When I was growing up, I never liked bread pudding. What could possibly be so good about bread soaked in milk with cherries, raisins and a host of other things. YUK! Plus, my mother never liked it either so she didn’t make it. The only exposure I had to it was what Kenmars (a store in my island) showcased in a cafeteria styled manner and occasionally when my godmother made it. But recently, when I discovered a certain website (which shall remain a secret), I started becoming curious. I was seeing all these delightful images of this dish that was soaked in a custard like liquid, baked and sometimes served with a scoop of ice cream. I wanted to try it but only if I made it. No one else but me. So with Recipe # 1 and Recipe # 2 in hand, I began my task of mixing them up to make a treat that I’d be sure to love!  The result?

The biggest challenge of making my bread pudding was deciding what bread to use. Some recipes called for challah, some for regular white bread, one even used hot dog rolls. Eventually I decided on using a loaf of french bread (baguette) and a loaf of italian bread. I couldn’t have made a better choice. Also I tweaked the recipes by adding maraschino cherries to mine. One recipe (listed above) had called for raisins so I followed through and added them. So to spell it out, I cut my bread into cubes and tossed them into a baking dish then made my custard separately. When my custard was done and cooled, I poured the mixture into the pan, making sure to press every bit of bread down so they could be drowned in the creaminess.

I then transferred this into the fridge to relax overnight. Hehehe. The next morning, I was anxious to bake and that I did. I baked it for an hour although the recipe asked for 45 mins. Mines was just a little too jiggly still and I needed it to firm up some. The hardest part after it came out of the oven was having to wait for it to cool. I was beyond eager to eat! In that “between time”, I decided to make my Bourbon-Whiskey sauce. Now I know that that is a Courvoisier bottle in the picture up top, but I really did use some Jack Daniels although I’m sure a cognac sauce wouldn’t be bad with this bread pudding at all. Heck, even rum would work. Liquor makes everything better!

As you can see, I did steal a little piece before I presented myself was a sizeable portion, topped with my liquor laced sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Can somebody help me say YUM? So now, bread pudding is in the running for my favorite desserts everr. I just can’t believe what I’ve been missing out for all these years.

Bye For Now……