I like bread pudding. A Lot.
There is nothing so wonderful as taking old, dry, stale bread and turning it into a decadent, custardy dessert. This is one of the reasons why french toast is such a wonderful breakfast food, especially when it’s done right with dry bread so that the egg soak can be absorbed by the bread without making it mushy. But that is off topic for what we are here to talk about: bread pudding.
The recipe I used to make the bread pudding pictured is actually one that I managed to get from my grandmother. As she is getting older we are scrambling to try and make notes of all the recipes she would make. This is partly because as she is getting older she is getting forgetful, partly because she comes from one of those generations that measure everything by eye, or feeling, or by that one teacup they always have sitting next to the stove. The bread pudding pictured was mostly a test run to make sure that I got the recipe noted down correctly.
Despite saying this was a test run of my grandmothers recipe there were a few changes I made to start with. Usually my grandmother’s bread pudding uses days old baguettes, and she often soaks it to the point it looses most of its structural integrity and reverts back to a batter like consistency. I usually prefer my bread to have a little more structure to it so I didn’t soak it quiet as long as she usually does, which is why you can still see some of the bread cubes. The odd color comes from having used left over cherry chocolate loaf as part of the old bread rather than just old baguette bread and the cinnamon in the bread pudding recipe mixing together. Because I used a flavored bread you couldn’t taste the cinnamon as strongly as you usually can in a bread pudding recipe but it still tastes great, even if the color is a little off. I think I will stick to using plain bread like my grandmothers recipe calls for, but since I liked the texture of the bread chunks I may adjust the recipe for a slightly shorter soaking time.
