Bread Pudding (and Beer Bread recipe)

I don't know about you all out there, but I'm betting you've got bits and pieces, or the end bits and pieces of bread hanging around your house.

If you've been baking your own bread, I'm going to make an assumption, that you probably have some dried out, or semi dried out pieces of bread hanging around. And you're tired of turning them into croutons, and bread crumbs. I mean how many croutons does anyone need? And the bread crumbs, unless you're making lots of meatloaf or breaded fried food, how much do you really need? hmmm?

Well, if you've still got some eggs and milk, how about taking that dried bread, ends and pieces and making a bread pudding.

I've told you how to make Bread Pudding from Leftover Soda Bread in the past, and it was good.

It was easy and tasty and not much different from this method either. Except for one little detail.

Well, actually two. I used leftover Soda Bread for that one and baked it in a large pan, and with this recipe, I baked it in individual ramekins and used Beer Bread. (Beer Bread recipe is at the end).

I used ramekins to make individual servings of Bread Pudding. Mainly because I'm the only one in this house who eats bread pudding, and well, gee I don't need a great big dish of it staring me in the face, taunting me to eat just a little, c'mon, you know you want some, every time I walk past the fridge, or open it.

So, I got smart. I made just enough for me for the week, for breakfast. I figure it's got eggs, dairy, fruit and bread so it's a balanced meal.

First off, I buttered the ramekins.

then I mixed up the batter and added 4 slices of cubed Beer Bread.

let them soak for about 20 minutes,

then added a spoonful to the bottom of each ramekin and dumped about a tablespoon of dried cranberries on top.

Filled them up with the rest of the soaked bread.

baked them in a pan that could hold water, and called it a bain marie. Basically, pour water into a pan that holds the ramekins, about half way up the outside of the ramekins.

I then put a sheet of foil over the top, baked them for 30 minutes, then removed the foil, and baked an additional 15 minutes or until the internal temp went to 165 degrees. They didn't brown real well, so I added a bit of butter to the top, turned on the broil and walked away for a couple of minutes, which was about 30 seconds too long as the tops 'browned' a little too much. You can see the water they were sitting in, and yes it looks a little scummy, but I had dribbled some of the 'batter' in the pan when I was filling the cups up.

This one was the least 'browned'. So I ate it first.

So I ate that one first. Took it out of the ramekin first though.

But it was a touch dry, and I love a sauce on my bread pudding anyway. So I took a couple tablespoons of whipping cream, added a teaspoon of sugar, and shook it up in a little jar, just so that it thickened a bit, poured it over the pudding and ate it.

You can also make a custard sauce to serve over them, or even sweetened sour cream. Just stir in a little brown sugar into the sour cream and pour over top. I like taking a teaspoon of brown sugar and stirring it into two tablespoons of sour cream.

And if you were one of those who made Creme Fraiche, you could even sweeten that a little and use it on top.

There are so many possibilities and just a few of these to experiment on. "WINK".

It's all good.

Bread Pudding in Ramekins

Yield: 4 Servings

Author: Sid's Sea Palm Cooking -

Prep time: 20 MCook time: 40 MTotal time: 60 M

Not just for dessert, these can also be made for breakfast as well. At least in my house they're breakfast.

Ingredients:

1- 2 teaspoons butter for topping.

Instructions:

How to cook Bread Pudding in Ramekins

Whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla and sugar together.

Cut the bread into cubes and submerge them in the egg batter.

Let it sit for at least 20 minutes.

Butter and grease 4 ramekins, and set into a pan which can hold at least a 1/2 inch of water, along with the ramekins.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Then add a spoonful of the bread/batter mixture to the bottom of each ramekin. Sprinkle a tablespoon of dried cranberries on top, then fill the ramekins with the remaining bread/batter mixture, evenly.

Fill the bottom of the pan with the ramekins, up to half the height of the ramekins, cover with foil, and place in oven.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, then remove the foil, dot with the butter and bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until the contents of the ramekins are set.

If they're not brown enough, you can broil them for a minute or so, watching very carefully so that the tops don't burn.

Serve warm.

Here's the Beer Bread recipe I used. I didn't use as much sugar as many recipes called for, and I added some salt. I also used an amber lager for this, which was almost too dark.