Bread Pudding

Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 7 ounces stale french bread
• 3 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 4 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 pinch salt

Recipe

• 1 cut bread into 1 inch cubes, place in ungreased 13x9-inch pan and either dry in warm oven for a couple of hours, toast lightly in 350°f oven (preferred), or toast in 350°f oven till light brown and dry.
• 2 chop or puree raisins.
• 3 sift or sieve sugar, spices and salt into a plastic bag and shake to mix.
• 4 heat milk, butter, eggs, yolks, raisins and sugar mixture in a sauce pan on low heat stirring constantly until butter's melted and sugar is dissolved, remove from heat if steam starts to appear.
• 5 (you don't want to cook the eggs just yet!)
• 6 remove from heat, stir in vanilla and immediately pour custard over dried bread.
• 7 if desired strain mixture with a fine strainer to remove raisins and any egg chalazae.
• 8 mix and press down on bread to be sure it's all covered.
• 9 preheat oven to 350°f.
• 10 allow custard to soak into bread cubes until cooled (about an hour).
• 11 occasionally stirring to evenly distribute mixture.
• 12 can be refrigerated for up-to 12 hours at this point.
• 13 bake in 350°f oven for 50-60 minutes (top will be browned and pudding should start to rise out of the pan).
• 14 --------variations--------------.
• 15 add a cup of toasted and chopped pecans or walnuts to custard.
• 16 replace 1/2 tbsp of the vanilla with another extract or liquor.
• 17 add some , cinnamon or chocolate chips to custard.
• 18 replace 1/2 of the milk with heavy cream or 1/2 and 1/2 (makes it rich!).
• 19 use skim milk, delete butter, use whole wheat bread, reduce sugar to 1 cup, replace eggs/yolks with egg substitute for a "healthy version".
• 20 add some dried apple or banana to custard.
• 21 use 1 cup of sugar and add 1/2 cup of maple syrup.
• 22 replace up-to half the sugar with brown sugar.
• 23 serve with bourbon sauce, whip cream, ice cream.