Ultimate Bread Pudding

Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 3 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 7 large eggs
• 5 large egg yolks
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 6 cups bread, cut into 1 inch cubes

Recipe

• 1 note: bread can be any non-savory firm textured bread.
• 2 avoid soft supermarket bread- makes pudding mushy and avoid rustic crusty loaves with open crumb- doesn't absorb and yields too firm a pudding.
• 3 whole wheat cinnamon raisin works well, but a brioche or challah work the best.
• 4 preheat oven to 350, butter a 13x9 baking dish.
• 5 whisk milk and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.
• 6 meanwhile scrape vanilla bean into milk mixture and throw in pods.
• 7 heat to steaming, but not boiling.
• 8 discard vanilla pods.
• 9 whisk eggs and yolks in a large bowl, gradually add 2 cups of hot milk mixture, then pour egg mixture into the saucepan with the hot milk.
• 10 strain and whisk in cream.
• 11 spread bread cubes in prepared dish.
• 12 slowly pour custard over bread being sure to saturate all of the bread.
• 13 bake in the center of the oven for about 1 hour or until a small knife inserted in the center of the pudding comes out clean.
• 14 serve warm or chilled with whipped cream or caramel sauce.
• 15 note: you can add raisins, currents, dried cranberries, sour cherries or any other dried fruit you like.