| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 55 min |
| Prep: | 25 min |
| Inactive: | 25 min |
| Cook: | 1 hr 5 min |
| Yield: | 4 to 6 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.
- Pudding: 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. Discard the vanilla bean.
- 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 6 servings |
| Calories | 962 |
| Total Fat | 51 g |
| Saturated Fat | 30 g |
| Carbohydrates | 101 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 71 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 344 mg |
| Sodium | 345 mg |
Reviews
This is the best bread pudding I have ever made! Delicious! I have done some many different varieties. I have added chocolate chips and raspberries so good!
This is one of the best recipes I ever tried. Love making this. I don’t make the sauce just the pudding and serve with fresh whipped cream it’s delicious
I just finished eating this and Wow! This has been an absolute hit both times I’ve made it. I use San Francisco style sourdough bread when I make it. You need to be super careful during broiling the sugar on top. It goes from perfect to burned in the blink of an eye!
This recipe is really the rich man’s bread pudding- quite rich! I found it and the accompanying sauce/drizzle quite delightful. However, I thought the coat of sugar on top was too thick and found that any raisins sitting on top became inedible due to scorching during the broiling stage, despite the sugar being just perfectly browned.
Very tasty my family loved it. Instead of the raisins I used dried cranberries. I also made a whisky cream sauce to go with it. I used bot sauces over the slices of bread pudding YUM!
This was great!!!
This is a great example of an amazing dish using cheaper ingredients.
I used a 8 by 13 dish and it was amazing!
This is a great example of an amazing dish using cheaper ingredients.
I used a 8 by 13 dish and it was amazing!
This recipe is absolutely delicious!! I was a tad nervous making this for the first time, but it is very easy. The Whiskey Tea Sauce is a great addition to the pudding. This is a must make.
To Shileyjp from Lancaster: These boards are for rating recipes and not for your personal comments to the chef. I’ve never seen her do what you describe and in fact, she’s a stickler for such behavior.
Regarding the receipe, I LOVE IT!
It was easy to make and my family wants me to make it again and again.
Thank you again Chef Anne!