Southern Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

True comfort food for any Southerner. This recipe is the closest I have come to my Maw-Maw's recipe. From FoodTV.com.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• pudding

• 3  cups  stale  French bread, cut in 3/4 inch cubes
• 2  cups milk
• 2  eggs
• 1  cup sugar
• 1  tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4  tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled

• sauce

• 2  egg yolks
• 1⁄2 cup butter, not margarine
• 1  cup sugar
• 1⁄3 cup Bourbon, to taste

Directions

1. --pudding--.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Place stale bread in a bowl with milk and squeeze the bread with your hand until well saturated with milk.
4. With an electric mixer on high speed in a separate bowl, beat eggs with sugar until thick and pale.
5. Stir in the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter.
6. Add the soaked bread crumbs to the egg mixture and stir well.
7. Let stand for 10 minutes.
8. It is important to allow enough time for the bread to absorb the egg mixture or the bread crumbs will float to the top during baking, leaving a layer of custard on the bottom of the dish.
9. Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish.
10. Bake until firm, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes.
11. Allow to cool.
12. --sauce--.
13. With an electric mixer, beat egg yolks until thick and pale.
14. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar.
15. Pour the butter and sugar mixture over the egg yolks, beating constantly with the mixer, until well thickened.
16. Stir in bourbon by hand.
17. Serve over slightly cooled bread pudding.