) So you might want to try both with a water bath and without to see which style suits you!
Don’t feel bad Ben, I also do this to my poor husband. I will periodically cut sugar out of his sweet tea slightly. For the longest time, he never complained until he caught me the other day. Now he swears he could tell it was different but can’t say when it changed. It just goes to show how we as Americans love our sugar. We don’t need it or even miss it. We just think we do.
This is ultimately why I like to make recipes from overseas more and more. They still emphasize flavor over sugar. Enjoy this bread pudding. And always, happy baking!
Ben’s Bread Pudding
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Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup (300mL) heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup (240mL) milk
- 2 cups (100g) cubed stale bread
- 4 large (80g) egg yolks
- ½ cup (75g) raisins
- ¼ cup (56g) dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50g) white sugar
- 1 tsp (5mL) vanilla
- 1 ½ tsp (3g) cinnamon
- ½ tsp (2.5g) salt
- ½ tsp (1g) ginger
- ¼ tsp (.5g) nutmeg
Instructions
- Soak raisins in hot water at least 30 minutes. The longer they soak, the better.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until at least double.
- Mix in salt, spices and vanilla.
- Stir in milk and cream. Add bread crumbs and allow to soak for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C.)
- Pour mixture into one 8×8 (20cm) greased pan.
- Drain raisins. Sprinkle over mixture evenly.
- Place the 8" (20cm) pan inside pan that is at at least 1" (2.54cm) larger in size. Pour hot water in the larger pan until the custard pan is sitting in about 1" (2.54cm) of water. Transfer pans carefully into the oven.
- Bake 45 minutes. The middle will not be fully set, it will finish baking as it cools. Center should read between 160F (70C) – 175F (80C.)
- Remove carefully from water and cool on a wire rack for at least 1-2 hours before serving. Store any uneaten portion in fridge. Keeps for 3-5 days.
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