You are right, this is a gift from the Gods:

INGREDIENTS

Unsalted Butter, softened
1 (1 1/2 pound) loaf cinnamon egg bread
2/3 cup golden raisins
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 cups milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup vanilla extract
8 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat the bottom and sides of a 2-inch deep 9"x13" baking dish heavily with butter. Tear the bread into 1-inch pieces. Mix with the raisons in a bowl. Spread the bread mixture evenly in the prepared dish, turning crust side down as this tends to burn easily. Whisk the sugar, milk, whipping cream, vanilla, eggs and cinnamon in a bowl until blended. Pour gently over the bread mixture, making sure every piece is wet. Place the baking dish inside a larger, 4-inch deep roaster pan. Add water to the roaster pan to reach halfway up the side of the baking dish. Bake for 1 hour. Remove baking dish from water bath immediately. Let stand for 20 minutes. Serve while still warm. Spoon into dessert bowls. Drizzle each serving with warm Ol' Southern Plantation Praline Sauce. Top with whipped cream and add a scoop of vanilla if desired.

Yield: 9 HUGE servings!

Ol' Southern Plantation Praline Sauce

INGREDIENTS

2 cups unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
3 pounds light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 cups sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Heat 1 cup of the butter in a large saucepan until melted. Add the pecans and mix well. Bring to a boil. Cook until the pecans begin to change color. Be careful! This mixture will foam over, so use a large saucepan (3 qts or larger). Add the remaining 1 cup of butter and mix will. This will cool the pecan mixture and stop the cooking process. Remove from heat. Combine the brown sugar, whipping cream and cinnamon in a large (4 qt.) sauce pan and mix well. Cook over low heat until blended, stirring constantly. Increase heat. Using a candy thermometer, cook to exactly 230 degrees. Immediately stir in pecan mixture. Then add sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Remove from heat. Serve over Famous Dave's Bread Pudding, but save some for vanilla ice cream, French toast, pancakes, etc.

Thanks Bruce, this stuff is killer. Definately include the vanilla ice cream and whipped cream when you serve this. The way they mix with the praline sauce is indescribable.

To die for--my arteries are closing even now. The praline sauce is..............................................................................................................................................................................................(sorry--diabetic coma!) Fabulous!

This is one of the greatest desserts I've ever eaten, it is to die for.

gotta try this Bruce, thanks for the post .... I love good bread pudding, not often but must have once in a while ... particularly in the winter for some reason ... I gotta try some dark or spiced rum in the sauce or douse the loaf with it I'm certain heh

?what is cinnamon egg bread pls?

quote:

Originally posted by Shawn W:
gotta try this Bruce, thanks for the post .... I love good bread pudding, not often but must have once in a while ... particularly in the winter for some reason ... I gotta try some dark or spiced rum in the sauce or douse the loaf with it I'm certain heh

?what is cinnamon egg bread pls?

I went and looked up a few recipes, nm...

I asked because I was thinking 'go to store buy cinnamon egg bread' but I've never seen it in a grocery store here

Shawn, I used a heavy (dense) cinnamon raisin bread from Costco, but you can can use Brioche or Challah (both egg breads) and just add your own cinnamon. The raisin bread wasn't an egg bread, but it was great!

Does anyone know how well the bread pudding will freeze?

MikeZ

I love bread pudding. I'm going to try this one. Last time I made bread pudding I used this recipe:

Donut Bread Pudding Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 (4 1/2-ounce) cans fruit cocktail, with their juice
2 eggs, beaten
1 (9-ounce) box raisins
Pinch salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
24 donuts, cut into cubes (recommended: Krispy Kreme)
Butter Rum Sauce, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all ingredients except for the donut cubes and Butter Rum Sauce. Add the donut cubes and toss until they have absorbed as much of the liquid as possible. Pour the mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 1 hour. Serve with Butter Rum Sauce.

Butter Rum Sauce:
1 stick butter
1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar
Dark rum
In a saucepan, melt the butter and gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Add rum and heat until bubbly. Pour over each serving of Donut Bread Pudding.

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Yield: about 12 servings

This one is good too. I you can keep yourself from eating the donuts.

Scratch one off the to-do list; made this last night ... just fantastic!! Pics at bottom of this post.


I modified a Challah recipe for the bread from my bread machine recipe book, a Black and Decker vertical 2lb loaf unit.

1C water
2 eggs beaten (I beat the eggs in 1/2C of the water)
3 T butter
3 T sugar
1 1/4 t salt
3 2/3C coarse unbleached white flour*
1 1/2 t cinnamon, mixed well with 1/3C of the flour
1 t yeast
*recommended amount of Canadian flour, book recommends 3 3/4C bread flour in US

The loaf hit the top of the machine and came out just over 10" tall ... recipe wouldn't be suitable as is for smaller machines.

Once I added the wet ingrediants the pan was just too full ... I removed a few cups of the mixture.

I puffed the raisins in hot water to remove 'insie' stems. Found an additional half dozen or so this way. Gave the raisins a good squeeze. Put the raisins on top then stirred them in a bit with a fork before flattening the top out. This way I feel will give a nicer distribution of the raisins.

Baked as directed (started with hot tap water), I noticed the edges were beginning to rise and it still felt too squishy .... bumped the heat to 350ºF and went another 30 minutes until the center rose and the edges started pulling away from the pan. Gave it a quick broil to brown the top. I think it came out perfect, dryish at the top, very moist at the bottom (but not squishy).

How long would you think the pecans should be simmered? I couldn't really discern a color change of the nut flesh (though the butter got nice and brown) ... I waited until it started foaming and a little bit longer until the smell changed from a raw pecan smell to a mellow buttery pecan smell.

Seriously, only need 1/4 to 1/2 the recipe of pecan sauce to accompany the bread pudding ... I don't know what I'm going to do with it all. Freeze some? BTW: the sauce didn't seperate even after cool, the butter didn't 'fall out'.

I'm going to try wrapping a piece of the pudding in a piece of dark rum soaked cheese cloth, tightly foiled in the fridge for 3 days or so. Steam to reheat.


Loaf out of the bread machine:




Cut up and in the pan:




Redistributed; roast pan; Molina vanilla; swelling the raisins




Raisins in, ready to bake:




Pecan sauce:




Out of the oven:




Done, close up:













Thanks for posting a great recipe Bruce!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

Shawn, Simply awsome!!! Well done.

Wow! That realy looks good.
I gotta try that.

Steam to reheat was ok but not stellar in single parchment paper, it took on more water than I would have liked. Maybe in double parchment paper.

Put some pecan sauce on the steel cut oats this morning instead of br sugar. Yup, that's real fine!

quote:

Originally posted by Shawn W:
Steam to reheat was ok but not stellar in single parchment paper, it took on more water than I would have liked. Maybe in double parchment paper.

Put some pecan sauce on the steel cut oats this morning instead of br sugar. Yup, that's real fine!

Maybe try the Nuker?
I'll bet the praline went just dany with the steel cuts.

I just got fatter looking at this thread.

Thanks.

quote:

I just got fatter looking at this thread.

Thanks.

I barely fit on this side of my computer any more.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

Ok, that was much funnier. I bow down.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Zarecky:
Does anyone know how well the bread pudding will freeze?

MikeZ

I pulled some out of the freezer tonight, it wasn't vac packed. I nuked it until it was warm and I'd say it takes a bit of a hit ... the texture became a little ... pasty, but it's not ruined.

To avoid freezing perhaps cut the recipe in 1/2 and do in a 9x9 or by 1/4 and do in a bread loaf pan.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

quote:

Originally posted by Bryan S:

quote:

Originally posted by Shawn W:
Steam to reheat was ok but not stellar in single parchment paper, it took on more water than I would have liked. Maybe in double parchment paper.

Maybe try the Nuker?

How about putting each serving in a custard cup, wrapping with plastic wrap, and setting in a steamer until warm?

Can the Praline Sauce be made ahead of time and refrigerated? I'd like to serve this for Christmas dessert. To avoid last minute chaos, I'd like to get some of my preparations out of the way on Christmas Eve.