I’ve been on a bread pudding kick lately.
Sorry. I can’t help it….
Its strange though…ever since I was a little girl I used to hate bread pudding. I’m a chocolate addict, and I still am…and I had pretty much written off any dessert that doesn’t have chocolate and ONLY chocolate in it. I think my family and friends are planning an intervention….Hmmmm. Anyway, my point is, I thought my life was complete without bread pudding. After all, I had chocolate truffles, Hot chocolate fudge cake, chocolate mousse, Chocolate Pots de crème….what do I need bread pudding for?
Then one fine day, my mother in law made a bread pudding, and….I…tasted it. I took a bite very hesitantly…and suddenly everything made sense. I realized what I had been missing my whole life…It was really good that I now believe bread pudding ( and chocolate, of course) is very essential for a man/woman’s well-being.
Few weeks back, I had posted a Cinnamon bread pudding recipe. This is Bread pudding with Vanilla custard sauce. Its sourdough bread cubes soaked and baked, and topped with a silky, dreamy, velvety custard sauce. Traditionally, white bread is used to make bread pudding, and its no-doubt the tastiest. But I saw a bread pudding recipe somewhere that used sourdough bread, and wanted to make my own variation. The sourdough adds character to the pudding, and keeps its firmness even after it is soaked in milk. That’s the wonderful thing about this bread.
Bread pudding with Vanilla custard sauce
Ingredients
- Sourdough bread/Stale white bread diced into cubes-5 cups
- Milk-3 1/2 cups
- Sugar-2 1/2 cups
- Eggs-4
- Heavy cream-1 cup
- Pure Vanilla extract-2 1/2 tablespoons
- Unsalted butter-4-5 tablespoons
Instructions
- Start by arranging the bread cubes in a baking pan. Don’t cramp them in, but they need to be pretty snug. In a mixing bowl, crack the eggs, and whisk them. Add the sugar, pour in the milk, and the vanilla extract…
- Pour half of the mixture into the baking pan, and make sure the bread cubes are nicely saturated. Put the baking pan into a 325 degrees Fahrenheit oven, for about 60-70 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the heavy cream to the rest of the mixture, and double-boil it.
- Sourdough bread pudding vanilla custard sauce
- To do this, take a medium saucepan, and bring about 2-3 cups of water to a boil, and bring it down to a simmer. Keep the bowl containing the mixture on top of the saucepan, and bring the mixture to a very gentle boil. This is done to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Do this until the sauce thickens slightly.
- Then remove from fire, and let it cool.
- Take the baking pan out of the oven, and with a serving spoon, dish up a nice helping onto a plate. You will notice how the “soft” part of the bread is not soggy. The crust on top is a great balance with the softness of the bread.
- Either pour or spoon out some of the custard sauce on top of each serving…and enjoy!
