# Let's talk Bread Pudding. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-bread-pudding/532763 "2010-03-17T16:34:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-bread-pudding/532763/21 "2010-03-19T19:44:11Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Over here in the U.S.A., we call all of it Bread Pudding. Actually, I’ve never had it where you can pick it up and eat it. You’re right that what we call bread pudding is probably your bread and butter pudding. > > Now you’re going to have to supply a proper recipe for the handheld sugar-topped one. I typed this as best I could as my mother gave her recipe, with added random thoughts, over the phone. And this is just one of the reasons why I love her. > [@Mother](#): > > Bread - any sort, one of the best I ever made was with hot cross buns. However, savoury flavoured or herby rolls are not suitable. I always use stale bread, but I don’t think it has to be stale. Roughly five or six rolls or equivalent amount in slices. > Soak the bread in water until it’s soft, then squeeze out all the extra. It shouldn’t be sloppy. > Add generous amounts of mixed dried fruit and mixed spices (plus I add some extra cinnamon). Add ordinary granulated sugar: allowing one tablespoon to be one ounce, about two tablespoons of sugar to an amount of bread that would fill one of those ordinary round Pyrex dishes that I always make it in [cue laughter, “Mother, the Americans have never seen your Pyrex dishes”, etc]. It’s a 7" Pyrex casserole dish. > One egg. A shake of salt. Bee’s knee. A knob of butter. [I think she just said bee’s knee to see if I was listening as well as typing. It’s not some arcane British ingredient.] > > Method: Take a suitable dish and butter the inside of it [del]vigorously[/del] generously. Keep the butter paper. Mix everything with your hands, squidging it between your fingers until it’s all melded with no resemblance whatsoever to bread. It won’t be bread. It’ll be mixture. Pour… no, it won’t pour, it’s too thick. Gloop the mixture into the buttered dish and cover with the butter paper. Put it in an oven at 170C, 330F, for an hour and a quarter. When you take it out of the oven, check whether the sides are coming away from the dish and whether it’s still gungy in the middle or springy yet solid. If it’s still puddingy, put it back in for another quarter of an hour. It really depends on the size of your pudding. If the raisins in the top have gone black, your oven’s too hot. Turn it out and sprinkle the top (which was the bottom while it was cooking) with granulated sugar. > > Three things to remember: don’t have your bread too wet. Squeeze and drain. Have a generous amount of mixed fruit, and spice it nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Sycorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@Sycorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sycorax)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-bread-pudding/532763/22 "2010-03-20T00:42:38Z")
No one’s recipe is better than anyone else’s! Depends on how and in what region of the country you were raised. I think my Mother and Grandma basically did southern cooking (early 19th and first half of 20th century) in Washington, D. C. - a southern city at that time; not now! Anyhoo, my mother made the most scrumptious bread pudding, dense, with lemon sauce (made from scratch). She died in 1994, and I regret to this day that I didn’t persist in getting her recipes. But, trouble is, she didn’t have recipes per se! Not written recipes. I’d ask her about a particular meal, and she’d say, “a little of this, a dash of that, I don’t really measure, blah, blah…” I’ve tried making it (and other recipes) and results did not compare favorably to hers. I know she used broken up white bread, but other than that, I’m at a loss. I’ve also tried to reproduce her peanut butter fudge with no success. It was very firm and sorta crumbly. (I don’t care for soft, mushy fudge or brownies.) ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-bread-pudding/532763/23 "2010-03-20T01:01:44Z")
> [@Sycorax](#): > > I’ve also tried to reproduce her peanut butter fudge with no success. It was very firm and sorta crumbly. (I don’t care for soft, mushy fudge or brownies.) My mom’s made hundreds of batches of peanut butter fudge over the years, and they come out in a variety of textures. The firmer, crumbly ones tend to be made with brown sugar instead of white, and cooked to a firmer stage than the softer ones. (ie, just cook it longer) That’s all I’ve got though, as she’s rarely used recipes, either. My sweetie stopped asking me for cooking directions or recipes long ago, once he realized my answers were going to be ‘some of this and some of that’. 😛 He thinks I’m being mysterious, when I’m just being intuitive about what I have to work with. And flexible! Gotta be flexible. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-bread-pudding/532763/24 "2010-03-20T01:56:31Z")
> [@Sycorax](#): > > No one’s recipe is better than anyone else’s! Yes, it is!! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-bread-pudding/532763/25 "2010-03-20T02:48:20Z")
I make bread pudding with bread I get at the bakery and ask to be sliced on the thinnest setting, which gives me slices maybe 3/8" thick. I let the bread sit out overnight to stale, then make sandwiches with it, with whatever jam, preserves or marmalade I have on hand. I’ve also used apple or peach butter. I spread a thick layer on a slice, top with another slice, move on. When it’s all sandwiched, I cut the sandwiches into cubes, toss them all into a casserole, cover with the usual sort of custard with 1/3 less sugar than usual, and bake. If I use apple jelly/butter, I might add raisins, if I use orange or lemon marmalade, I’ll add dried cranberries, if it’s peach, blueberry or apricot, I’ll add almonds. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-bread-pudding/532763/26 "2010-03-21T00:46:59Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > I typed this as best I could as my mother gave her recipe, with added random thoughts, over the phone. And this is just one of the reasons why I love her. Your mother sounds great! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-bread-pudding/532763.md?page=1)