Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

This weekend, I cooked up some Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce which my husband swears was pretty darned fabulous.

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I don't actually eat the stuff myself (something about the texture weirds me out), but I can definitely vouch for the Vanilla Sauce.  Holy cow, y'all.  That stuff was incredible.  I can see myself putting that stuff on top of just about any dessert to give it a little extra oomph.

Anyway, since Micah told me to make sure and save the recipe for future use, I thought I'd go ahead and share it here in case any of you were looking for a yummy bread pudding recipe to try.

Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce
adapted from here

Ingredients for Bread Pudding
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 cups whole milk (we used heavy cream)
10 slices hearty farmhouse-style bread, toasted and cut into cubes
1 cup raisins (we left these out)

Ingredients for Vanilla Sauce
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 egg (I left the egg out because it weirded me out)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/4 cups whole milk (we used heavy cream)
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 2-quart baking dish.

- In a mixing bowl, whisk 3 eggs, white sugar, 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 cup of butter, and 3 cups of whole milk together, and gently stir in the bread cubes (and raisins, if you use them).  (Make sure that you don't add the butter straight from the microwave.  Let it cool for a few minutes, or you'll cook the eggs and end up with tiny pieces of scrambled egg in your batter.) Lightly spoon the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

- Bake in the preheated oven until browned and set in the middle, 50 to 55 minutes (we cooked it 3-5 minutes longer); cover the dish with foil after 30 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Let the pudding stand for 10 minutes before serving.

- For vanilla sauce, whisk 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, the flour, a pinch of cinnamon, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 1/4 cups of whole milk,and salt together in a heavy saucepan until smooth. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and the sauce coats the back of a spoon, 10 to 12 minutes (it only took us 5-6 minutes before it was thick enough, probably because we used heavy cream).

- Stir in the vanilla extract. Pour sauce over warm bread pudding, or serve on the side in a bowl.


Let me know if you guys give this recipe a try - apparently I don't know what I'm missing! :)