I fixed bread pudding the day after Thanksgiving. An act of defiance against chocolate cake, the staple dessert that reappears EVERYTIME our family gets together. I’m tired of it…but change is uncomfortable for our family sometimes. Routine is more comfortable than new experiences of the palatable kind. But who am I kidding, I’m also having a difficult time embracing change. Coming to grips with the harsh reality of an irreparable relationship. We broke up over a series of parts…like a limited series - Part 1, Part 2, and then a gut-wrenching Part 3, that left me wishing I could write about it and sell it to Netflix. You know, turn my pain into profit. The heartbreak that breaks bread - sounds like a SZA album.
In the meantime, I’ll settle for baking, which over the years has served as a healing activity in proxy of therapy. I don’t think about my problems or obsess over past mistakes, sweet relief is in the oven.
My dessert protest would spawn from the comforting kind. Bread pudding is a simple dish that calls for day old bread, which is basically stale bread. Similar to my stale relationship…not fresh, dry, uneventful, don’t even bother. Throw it away or make bread pudding. I didn’t have any stale bread, so I had to make it…you gotta make it, right -
Cutting up a half loaf of sourdough bread into 1-inch cubes and toasting it at 300 degrees.
Store brand sourdough bread before it was toasted.
So while that’s toasting you can make your bread pudding mix. Here’s what you need:
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (margarine spread works too)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar
Pinch salt
3 eggs, beaten
Sprinkle a little bit of nutmeg
and LOVE.
Start with a small saucepan over low heat, add the milk, butter, vanilla, sugar, nutmeg, and salt. Cook until the butter melts…turn off the stove, add eggs to the mixture and whisk. If the bread is ready = toasted, combine the mixture and “day old bread” in a bowl and let it set for up to an hour. This is where you speak the LOVE ingredient.
Bread soaking in the pudding mixture.
Pour bread pudding in a baking dish and bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until it is set but a little wobbly and edges of bread have browned. Serve with vanilla ice cream or…how about vanilla sauce?! Here’s what you need:
1-1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons of butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Whisk together milk, brown sugar, butter, egg, flour, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla extract in a saucepan until smooth. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until sauce is thickened, 10 to 12 minutes. Pour sauce over warm bread pudding or serve on the side in a bowl.
Chile I served it with the ice cream AND vanilla sauce.