I made that!

In my experience, bread pudding gets no love. It’s like the drunk uncle of the dessert world. And it makes me so sad. I think bread pudding is just fantastic. I mean, it’s bread and sweet custard. Really, what’s not to love? I think most people just haven’t had GOOD bread pudding. I make GOOD bread pudding. And this is how.

I always use a nice locally made egg bread. If I was being ambitious, I would make my own brioche. Today I am not being ambitious (at least not with dessert). I bought 2 loaves of Semifreddi’s challah, one with cinnamon and one with poppy seeds. I sliced the loaves and arranged them loosely in a baking pan. Then I toasted them in the oven, just long enough to dry them out a bit.

Then I made a custard by mixing up some eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla & salt. I poured that custard all over the toasty slices.

Then I spent a little time admiring the loveliness, while pressing all of the edges into the custard.

Then I wrapped it up and let it soak overnight.

When it was time* I pulled it out of the fridge and checked it out. All that soaking made room for me to pour in more of the custard, which I happily did. The important part (really the ONLY important part, it’s not exactly rocket science) is to get as much custard as possible into the pudding, without spilling of course. I let it soak in for a few minutes and then baked it until the custard was just set.

At this point you’re probably thinking “and why is this special?” So while it’s cooling, I make a caramel sauce. Now you’re probably thinking “Why don’t you just call this blog ‘I Made Caramel” since I make it so much. It’s true. I heart caramel. My choice of last dessert meal ever would be floating in a bowl of caramel sauce.

Anyways, I chopped up some apples and sautéed them in the caramel sauce. And then I poured them all over the bread pudding. Now do you see what I’m talking about?

It was GOOD. So so good.

Thank you Tartine, for showing us how it’s done.

*this is different for everyone, just go with your gut.