Friday, October 4, 2013

Pumpkin Bread Pudding: Resolving a Dilemma


I had a problem to solve.  Over the summer, we ate a lot of hamburgers, but instead of buying hamburger buns, I cut rounds out of slices of bread to make our own buns. 

In order to not be wasteful, we kept collecting the crusts and saving them in the freezer.  We had no idea what we were going to do with them. 

I thought I might make croutons, but I wasn't sold on the idea.  The spelt bread we eat is more on the sweet side and I prefer my croutons to be something like sourdough or rustic Italian type bread. 

So the crusts languished in the freezer until we had a full gallon zippy bag full of them, plus some. 

Then a week or so ago, I realized we had a surplus of another ingredient.  Since our G wasn't drinking as much milk as he used to, we had a lot of milk that needed using. 

Bread.  Milk.  It's getting to be Fall.  Bingo!  Bread pudding!!  It would be the perfect application for the sweet-ish bread and the milk we needed to use.  Besides, my favorite part of the bread pudding is the crusts of bread.  They have a bit more tooth to them and I love the firm, chewy texture the crust gets in a bread pudding.  So this was going to be perfect!

I was just about ready to bake, having a lot of time on my hands now that I'm among the unemployed, when a trip to Trader Joe's gave me the final piece of inspiration I needed.  They had in their freezer case little two-serving boxes of Pumpkin Bread Pudding. 

I felt as if divine light suddenly shone upon me.  I had to make this!

So I started looking for recipes.  At first it was difficult to find a recipe that called for regular bread.  The first couple of recipes that came up on my Google search called for pumpkin bread as the bread component.  That certainly wouldn't do. 

But as with anything on Google, search long enough and you'll find what you are looking for. 

Still, I ended up with three recipes up in my browser, taking a bit from each before I settled upon my own. 

Most of what I ended up with is thanks to this recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  I also plan on making the Creme Anglaise from Bobby Flay's recipe, but I've got a lot of cooking and baking ahead of me this weekend, so it may wait a couple of days.  And a nod to the Betty Crocker recipe, too, because I didn't want to use just a part of a can of pumpkin.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

8 cups of spelt bread crusts, dried and broken into pieces (or whole pieces of any kind of bread, cubed or torn into pieces and left out to go stale)
3 cups of milk
4 eggs and 2 egg yolks
1 small can of pumpkin
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
a couple of dashes ground cloves
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter the bottom and sides of a 13X9 inch baking pan.  Put the bread pieces into the prepared pan.  
In a large bowl, beat the eggs briefly.  Add the milk, pumpkin, salt, spices and sugar and whisk to combine. 
Pour custard over the bread pieces and mush things about until all the bread has been coated.  Ideally, the bread will be mostly submerged in the custard.  If you've got bits sticking up, that's okay. That means you'll have lovely crispy bits on the top.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  (If you're baking in a glass dish, consider reducing the temperature to 325.) 

Enjoy for breakfast with some honey goat cheese or for dessert with some creme anglaise or whipped cream or ice cream.  Or whatever you like with pumpkin.


I will say two things.  I think I will add some maple syrup or some brown sugar next time.  The idea of some depth to the sweetness is appealing to me. 

Also, I think a little bourbon is in order (for the pudding, not necessarily for me).  That is one part of the Smitten Kitchen recipe that I didn't take to heart and I wish I had. :o)

Now the only dilemma I have is how we're going to eat it all.  But that is a good problem to have.  And I know I have friends who will help should it be necessary.  

If you make this and alter it at all, please let me know.  I would love to hear what you think and what you do with it!  

Happy Fall!  

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