E.B.
My husband and I attended a local foods cooking class while on vacation once in New Orleans. It was a very small class, taught by a local chef, and we learned to make gumbo, jambalaya and bread pudding. I'm happy to share what we learned about bread pudding.
To make a 9 x 12 pan of traditional bread pudding:
6 - 8 cups of stale bread, cubed or roughly torn (chef used French bread)
4 cups of milk (must be whole milk, and very cold)
2 cups sugar
8 Tbsp butter, melted
3 eggs and 2 egg whites
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins
1 cup coconut, shredded (not sweetened, if possible)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
First, combine all the dry ingredients. Then stir in the milk and melted butter. Whip the eggs, using a mixer or hand beater, very well. Then fold the eggs gently into the mixture, incorporating air into the mixture by using a large spatula and being very gentle and slow. It should be very moist but not soupy. Pour into a buttered 9 x 12 baking dish. A slightly larger dish will be ok. Place into a non-preheated oven (chef said this was important - the oven must be cold). Then turn the oven on to 350 degrees and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Serve warm with whiskey sauce.
The bread, milk, sugar, butter and eggs and the mixing and baking instructions are the basics. Those don't change. The rest of the ingredients, starting with the vanilla, can be adapted for different flavors. You can omit or substitute things for the raisins, coconut, nuts and spices depending on your preference.
Here are some of the combinations the chef suggested:
Add some chopped mandarin or clementine segments and Meyer lemon segments and zest. Substitute those for the raisins and coconut. You can use walnuts or any other nuts that you like.
For a pina colada type flavor, substitute drained pineapple chunks (or fresh pineapple pieces) for the raisins in the recipe above.
Omit the coconut and raisins and substitute raspberries, and/or blueberries. Optional: Add some mini chocolate chips.
You can bake the bread pudding for half the time, freeze, and then bake it for 1 hour when you're ready to serve it.
Whiskey Sauce for the bread pudding:
8 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup bourbon
Cream butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until all the butter is absorbed. Remove from heat and blend in egg yolks, slowly. Add bourbon (you can use less), stirring constantly. This sauce will get thicker as it cools.
Fruit juice or different liqueurs can be substituted for the bourbon, but bourbon is traditional.
Hope this helps.
