New Orleans-Style Bread Pudding

chefRD's Note:

From my favorite dessert cookbook: "Gooey Desserts-The Joy of Decadence" by Elaine Corn She states: My mother goes to conferences now and then with my father. When the men sequester themselves, she and some other spouses attend cooking classes. During one such confab in New Orleans, she took a class from Joe Cahn at the New Orleans School of Cooking, and brought home this incomparable recipe. My friend Kathleen, who is also my chief bread-pudding tester, warns anyone who has just partaken of this dessert to wait a while before driving. "God forbid you might have to take a Breathalyzer test! Whew!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 35 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 16

Bread Pudding

• 10 ounces loaf stale French bread, crumbled (if you use fresh french bread reduce milk to 3 cups) or 6 -8 cups any type crumbled bread (if you use fresh french bread reduce milk to 3 cups)
• 2 cups sugar (granulated)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 cups milk

Joes Whiskey Sauce

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup Bourbon

Directions:

1. For the Bread Pudding:.
2. Butter a 9 by 13 inch baking pan. Set oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Combine all ingredients. Mixture should be very moist but not soupy. Pour into the buttered dish and bake 1 hour and 15 minutes until top is golden brown. Serve warm with Joe's Whiskey Sauce.
4. For Whiskey Sauce:.
5. Using a hand held mixer, cream butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, beating until all butter is absorbed. Remove from heat and blend in yolks. Pour in bourbon gradually, stirring constantly. Sauce will thicken as it cools. Serve warm on warm bread pudding.

Reviews

[moallen31]

Geez loueez! so good. It's the about the same recipe I got from someone who worked at the Cafe du Monde. Took it to work the other day and it went FAST!!!! I even had someone tell me he hadn't had bread pudding this good since his mother passed. And one to tell me she doesn't like bread pudding, but LOVES this! will be making over and over. I will probably double it so I can get it to be thicker in my pan. It's probably my pan.

[Loves Bakin]

This bread pudding was very good. I too omitted the coconut. I was looking for a recipe that used raisins and pecans and spices. The recipe fit what I was looking for except for the coconut. I used several different bread left overs include some Nature's Way Double Fiber Wheat. Those pieces needed a bit longer to soak and was a bit tougher once cooked. I probably could have added some more milk to soften the heavy wheat bread. The sauce was very good but I think I would have preferred a dark rum to the bourbon.

[Brandyberry]

Oh, holy cow! Was this ever delish. RD answered my request in the forums with this recipe as an idea for a cajun/N.O. dessert. I had my own bread pudding recipe, but it has been thrown out the window! I quickly threw this together for game night when another dessert didn't pan out and everyone there RAVED about it. The whiskey sauce is to die for and I don't even like whiskey. I did a couple things differet: my loaf was a fresh 16oz loaf so I kept the milk at 4 cups and added another egg. I omitted the coconut because I knew one of the gals didn't care for it. Other than that, I did everything the same. I baked it in a stoneware 9x13 dish for about 1hr, 15min and it was perfectly done. I made the whiskey sauce with about 1/3c of bourbon because I didn't want it to get too strong, but would use the full 1/2c now that I know it wouldn't be overbearing. I drizzled the sauce on top before serving and let it soak in a bit. There is not one crumb left over. Thank you so much for posting this recipe. Giving it a 5 star review is the least I could do.