The World’s Best Bread Pudding

I know that is a bold name, but I would take the Pepsi Challenge with this pudding against any other. The concept is simple: take some old bread, moisten it, sweeten it, and bake it. You don’t add any fruit, or fold in chocolate or perfume it with spices. We’re talking bread, sugar, milk and vanilla. Basically, it ends up being a sweet panade (which is usually bread moistened with milk or water and mixed into a sausage or forcemeat. Remember how your mother would put bread crumbs or bread cubes in her meatloaf to help hold it together? That was a panade.).
I like the simplicity of this recipe. I once had a chef that I respected tell me it was garbage because he liked raisins in his bread pudding. He was an old Austrian chef who I only knew through reputation and quickly grew to dislike. I say that our relationship deteriorated because of the bread pudding, he insists it’s because I had no business being the Executive Chef of the country club at the time. I’m not sure who to believe, but I’m not putting any damn raisins in a bread pudding ever again.

What you need to get together:

FOR THE PUDDING
Bread: 1 pound (if you are using a French baguette, they are usually about a pound a
piece. A little over a pound or a little under won’t hurt much.)
Whole Milk: 6 1/4 cups
Sugar: 2 1/4 cups
Vanilla: To taste (I add 1 Tablespoon of good extract)
Butter: ½ stick, melted (I use unsalted butter)
Egg: 1 each

FOR THE SAUCE
Butter: 1 stick
Powder Sugar: ½ cup
Heavy Cream: ¼ cup
Whiskey: To taste (I use 1 oz.)

How to put it all together:

THE PUDDING
1. Break or cut the bread (including the crust) into crouton-size pieces.
2. In a nonreactive (not aluminum) bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar, vanilla, egg and melted butter.
3. Add the bread pieces and mix the bread and milk mixture together.
4. Cover the soaked bread and store in the refrigerator over night (preferably for 2 days), agitating the mix every once in a while to ensure that all of the bread is soaked thoroughly.
5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
6. Spray a baking dish with non-stick vegetable oil spray and pour the batter into the pan.
7. Place a piece of parchment paper over the pudding mix and then cover the paper with aluminum foil. Pierce the foil in about 8 different areas to vent the pudding as it cooks.
8. Place on the center rack of your oven and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
9. After the 50 minutes, uncover the pudding (it should be milky on top and be almost set in the center). Evenly sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of white sugar over the entire surface of the pudding and return the baking dish to the oven.
10. Raise the temperature in the oven to 400 degrees and cook for an additional 15 minutes or until the top of the pudding is golden and crusty.
11. Let the baked pudding rest for about 10 minutes then serve with generous amounts of the whiskey sauce and freshly whipped cream.

THE SAUCE
1. Over a double boiler, melt the butter thoroughly, but not so much that it separates.
2. Add the powder sugar slowly with a whisk while the butter is still over the double
boiler.
3. Once all of the sugar is added, continue to heat the butter/sugar mixture over the
double boiler for about 2 minutes (this will help to completely dissolve the sugar into the butter).
4. Remove the butter/sugar mixture from the heat and add in the cream and whiskey.
5. Keep the sauce warm for service. A good trick is to store the sauce in a thermos to
keep it warm. Keeping it over heat may cause it to break. If you don’t have a thermos, cover it and place it back in the double boiler off of the heat. The residual heat from the water should keep the sauce warm for a while.

A few final thoughts about this recipe:

OK, reserve judgment until after you’ve tried this beauty. Did anyone notice that there is only 1 egg in the recipe. That is why letting it soak for as long as possible is important. Don’t skip that step or try to rush it because it will come back to bite you. Also, I love this pudding both warm or cold. Try it both ways and see if you feel the same.
The sauce can be chilled and reheated over a double boiler for later use. This sauce is pretty forgiving. If it begins to get too firm, give it a little heat; if it begins to break, turn down the heat and give it a good whisk. You won’t find many sauces that are more understanding of your culinary shortcomings.
Again, this is a simple bread pudding. It is appropriate in all seasons and finishes off a flavorful meal nicely. It isn’t looking to be the show-stopper, it just wants to bring the meal to a nice, slow end. Respect that. Appreciate that.