Can this possibly be serious? Wasn’t Thanksgiving and its ridiculous overindulgence only a week ago? (Need I remind anyone, we ate so much I had to spread the meal out over three blog posts.) Swore off sweets, swore off treats, it’s back to being good for this one. Well…that was until I got an email from Food52 looking for some recipe testers on contest-winning recipes for stale bread. Okay, fine, I already have all the ingredients for the bread pudding…but after taste testing, it’s out of my sight!
Here’s the recipe highlighted on Food52, submitted by Sasha at Global Table Adventure. I’m going to have to check her website out…she experiments with cooking different cuisines, with the goal of cooking a meal from every country. Pretty cool.
My only changes to the recipe are using Challah bread, which is loaded with raisins, and coconut palm sugar in place of the brown sugar, to give it a more fruity, coconut flavor. If you don’t already have stale bread, you can slice up whatever you plan to use, set the oven at 300F and throw the bread slices in there for roughly 10 minutes each side, or until it feels “stale”.
- 5 slices stale wheat bread, cubed (or Challah bread, about 6 loosely packed cups)
- 1 1/2 cup light coconut milk
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (or coconut palm sugar)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar (for topping)
- 1/4 cup softened butter (for topping)
- 1/2 cup UNSWEETENED grated coconut (for topping)
A whole lot of loving spoonfuls of some of this, some of that go into it…be prepared!
- Preheat the over to 375F and butter a medium/small casserole (I used a 10 1/2 inch round cast iron pan, although a 8×8 baking dish should work well, too). Whisk together the light coconut milk, coconut palm sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and cinnamon.
- Fold in the cubed bread and raisins, and let the bread soak up the coconut milk mixture for about 10 minutes.
- While the bread is soaking, prepare the topping by kneading together the butter, coconut palm sugar, and coconut flakes.
- Add the bread mixture to the iron skillet, then sprinkle with the insane amount of butter-sugar topping.
- Bake the casserole at 375F for 35-40 minutes, or until bubbling, browned, and an inserted knife comes out clean.
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup golden or dark rum
- Make the rum sauce by heating all ingredients in a small pot and simmer gently until the sugar dissolves completely and the sauce thickens a little, about 5-10 minutes.
- It’s worth trying this bread pudding with and without the glaze, just to see the difference in flavor and texture.
- Enjoy! I guarantee you’ll never look at bread pudding the same way again.
All things considered yummy 