| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 55 min |
| Prep: | 25 min |
| Inactive: | 25 min |
| Cook: | 1 hr 5 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar, plus 1/2 cup for the topping
- 8 egg yolks
- 12 slices tight crumb white bread (recommended: Pepperidge Farm) crusts removed
- 1 stick butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup golden raisins, soaked in 3/4 cup Irish whiskey
- 4 tea bags
- 4 cups boiling water
- 3/4 cup Irish whiskey (reserved from pudding)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 cloves
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- In a saucepan over low heat, add the cream, the scraped vanilla bean and the seeds (or extract) and 1/2 cup of sugar. Whisk to combine. Bring the cream to a boil. While the cream is coming to a boil, whisk the yolks and 1/2 cup sugar together until they are a homogeneous mixture. When the cream comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and whisk in 1/3 of the egg yolk mixture, then immediately whisk in the remaining egg mixture. This is called tempering, it allows you to combine hot cream and eggs without making scrambled eggs. It’s kinda fun! Reserve this mixture until you are ready to assemble the pudding.
- To assemble the pudding:
- Butter 1 side of the slices of bread and cut them into triangles. Butter an 8 by 8-inch square baking dish and put a layer of bread points, overlapping, in the bottom of the dish. Strain the raisins reserving the whiskey. Sprinkle half of the whiskey soaked raisins on top of the bread layer. Pour half of the cream/egg mixture over the bread and raisins. Repeat this process with the bread and raisins and finally finish with bread. Pour the remaining cream/egg mixture into the dish. Press down gently on the whole thing to compress and really compact the pudding. If all of the cream mixture doesn’t fit into the pan, wait 10 to 15 minutes and then try again. The bread may need a little while to absorb all the cream. MMMMM& don’t skimp on this step.
- Set the bread pudding dish inside a 9 by 13-inch baking dish or roasting pan and add hot water until it reaches 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the sides of the pudding dish. Cover the whole thing with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven until the custard has set, about 1 hour.
- Remove the pudding from the water bath and let it cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the top of the custard with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a thin even layer. Put the pudding under the broiler or use a blow torch (This is REALLY fun!) to crystallize the sugar on the top of the pudding. A little bit crusty and burnt and sweeeeeeet! YuuuuuummmY! Serve with the whiskey tea sauce.
- To make the sauce:
- While the pudding is baking, combine all the ingredients and the reserved Irish whiskey in a small saucepan and let steep for 15 minutes. Discard the tea bags and the lemon half. Bring the sauce to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer until the liquid has reduced by half. Taste, the sauce should be very pungent, sweet and spicy (cinnamon and clove–not spicy hot) and a perfect accompaniment to the creamy sweet pudding.
- MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM&MMMMMM&.MMM!
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 1443 |
| Total Fat | 77 g |
| Saturated Fat | 45 g |
| Carbohydrates | 151 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Sugar | 106 g |
| Protein | 17 g |
| Cholesterol | 516 mg |
| Sodium | 517 mg |
Reviews
DELICIOUS!!!!!!
Awesome cant describe it……best I’ve ever had!
OMG–Wow, this was awesome!! I made this yesterday for our St. Patrick’s day Irish feast, followed the recipe exactly as written-except added some cornstarch to the whiskey tea sauce as suggested by another reviewer. It never really thickened up and I was skeptical about it, but I thought it complemented the sweet richness of the pudding very well. However, the sauce is probably not necessary, if ur short on time/ingredients–the pudding by itself was still super delicious!! Will definitely save this recipe and make again! I love bread pudding, and this is the best one I have ever made. Thanks, Anne! U rock!
Yummy!! I made this on St. Patrick’s day, 2012. To finish off our Reuben sandwiches (with Alton Brown’s home cured corned beef. The dessert was scrumptious! I would do without the sauce next time – it never really thickened (could be just a technique error on my part, and wasn’t needed for the already sweet dessert.
This was a great dessert!
Oh my goodness!! This recipe was delicious! I received so many compliments, and my family was licking their plates afterwards lol! My aunt claimed that my Irish bread pudding was even better than the bread pudding she ordered recently at a 5 star restaurant! You rock Anne! I will be making this again for either Thanksgiving or Christmas.
What I did differently:
-The top layer didn’t need 1/2 a cup of sugar, I found 1/4 a cup of sugar was sufficient to cover an 8×8 dish. This dish is already very sweet!!
-For the sauce, I omitted cloves and instead used 4 bags of Chai tea for the sauce. It was definitely spicy enough already and created a wonderful contrast! I also added a tinsy-tiny bit of agave nectar like another reviewer, and added 1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch to give the sauce some consistency.
Unbeleivable……… I toasted the bread for a firmer consistency. For the sauce I added some agave nectar and corn starch thicken the sauce. This was definately a crowd pleaser, thank you Anne, you are the best!
One word, SPLENDIFORLICIOUS!
Wow. This was incredible. I did not use a vanilla bean, (just pure liquid vanilla) and although I am irish I really don’t like hard liquor like Irish Whiskey. I was afraid this was going to taste like whiskey, but it does not. The whiskey just added a wonderful flavor. Well worth your time. Make this one, you will not be dissapointed!
Surprising light for having some much heavy cream. The taste was extraordinary. I was prepared not to like the sauce but it cuts the almost overwhelming sweetest of the pudding. I didn’t have some of the spices, namely whole cloves, so I opted to use Stash’s Spiced Black Tea Chai in the sauce instead of just a tea. I didn’t have any alcohol in the house but a little nip of Drambuie, which is whiskey with honey and herbs. I used that in the sauce. After allowing the pudding to cool a little once the top was caramelized I served a small portion to my husband with the sauce. He was very impressed with the results. So was I. Will definitely make this again.