A Delicious Blueberry Bread Pudding from Stale Bread

Blueberry Bread Pudding.

Whenever someone posts a good recipe on Facebook, I share it so I then will have it saved in my Facebook Account.This recipe for Blueberry Bread Pudding is one such recipe.  I don't remember who posted it, but I did remember that I had saved it.  Today I had a bit of stale bread that needed to be used---some brioche and part of a whole wheat baguette--- so I made this.

Blueberry Bread Pudding
Yields 8-10 servings

Ingredients

1 loaf of dense white bread, cubed (about 4-5 cups) (I used brioche and whole wheat bread.)
2 cups milk
2 cups cream (I used half and half)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 pint blueberries
1 tablespoon raw (turbinado) sugar*
1 tablespoon butter, to coat the dish

Topping Ingredients
¼ cup raw (turbinado) sugar*
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
Gently heat the cream, milk, sugar and salt in a heavy bottomed pot until it is just about to boil. Remove from heat. Meanwhile, mix together the eggs, vanilla and ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon in a large bowl. Slowly pour the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture, stirring constantly so that the eggs don’t scramble. Add the cubed bread to the custard, toss together and put aside.

Heat cream, milk, and sugar. 

Mix eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon.

Add egg mixture to milk mixture slowly so eggs will not scramble.

Add bread cubes.

In another bowl, add a tablespoon of the raw sugar to the blueberries, and mash together so that there is mix of mashed and whole blueberries. Let the blueberries and the sugar sit for a few minutes, allowing juices to collect. Mix the blueberries into the pudding well, and put the whole thing in the refrigerator for at least an hour so that the bread can fully soak up the custard.

Crush part of the blueberries. 

Mix blueberries into the pudding mixture.  Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a large baking dish.** Pour the bread pudding mixture into the dish. Sprinkle the pudding with the cinnamon and sugar. Cover the pudding with foil and bake for 45 minutes, until the center is set. Remove the foil and cook for another 20 minutes. At the very end, put the pudding under the broiler for another 1-2 minutes to crisp up the top of the pudding. Let the pudding sit for at least a half hour before serving. Serve it up with vanilla ice cream, and you’ll be in heaven.

Ready for the oven.

Out of the oven.

With vanilla ice cream ready to eat. 

* If you only have regular white sugar, that’s fine. The raw sugar creates a better crunchy crust, but it is not a big enough difference to deter you from making this recipe!
** The pudding puffed up a great deal while baking, I would recommend using a large baking dish, and putting a baking sheet underneath to catch any wayward pudding or blueberries.

\

Real Homemade Whipped Cream

A dollop of homemade whipped cream on pumpkin bread pudding.

During the holiday season, I usually make whipped cream to garnish various desserts.  Homemade whipped cream is so easy to make, and it has only three ingredients: cream, sugar, vanilla.  If you read the labels on canned whipped creams you will see that there are a number of added ingredients that don't sound so appealing.

Get your ingredients together:  1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (the heavy has more butterfat and is easier and quicker to whip), 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.

Three ingredients: heavy whipping cream, sugar, vanilla extract.

Make sure that your bowl and beaters are cold.  I put them in the freezer for about 10 or 15 minutes before I start making the whipped cream, and of course have the whipping cream cold.  You could use a hand whisk, but I prefer to use an electric hand mixer. I like to use a two cup measuring cup for beating the cream. 

Cold measuring cup and cold beaters for hand mixer.

Beat on medium speed until soft peaks begin to form, add sugar and vanilla, and continue beating until soft peaks reappear.

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream.

Beat until soft peaks form.

Caution:  If you beat too long, the cream will turn to butter.  After I remove the whipped cream and place it in a serving bowl,  I often leave a bit of the cream in the bowl and continue whipping it until it turns to butter.  I add a tablespoon of maple syrup and continuing beating to blend it in and I have maple butter that will be good on toast.

Whipping cream whipped so long it turns to butter.

A dollop of whipped cream on pumpkin bread pudding.

I used the whipped cream to garnish our pumpkin bread pudding.  The bread pudding is from Trader Joe's and is quite delicious.  It can be defrosted in the fridge and then heated in the microwave or in the oven.  I prefer heating it in the oven. 

Pumpkin bread pudding from Trader Joe's/

Whenever I do use ready made whipped cream, I use the Cabot's whipped cream from Trader Joe's.  It tastes much like homemade, but still has added preservatives. 

Cabot Whipped Cream.

As you can see it is very easy to make homemade whipped cream.

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.