Today's recipe: Rustic Bread Pudding With Bourbon Whipped Cream
Layered and topped with luscious Demerara sugar, this puffy, custardy dessert includes generous quantities of many forbidden Lenten foods—sugar, eggs, butter, booze and cream.
Made with just a touch of almond extract, Rustic Bread Pudding is composed in layers that bake into a creamy, eggy strata.
If you’re fasting tomorrow, you’d better have an extra helping tonight. Forty days is a long time to abstain.
P.S. If you’re not fasting, this pudding makes a yummy breakfast. Spoon it up chilled and serve with a splash of half-and-half.
Rustic Bread Pudding
½ loaf rustic Italian bread or other bread
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 eggs
½ cups raisins
1 cup plus 2 extra tablespoons Demerara or plain sugar
Ground cinnamon, about ½ teaspoon
Ground nutmeg, about ½ teaspoon
4 cups half-and-half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- Set two racks in your oven, one in the middle and one low enough to accommodate a shallow roasting pan.
- Place roasting pan on lower rack and fill with 2” of water.
- Heat oven to 325 degrees.
- Using 1 tablespoon butter, grease a medium size casserole—casserole should be at least 3” deep.
- Slice bread into 5-6 thick slices. You’ll use about half a loaf of rustic Italian or French bread, see photo, below.
- Cut crusts from bread, see photo. Don’t throw out the crusts. Charred al forno Italian bread crusts—and the gritty cornmeal-sprinkled bottom crust—are my favorite part of the bread. Spread thickly with unsalted butter and eat immediately while they’re still chewy. Not a crust-eater? Set crusts aside to make bread crumbs later.
- Spread slices with two tablespoons butter.
- Cut buttered slices into 2″ pieces. You can also tear the bread, if you don’t mind getting your fingers buttery. You don’t need to be fussy about perfectly shaped pieces—this is a rustic bread pudding. You want bread to be hearty—even chunky—but small enough to line your pan.
- Layer 1/3 of bread pieces in bottom of casserole.
- Sprinkle 1/3 of the sugar over the bread pieces.
- Scatter 1/3 of the raisins over the sugared bread.
- Dust with cinnamon and nutmeg, see photo.
- Repeat process to add two more layers of bread, sugar, raisins and spices.
- In a bowl or large Pyrex measuring cup, beat eggs.
- Add half-and-half, extracts and salt to eggs. Mix well.
- Place casserole on cookie sheet and pour egg/half-and-half mixture over it. Fill to brim.
- Dunk top pieces of bread down into the egg/half-and-half mixture to soak the bread.
- Sprinkle remaining two tablespoons Demerara sugar over top of pudding.
- Carefully slide cookie sheet and pudding into oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until top is browned slightly.
A pan of water keeps the pudding moist as it bakes.
Crusty country-style bread makes this pudding hearty and—sprinkled with Demerara sugar—creates a sweet crunchy crust.
A short serrated knife makes it easy to remove thick crusts.
Rough-cut or tear the buttered bread into pieces.
Slightly overlap bread slices on bottom of dish.
Sprinkle sugar, raisins and spices over bread layer—use cinnamon sparingly, this pudding should not be overwhelmed with a cinnamony flavor.
Whenever I can get away with it, I use a Pyrex measuring cup for one-stop measuring and mixing—saves clean-up time.
The Demerara sugar has a dark, nuanced flavor and makes a wonderful crunchy crust that seals the soft, eggy pudding beneath it. 
Pudding is divine served warm, but also delicious at room-temperature or chilled.
Cool slightly before serving topped with a dollop of Bourbon Whipped Cream, below.
Bourbon Whipped Cream
½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon
- In a chilled bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken.
- Add sugar, vanilla and bourbon gradually, beating continuously until cream forms soft peaks.
Serves 6.
