Sinfully Easy Caramel Bread Pudding

Caramel bread pudding.

I am really enjoying my new cookbook, Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts by Alice Medrich.  I've made two of her desserts already: The Chocolate and White Bread Pudding and the Chocolate-Walnut Torte.  I had some Dulce de Leche from Stonewall Kitchen left over from another dish,  and I decided to use this rich caramel sauce to make a second bread pudding by tweaking Medrich's recipe for Chocolate/White Bread Pudding.

Lightly toasted bread and Dulce de Leche sauce.

Spread sauce on one side of each slice of bread.

I lightly toasted 7 slices of Pepperidge Farm white sandwich bread to dry it out so it would soak up the custard.  If you have stale bread that would work well too.  I spread the dulce de leche (caramel sauce) on one side of each slice of bread and cut the slices into quarters.

Ready for custard to be added.

I then arranged the slices, caramel side up, in an 8-inch square, buttered dish.   The pieces are crowded and almost standing on end.  I had a few maple-glazed pecans that I had prepared for another dish, so I finely chopped these and sprinkled 1/4 cup of these over the bread slices. 

Make the custard:
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 3/4  teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups whole milk

Whisk all the ingredients together and strain the mixture over the bread.  Cover the pudding with a plastic wrap, put another baking dish on top to submerge the bread and let stand for 20 minutes or until the bread has absorbed the liquid.

Add custard.

Cover with plastic wrap and put another dish on top until bread absorbs custard.

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Put a kettle of water on to boil.

Uncover the pudding once the liquid is absorbed and brush the exposed edges of the bread with 1 tablespoon of melted butter.  Put the baking dish in a larger pan and place in the oven.  Pull out the rack and pour boiling water into the larger pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a knife inserted in the pudding comes out free of custard.

Baking pan in another pan for water bath.

Out of the oven.

Remove the baking dish from the water bath and let it cool.  This is wonderful served warm or at room temperature or refrigerate and serve cold.   After refrigerating, you can reheat in the microwave on medium power for about 15 seconds.

Caramel bread pudding ready to eat, and I did.

This is sinfully easy and sinfully delicious.