My Favorite Dessert (Bread Pudding)

Monday was daughter Susan's birthday. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner the first thing she said was Bread Pudding.

I have a lot of "oldie but goodies" but bread pudding is the most requested. It is not hard to make since it is basically custard and french bread but I rarely see it in a restaurant outside of New Orleans and I don't know any other home chefs that make it so.......here it is:

French Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

One cup of sugar

8 tablespoons of butter, softened

5 eggs, room temperature, beaten

1 pint heavy cream

dash (or two) cinnamon

1 tablespoon (or more) vanilla extract

1/4 cup raisins

One loaf of French bread cut into 1 inch thick slices

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees

In a Kitchenaid mixer with the paddle blade, cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, cream, cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins mixing well.

HINT: Don't let the cream be too cold when you add it to the eggs and sugar. It will cause the butter to clot and make for an uneven custard. And don't think you need a big ole Kitchenaid stand mixer to make this....it is just easier to use than a hand mixer.

Arrange the bread in an oven proof dish, glass, pottery whatever. You should have about 12 pieces of bread. Don't cram them in, they should fit loosely.

Important: Always use french bread!!! Stale bread is even better (how do you think those cunning Creoles came up with the recipe to begin with).

Pour the custard over the bread lifting the corners slightly for the custard to fill in between the pieces. Let it stand for 5 or 10 minutes then without breaking the bread, turn the pieces over to make sure as much of the custard as possible soaks into the bread.

Set the dish in a larger baking pan:

You can see from the picture that the custard hasn't soaked all the way through which is fine. Place this into the oven and then fill the pan 1/2 inch or so from the top with HOT water. This water bath, will prevent the custard from burning while it is cooking.

Cover with foil and bake for 45-50 minutes uncovering the pan for the last 10 minutes or so to let the bread brown slightly.

Carefully remove from the oven (try not to pour the hot water all down your pants). It will (hopefully, no guarantee) look like this:

The custard should be soft, not runny but not hard.

While the pudding is cooking, you can make the rum sauce or, if you prefer, you could have made it earlier.

Rum Sauce

1 cup of sugar

2 1/4 cups of water

1 cinnamon stick or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon of dark rum

In a small glass or dish, mix 1/4 cup of water and cornstarch and put aside. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, 2 cups of water, cinnamon, and butter. Bring to a boil. Stir in the cornstarch and water mixture. Simmer stirring occasionally until the sauce is clear. Remove from the heat and add the rum. The sauce will be very thin.

Serve the pudding on a plate or in a shallow bowl and pass the rum sauce.

As a wise man once said...."It eats pretty good".

If you figure two pieces per serving, the recipe will serve 6. If you have leftovers then congratulations. It will last in the refrigerator for several days. When you serve it again, don't heat the pudding just heat up the rum sauce and pour the hot sauce over the pudding.

What am I pouring with this?

Well, this dessert is tailor made for a sweet dessert wine. The most famous, of course, is Sauterne which is made from the Semillion grape in the Bordeaux region of France. These wines can be quite expensive although delicious. The other grape variety that is used a lot for sweet wine is Muscat. Dessert wine from Muscat is produced in Provence in the village of Beaumes de Venise and in Languedoc around the village of Rivesaltes. 

These muscat wines are a little earthier than their Bordeaux cousins and a little sweeter but much cheaper.

I give the nod to the muscat wines from Rivesaltes. They are not quite as heavy as the wines from Beaumes de Venise.

These wines can also age very nicely too. What I opened was a 1999!

The Domaine Cazes is distributed by Master Wine Guy Jean Pierre Chambas with Aleph Wines.

If you want the wine check with Bryan at the Gourmet Shop: 803.799.3705