This is the kind of comfort food dessert recipe that gets handed down through generations.It’s made of simple, everyday ingredients—bread, eggs, milk, sugar, butter, etc.—and it is impossible to mess up. So easy, and yet it tastes fantastic. The recipe below is for a classic version studded with raisins and flavored with vanilla with a rich vanilla sauce to drizzle over the top.
If you don’t have stale bread, don’t worry, you can use a fresh loaf. Just cut it up into cubes and spread the cubes on a baking sheet. Toast in a 300ºF for about minutes to dry it out. I sometimes like to use cinnamon bread instead of white bread for variety.
Southern Vanilla Bread Pudding
8
15 minutes
45 minutes
60 minutes
For the pudding
2 cups whole milk
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 (1-pound) stale old white bread or French bread, cut into cubes
1 cup raisins
For the sauce
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup (packed) light brown sugar
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with butter.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and nutmeg until well combined.
In the prepared baking dish, toss together the bread and raisins and then spread them out in an even layer. Pour the milk mixture over the top, pressing down lightly to make sure all of the bread is saturated with the mixture. Let stand for at least 15 minutes, or cover and refrigerate for as long as overnight.
Bake uncovered in the preheated oven until the center is set, about 45 minutes.
To make the sauce, combine the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cream in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture begins to thicken and comes to a boil, about 6a minutes. Stir in the vanilla.
Serve the bread pudding warm from the oven with the sauce drizzled over the top.
