Caramel Bread Pudding

Caramel Bread Pudding

This was a WINNER! It was my favorite dessert from this project thus far. Read the notes before you begin! This is a decadent offering, it pairs nicely with a scotch ;)

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

¼ cup boiling water

4 slices of bread

2 tbsp butter

½ cup shaved almonds

1 tbsp grated lemon rind

2 cups milk

3 eggs

¼ tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Melt 1 cup sugar in a small skillet. Tip the skillet back and forth over the flame to insure uniform heating. When the sugar is all melted remove it from the fire, add boiling water quickly, shake the skillet to mix the sugar and water, and immediately pour it onto a buttered casserole dish.

Cut bread in inch squares and saute in butter until delicately browned. Layer bread, almonds, and lemon rind over the caramel. Combine milk, beaten eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla and pour over the bread. Set the casserole in a pan of hot water and bake at 350 degrees for one hour, until knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

This can be served plain, with whipped cream, or with vanilla sauce.

Notes:

I made my own Challah loaf to use for the bread, and it worked great! I'm sure any sweeter bread would do. I think I ended up using about 4 cups of cubed bread, it made a good ratio of pudding juice to bread so that it soaked up nicely, like a french toast.


Making the caramel sauce was a little bit tricky. Jean makes it sound easy but if you aren't paying attention, it could go wrong fast. I kept the melting sugar moving with a rubber spatula over high heat. I would say it's OK to take off the heat when it begins it's caramel color, because the pan is so hot the sugar keep cooking! Make sure you have some oven mitts on when you add the hot water, it'ts like adding water to hot oil. it will bubble and spit! I added the water really slowly, again, keeping it moving with a rubber spatula. The end product is worth it, don't skip this step just because it's a little dangerousI didn't know what shaved almonds were, so I got and used whole raw almonds that I just chopped. Turns out, "shaved" almonds are those thinly sliced, light colored ones. Live and learn! The texture was great.

Caramel Bread Pudding with Whipped Cream

Caramel Bread Pudding Ingredients