I bake my bread, but generally have a lot left over. I want to try a bread pudding (I got interested because of the savory recipe posted in this thread). I’ve never made or eaten bread pudding, but I’d like to try it. I have a work pot luck coming up and wondered if it would be okay if I baked it the morning of the pot luck and brought it in. Does it have to be warm from the oven? For a traditional sweet recipe I was going to use this one. Also, what’s the Dope on sauces? I don’t have any alcohol and don’t want to buy some just for this.
I personally prefer my bread pudding cold, but I’m weird that way. Most people prefer it warm, I believe. Fortunately, it reheats pretty well with sauce on it. Hard sauces are customary, but I found an alcohol-free sauce recipe that looks pretty good.
As to the recipe you’re looking at, I recommend omitting the raisins and doubling the vanilla. (I would probably triple the vanilla, but I like a really strong pudding.) If you must have fruit in your bread pudding, small pieces of apple are better than raisins.
Bread puddings heat up really well, and I think they are just fine at room temperature, but I may be weird.
I don’t tend to use a sauce, but there are lots of sauces you can use that wouldn’t involve alcohol. A caramel sauce would be a good choice for many palates.
I made the recipe last night. It was tasty, but didn’t have enough flavor. Possibly a bit more cinnamon or if I used a vanilla sauce. How long do you let the bread sit in the egg/milk mixture?
Did you increase the amount of vanilla? A little more cinnamon probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, either, but I find it’s easy to go overboard with cinnamon. You could also try using a little brown sugar in place of some of the white sugar.
Different breads need different soak times–tougher/more stale breads need a little more time. The bread needs to be soaked through and soft, but not dissolved, so you can pack it down. As long as the bread is saturated, though, bread pudding is pretty forgiving. There’s no specific consistency to aim for, and texture variations in the pudding are part of its charm.
Big fan of bread puddings, and most of the better buffets in Vegas have some variation.
What you probably need is the vanilla sauce to pour over it. This can be warmed up before serving and it makes the pudding warm, soft and adds flavor. I would make at least a double portion as many people (like me) tend to sort of over pour it. Here is the recipe from the Golden Nugget Casino - one of the best bread puddings in town.
I didn’t put raisins in - I’m not a big fan of cooked raisins. I was thinking that some of my home-canned apples would be good with it. And that savory bread pudding in the link above really sounds so good.
caramel sauce is excellent over a vanilla bread pudding. Nutmeg or allspice could be added for more flavor. Traditionally you would use 1/4 the amount of those spices as you would cinnamon.
I’m curious: that recipe calls for 24 ounces of dairy products, and 8 eggs (which is roughly 2 cups / 16 ounces). So all in all 5 cups / 40 ounces of liquid.
Yet it only calls for 4 and a half slices of white bread.
That much bread would make a very thin layer on the bottom of the pan, and the bread would be swimming in liquid.
That can’t be right, can it?
Presumably the white bread is standard sandwich size, maybe a tad thicker, but still the amount sounds too small.