New Orleans Style Bread Pudding Recipe

Making bread pudding is an excellent way to yield a delectable dessert from stale leftover bread. Prepared by adding sugar, milk and spices, it was considered before as a poor man's dessert recipe because of its ingredients. At present, it is a favorite bread recipe for people who have a sweet tooth. Bread pudding made in the New Orleans style is unique and very delicious. Given below are recipes that are simple to understand and easy to follow.

Ingredients for Whiskey Sauce

• Sugar, ⅔ cup
• Whiskey, ¼ cup
• Unsalted butter, ¼ cup (half stick)
• Large egg, 1
• Water, ¼ cup

Ingredients for Bread Pudding

• Cinnamon, ½ tsp.
• Raisins, ½ cup
• Half-and-half, 2 cups
• Large eggs, 3
• 1 day-old French bread, 16 slices (cut into ½ inch pieces)
• Sugar, ¾ cup plus 2 tsp. (divided)
• Heavy cream, 1 cup
• Vanilla extract, 1½ tbsp.
• Grated nutmeg, ¼ tsp.

Directions
To make whiskey sauce, combine butter, sugar, and water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, till sugar is dissolved completely and bubbles are formed at the sides. Take another bowl and whisk egg with ½ cup of hot sugary mixture. Pour this egg mixture to the previous saucepan containing sugar and butter concoction. Stir and cook sauce over low heat for about 2 minutes. Remove it from heat and pour whiskey. With this, your whiskey sauce is ready.

Coming to preparation of bread pudding, preheat oven to 325°F and spray oil to a 2 quart baking pan. Lay half of the bread pieces in the pan and sprinkle raisins. Then add remaining bread and raisins randomly over this layer. Keep this ready, and work on the pudding recipe.

In a saucepan, whisk together eggs, ¾ cup sugar, half-and-half, cream, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Pour this over the bread and allow to stand for 15 minutes. You can wrap a plastic sheet over the baking pan and put weight over it. This will help coat the bread pieces with egg mixture.

Then, bake pudding for 20 minutes. Sprinkle remaining sugar and bake for another 40 minutes. Serve bread pudding with whiskey sauce on the sides. You can follow these tips for making the pudding with rum sauce.

Ingredients for Bourbon Sauce

• Egg, 1
• Butter, ½ cup (1 stick), melted
• Sugar, 1 cup
• Kentucky bourbon whiskey, 1 cup

Ingredients for Bread Pudding

• Vanilla, 2 tbsp.
• Raisins, 1 cup (soak overnight in ¼ cup bourbon)
• Milk, 1 qt.
• Eggs, 3 (beaten lightly)
• French bread, 1 loaf (preferably 1 day old, cut into 1-inch pieces)
• Sugar, 2 cups
• Butter, 3 tbsp. (melted)
• Allspice, ¼ tsp.
• Cinnamon, ¼ tsp.

Directions
Let's make the bourbon sauce first. Preheat a saucepan and melt butter. Whisk sugar and egg in a small bowl and add-in the butter. Cook this mixture over a low heat, while stirring continuously. As the sauce thickens slightly, stir in bourbon to taste.

Whisk mixture, so that it turns soft, creamy, and smooth. Remove from heat and keep aside. For making bread pudding, preheat oven to 350°F. Soak bread in milk; if required, press bread slightly with your hand to absorb milk.

In a mixing bowl, combine together eggs, sugar, spice, and vanilla. Beat well and add into the bread mixture. Stir in soaked raisins, you can use a spatula to blend this bread mixture. For the baking part, pour melted butter in a 9 × 13-inch baking pan. After spreading butter to the sides and bottom of the pan, add bread mixture and bake for 35-45 minutes, until the edges separate from the pan and turn brownish. While serving, drizzle bourbon sauce on top of the bread pudding.

For a different flavor, replace the dry fruits with fresh ones such as bananas, apples, and blueberries. Also, you can try using any type of white bread instead of French bread while making bread pudding.