All good meals must end. Even pretend meals. The final course in my “practice” Thanksgiving is Bourbon Bread Pudding.
There’s just something about bread pudding. It’s one of those rare combinations whose sum is somehow greater than its parts. It’s not a pudding in the American sense. Traditional American pudding has a smoothly creamy consistent texture. It usually comes in vanilla, chocolate or butterscotch. Comparatively speaking North American pudding is a newfangled invention. Nothing at all like its old-world counterpart.
The English have really embraced the whole idea of bread pudding for hundreds and hundreds of years. In Victorian times, it became a staple of the children’s nursery, and was known as Bread and Butter pudding. It can be richly complex with a custard component. It can even include other ingredients like currants or raisins and booze, as in the Bourbon Bread Pudding I’m serving today. However, it can also be a very simple combination of bread and sweet milk stirred into a china cup. Milky and comforting. Just thing to quiet a restless child.
In fact I bet you didn’t know that this blog was named after a bread pudding nursery rhyme.
Sippity sup, sippity sup,
Bread and milk from a china cup.
Bread and milk from a bright silver spoon
Made of a piece of the bright silver moon.
Sippity sup, sippity sup,
Sippity, sippity sup.
Of course I’ve grown up (and so has my blog). So I don’t mind a splash of something “comforting” in my bread pudding. To end my series on Thanksgiving this year, I bring you Bourbon Bread Pudding, as a Thanksgiving dessert.
Don’t worry. Someone else will bring the pumpkin pie. You’ve done enough for one meal. This Bourbon Bread Pudding won’t overwhelm an overburdened cook and it has everything you want in a Thanksgiving dessert, including a healthy splash of bourbon. Sippity, sippity sup Indeed. GREG
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup bourbon (divided)
- 1 cup currants or raisins
- 2 cup heavy cream (divided)
- 2 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar (divided)
- 8 cup rustic bread (slightly stale and cut into 1‑inch cubes)
- 3 cup whole milk
- 4 large eggs (lightly beaten)
- 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground all spice
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened)
Directions
Heat ½ cup bourbon in a medium saucepan set over medium-low heat until warm. Place the currants or raisins in a small bowl and pour the warm bourbon on top; let stand at least 1 hour or overnight.
Make the bourbon sauce: In a small saucepan set over medium heat bring 1‑cup cream to a simmer. In a small bowl whisk cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the warm cream together to create a slurry; slowly whisk the slurry into the remaining warm cream. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly. Once it boils add the ¼ cup sugar and reduce heat to very low. Whisk constantly until thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in remaining ¼ cup bourbon. Set aside to cool completely.
Make the bread pudding: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl stir together bread, milk, and remaining 1‑cup cream. In a medium bowl whisk the eggs, remaining 1 ½ cups sugar, vanilla, salt, and all spice until well combined; add to bread mixture. Stir in the currants or raisins and the bourbon they soaked in.
Butter a 2‑quart shallow baking dish in oven. Pour in bread mixture, spreading it evenly across the bottom of the baking dish. Bake in the heated oven until bread cubes are browned and custard is cooked, about 40 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Serve with bourbon sauce. Reheat the sauce gently with ½ teaspoon water if necessary.
Spiked bread pudding is the perfect celebratory dessert for Thanksgiving!!
This sounds, and looks, divine! I’m a total sucker for a good bread pudding. Makes me think that bread pudding might be a good vehicle for other cocktail flavors?
Who doesn’t like bread pudding? Really nice recipe. We sometimes put bourbon in ours, but more often dark rum — wonderful flavor. Good post — thanks.
I can’t imagine a more perfect ending to your practice Thanksgiving!
Your practice thanksgiving meals are so nice.
This is an awesome dessert, love bread pudding and your spiked it, awesome.
I like the sweetness that bourbon brings to the bread pudding party. I have just about a cup of bourbon left, I should make this.
Bread pudding looks divine.. I love it.. gorgeous clicks 🙂
One of my favorite desserts, I grew up eating lots of this with a nice creamy creme anglais.
Oh gosh, I’d completely forgotten about that nursery rhyme! I’m a huge fan of bread pudding and this looks great.
For years I looked away when bread pudding was mentioned; I’m sure influenced by the stuff served on school cafeteria plates and all I could think was Ewwww.
Luckily I saw a recipe once that seemed intriguing enough to try and everything changed. It might have been the great ingredients and the not cooking it to death but I think in part it was also the booze. So…you KNOW I would love this! My favorite is one I made in the last year or so with cranberries, croissants and zabaglione…so entirely decadent.
Why wait till Thanksgiving? Bread pudding has always been my weakness.
It has been a gastronomic delight from appetizer to dessert through practice Thanksgiving Greg. Now on to the real thing.
Yesssssssssss. I’m glad I’m no the only one with a vast appreciation for crispy-soggy bread. Ever had milk toast?
Wow, your bread pudding looks really, really good! And “bourbon” makes it extra attractive for adults too. 🙂 On cold days (or honestly any days), this is a perfect comforting dessert!
Greg, your bread and butter pudding is gorgeous! That’s a dish I’ve been eating all my life, and making for most of it. I usually put rum in mine, but I wouldn’t turn down one with bourbon!
This looks amazing, Greg! I’m definitely going to give this recipe a try.
Love this post — bread pudding is our favorite dessert. Larry and I always order one and split it — yours looks perfect. And I had no idea of the nursery rhyme and the name of your site!
I so enjoyed your practice Thanksgiving, even though we had Canadian Thanksgiving last month — this is another keeper 🙂