Bread pudding with bourbon and chocolate chips
As much as I love having a fridge full of delicious produce, sometimes the most interesting dishes arise when my fridge is bare and I'm in kitchen-sink mode (ie, use up whatever I can into a single dish). This goes hand-in-hand with my love of using up leftover food.
So when we had a GIANT loaf of bread left over from a company party (and I mean multiple feet of bread leftover from a "decorative" loaf) I had to do something with it.
Bread pudding was my gut instinct as it is simple to make, easy to bring to work, and is always a crowd pleaser. And for the first time in a long time I didn't just follow a single recipe—I reviewed a bunch and ended up making a hybrid of two that I found from Cooks Illustrated and Gourmet.
I know there are a ton of recipes for bread pudding out there, and there's really no right or wrong way. So while I'm not a bread pudding expert, I can say that this was a pretty damn awesome way to use up a giant loaf of bread. And I think my coworkers agreed!
Buen provecho,
Jacqueline
Bread pudding with bourbon and chocolate chips, adapted from The Dessert Bible (Cooks Illustrated) and The Gourmet Cookbook
If you want to save some time the day of baking, you can make the custard portion in advance. But you probably don't want to add the custard to the bread until the day you plan on baking the dessert, to avoid it getting too mushy (unless of course you like your bread pudding that way—then go for it!). Slightly dried or stale bread is great for this recipe.
Ingredients
Bread
~1 lb bread, cubed into ¾" pieces
4 to 5 TBSP butter, melted
Custard
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
3 ¾ cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 TBSP vanilla extract
3 TBSP bourbon
¼ tsp salt
Topping
2 TBSP sugar
6 oz chocolate chips
Directions
After:
So when we had a GIANT loaf of bread left over from a company party (and I mean multiple feet of bread leftover from a "decorative" loaf) I had to do something with it.
Bread pudding was my gut instinct as it is simple to make, easy to bring to work, and is always a crowd pleaser. And for the first time in a long time I didn't just follow a single recipe—I reviewed a bunch and ended up making a hybrid of two that I found from Cooks Illustrated and Gourmet.
I know there are a ton of recipes for bread pudding out there, and there's really no right or wrong way. So while I'm not a bread pudding expert, I can say that this was a pretty damn awesome way to use up a giant loaf of bread. And I think my coworkers agreed!
Buen provecho,
Jacqueline
Bread pudding with bourbon and chocolate chips, adapted from The Dessert Bible (Cooks Illustrated) and The Gourmet Cookbook
If you want to save some time the day of baking, you can make the custard portion in advance. But you probably don't want to add the custard to the bread until the day you plan on baking the dessert, to avoid it getting too mushy (unless of course you like your bread pudding that way—then go for it!). Slightly dried or stale bread is great for this recipe.
Ingredients
Bread
~1 lb bread, cubed into ¾" pieces
4 to 5 TBSP butter, melted
Custard
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
3 ¾ cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 TBSP vanilla extract
3 TBSP bourbon
¼ tsp salt
Topping
2 TBSP sugar
6 oz chocolate chips
Directions
- Prepare bread: Place cubed bread into large baking dish (mine was larger than 9x13"), pour melted butter all over the cubed bread, mix with your hands, and set aside.
- Prepare custard: In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, white sugar, and eggs. Whisk in the remaining ingredients (milk, cream, vanilla, bourbon, and salt).
- Pour custard mixture all over the bread. Soak for 20 minutes to 1 hour, mixing periodically.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F while the custard soaks.
- Sprinkle with the sugar and chocolate chips. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.
- Optional: if your bread doesn't crisp up on top, heat under the broiler for a few minutes, watching carefully to avoid burning.
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