This recipe comes from a well-known restaurant that existed in Lincoln, Nebraska, if you were raised there, have lived there, or have visited the region. I’ve been told they take some getting used to, but having eaten them all my life, I love them! It’s an open-faced meat sandwich. To dish out the meat, use a slotted spoon. Serve with sliced dill pickles and mustard on buns.
| Servings: | 15 |
| Yield: | 1 8×11 inch casserole |
Ingredients
- 5 cups day-old bread cubes
- 4 cups scalded milk
- ½ cup butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup raisins (Optional)
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray an 8×11 inch casserole with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, combine bread cubes, 1 cup sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix in raisins, if desired.
- In another bowl, blend milk, melted butter, and eggs. Add wet ingredients to dry, and mix together without turning bread mixture into mush. Pour mixture into prepared casserole dish.
- Place casserole dish into a larger baking pan. Pour hot water into baking pan about 1/3 up the side of the casserole dish, creating a water bath. Bake for 45 minutes.
- In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, 1 cup hot water, 2 tablespoons butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Cook on medium heat until bubbling and thickened. Stir constantly to avoid scorching. Serve with bread pudding.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 264 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 39 g |
| Cholesterol | 75 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 259 mg |
| Sugars | 30 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Perfect taste. Made the sauce from lemons off of our lemon trees. So good!
I used French and sour dough bread and added 1 tsp of vanilla, delicious.
This was absolutely fabulous! The texture, taste and the seasonings were great together with the Lemon Sauce! My husband and son both loved it and want me to make it more often!
This is a great base recipe. However, it’s missing vanilla, and I felt the recipe had way to much sugar. It called for 1 cup of sugar, I used just over 1/4 cup. It was perfectly sweetened and yummy. I didn’t make the lemon sauce, instead I just sprinkled some milk chocolate chips. Didn’t have the nutmeg and didn’t feel like it was missing it. I would maybe bake it longer next time since the bottom was still pretty soggy. At the end I turned my oven to broil and added some sugar to the top and toasted it for a few minutes. It added a perfect crunch to the top. My kids loved it; they said it tasted like French toast.
Absolutely loved it! The lemon sauce was a big hit.,,And I’ve already been asked to make it again. I did not change a thing. Perfect desert, breakfast, night snack. Yummm
i forgot the butter, so when the bread started to crisp on top, i dotted with butter and it was fine- not too greasy or wet. was lazy and just did a lemon icing on top- good enough for the fam.
This was fantastic to make!Love it.
Absolutely delightful! I used fresh french bread cubes and had to double the bread but it came out perfectly.
This was a good recipe for a base and then you could add some extra or different toppings to change things up. I made a caramel sauce to drizzle over the top. I think that next time I will add a bit more vanilla than what the recipe calls for.
Loved it so much. Totally different from the eastern style bread pudding and a lot of intense flavour coming from cinnamon and nutmeg. Will be making it again.
Came out very nice everyone enjoyed it . I’ve add some disaronno on top just to give it a kick of flavor
I followed the recipe and when it was supposed to be taken out of the oven it was very wet. Too wet. I googled the problem and read that a350 oven is too hot and the milk can separate while making the custard. (This is what happened to mine) I actually turned the entire casserole upside down and put it in a 300 degree oven out of the water bath for another hour. It did dry it out so it wasn’t wasted and was very tasty. The suggestion was to put the casserole dish in a water bath and bake it for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at 300. Long and slow. I will try that next time.
I put dark chocolate chips and chopped pecans inside and sprinkled some on top. I also left out the raisins. I was going for a turtle bread pudding. The lemon zest sauce on top really cut through the richness of all the richness I put inside. It was super delish!
Too much work! Also who has a pan bigger than an 8×11 Pyrex? I ended up using an oval casserole dish and an oval pan. This recipe uses a large bowl, a large pan to scald milk, a small pan for the sauce, a casserole dish and another pan for the water bath. What a “crock”.
Loved it – we made it with left over raisin bread and used the extra lemon sauce on home made fry bread – OMG wonderful. only giving 4 stars since I didn’t follow the recipe exactly
My first bread pudding, loved it. The lemon sauce is a great addition. In lemon sauce, substituted half sugar and sugar alternative, sauce didn’t thicken, but I served it anyway, very good.
i made it for the first time today and it came out great. I didn’t add nutmeg since I didn’t have any but I added a little bit more cinnamon(about 1/2 teaspoon or less) I also added a small splash of vanilla when mixing the wet ingredients. Finally I tipped it off with the lemon sauce and a drizzle of condensed milk. Awesome!!!
A little to much juice, did not firm, will try again.
I love this recipe! I didn’t use just regular bread pieces for it each time I made it. I changed it up some and used day old plain donuts, cinnamon raisin bagels, and a variety of other breads. I also substituted Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk for the milk/sugar. It made it so much creamier. Thanks for sharing your recipe! I have used it time and time again. I panicked when I couldn’t find it in my recipe box! 🙂 So happy to have found it again!
I made this last week for people I care for. They loved this recipe, very good. I didn’t make the sauce, but such a good dessert, it didn’t need the sauce.
I used hot dog buns. I might try doubling the bread amount next time as the end product was only about 1/2″ thick. The bread did rise quite a bit in the oven, however, so I might also have a big mess on my hands! I didn’t try the lemon sauce — well, actually, I tried to make it using the microwave and it never thickened up so I dumped it.