Bread Pudding with Pralines and Bourbon-Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Directions

1. For the Bread Pudding
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Place the bread in a large bowl. Grease a 9 by 13-inch casserole dish with the remaining tablespoon of butter and set aside. Combine the heavy cream, milk, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to mix. Pour the cream mixture over the bread, and stir to combine. Allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes.
4. Transfer the bread mixture to the casserole dish and bake until the center of the bread pudding is set, 50 to 60 minutes.
5. Garnish the bread pudding with confectioners' sugar and serve warm with warm.
6. For the Pralines
7. Butter the sides of a heavy 2-quart saucepan. Place the sugar, salt, and corn syrup,
8. milk, and butter in saucepan. Over medium heat, stir mixture constantly with a
9. wooden spoon until sugars have dissolved and mixture comes to a boil. Continue to
10. cook to a hard ball stage on a candy thermometer. If you do a cold water test, the ball of candy will flatten when you take it out of the water.
11. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
12. Add the vanilla and nuts, and beat with a spoon by hand for approximately 2 minutes
13. or until candy is slightly thick and begins to lose its gloss. Quickly drop heaping
14. tablespoons onto waxed paper. If the candy becomes stiff, add a few drops of hot
15. water.
16. For the Ice Cream
17. Heat the cream, sugar, vanilla, and vanilla seeds in a small saucepan only until the
18. sugar is dissolved. Be sure the sugar is dissolved - you will no longer feel any
19. grittiness from the sugar if you rub some cream between your fingers. Strain into a
20. bowl, cover, and chill very well. Add the Armagnac and freeze the mixture in an ice
21. cream freezer according to the manufacturer's directions. Spoon into a freezer
22. container and allow to chill in the freezer for a few hours before serving.