Joy the Baker » bread pudding

Banana Bourbon Bread Pudding

joythebaker — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:04:17 +0000

Imagine how glorious your day would be if you took plain old, super soft white bread and baked it with milk and sugar, bananas and bourbon.

Seriously… what are you doing right now? Unless you’re shoe shopping or naked with someone you like… I think you should stop what you’re doing and at least think about making some bread pudding.

Or you could watch this video.

Bake Out with Jill and Joy. We’re at it again. We do a fair amount of giggling. We eat piping hot bread pudding and try to pretend that we’re not burning our freaking faces off. I also announce myself as the winner of the game of life… cause yea.

Are you one of those people who thinks that they don’t like bread pudding? Would it make you feel any better if I called this Baked French Toast? Would you feel even better still if I told you that you can totally get away with bourbon at breakfast? Yea. Sneak it in with milk, eggs and bread and no one will think you a lush…. or at least I won’t.

This bread pudding is unique. It’s not a completely soggy mushfest. The bottom layer of cooked bread and custard is soft and flavorful. The top layer of bread pudding is crispy, buttered toasted topped with a good helping of cinnamon sugar. It’s the best of both worlds and you know it.

Plus banana (including a dash of banana extract), plus bourbon… plus awesome.

Fresh bananas are fine indeed. I like kicking the banana flavor up with a touch of banana extract. If this offends you, go heavy on the banana slices and throw in some vanilla extract.

Banana Bourbon Bread Pudding

adapted heavily from Sweets

serves 8 in a 9×13-inch pan

Print this Recipe!

10 slices of white bread, toasted and sliced in half diagonally

1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

3 eggs

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar (brown sugar would also be great)

generous pinch of salt

3 Tablespoons bourbon

1/2 teaspoon banana extract

2 bananas, sliced

2 Tablespoon granulated sugar, for topping

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon, for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9×13-inch pan and set aside.

Lightly toast 10 slices of white bread and butter each slice. Cut each slice of bread in half diagonally. Layer bread slices in pan, butter side up so that the bread tips are pointing upwards.

In a small sauce pan, heat the milk and sugar just until the sugar is dissolved.

Whip the eggs and pour the warmed milk mixture over the eggs while whisking the eggs thoroughly.

Add bourbon and banana extract. Pour the custard over the bread slices. Add banana slices to the bread pudding, placing them in between the bread slices and deep into the custard. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the custard is set. Remove from the oven and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar. Let cool to room temperature before serving.

Blackberry Peach Bread Pudding with toasted pecans

joythebaker — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:11:42 +0000

Bread pudding exists in the sweet space between breakfast and dessert. With all of the milk in the recipe, bread pudding feels like eating the most ridiculously rich breakfast cereal. I suppose for most people, it’s a bonafide dessert. Perhaps I’m just trying to find as many ways as possible to eat dessert for breakfast.

I’ll admit, I only recently warmed up to bread pudding. My Dad absolutely loves the stuff, so I was inspired to create my own. I think I had this conception that bread pudding was simply soggy bread mixed with cinnamon, milk and raisins. Not so! This dish can be made with as many combinations as you can dream up. With this recipe, I wrestled my preconceived notions of bread pudding to the ground. I decided to combine bread pudding and cobbler. I know… pretty awesome! Now we’re getting into the realm of respectable breakfasts… or desserts.

Blackberry Peach Bread Pudding combines the delicious fruit I love in cobblers, with loads of the bready goodness that I crave everyday of my life. Throw in some Grand Marnier and toasted pecans, and it’s pure heaven!

This is a great dessert because you can very easily throw it together in a pan, wrap it up and let it sit in the fridge over night to soak. The next morning, pop the whole tray in the oven, and delicious cobbler bread pudding is ready to eat (after proper cooling time) in about two hours.

Blackberry Peach Bread Pudding with Toasted Pecans

Print this Recipe!

1 1/2 – 2 loaves stale French baguettes

3 eggs

3 cups whole milk

1 cup half and half

1/3 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons Grand Marnier

2 cups sliced peaches, fresh or frozen

1 cup blackberries, fresh

3/4 cup pecan halves

dash of cinnamon

Begin by tearing the stale french bread into bite sized pieces. This can be done by hand, because pieces do not have to look perfect, just need to be roughly the same size. Place all of the bread pieces into a 9×13-inch baking pan and top with peaches and berries. Using your hands, toss the fruit into the bread pieces so they are evenly distributed through the pan. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat butter and 3 cups milk. Heat just until butter melts, but milk should not boil.

While milk and butter are heating, whisk together eggs, half and half, sugar, vanilla extract and Grand Marnier. Slowly whisk the warmed milk and butter mixture into the eggs and half and half mixture. Pour the entire mixture on top of the bread pieces and fruit. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the plastic wrap from the bread pudding, sprinkle with cinnamon and place in the oven for 45-55 minutes. The bread pudding will still wiggle when shaken, but will set during the cooling process. Let set for at least 30 minutes, once removed from the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I love this served warm with vanilla ice cream!