Bread Pudding with Whiskey sauce

You all know I have been posting this week with the Creole Contessa cajun recipes.   I want to give a shout to Kaci, my first known friend with Cajun roots who has been sweet enough to share some family recipes with me that I have used in the past.  To digress just a minute, we were talking at a company function and of course ended up on food.  I don’t remember exactly how but she must have said where she grew up and I told her about my love of Cajun food and all but begged her to share some family recipes.  This is one recipe that she gave me. 

This is Day 6 and my first dessert offering.  I do not really know if this is a style of food that is known for its desserts.  Please comment if there are dessert recipes you know of and like that use bread.  I would like to try some other recipes with your help.

I have never thought I was a bread pudding fan.  I guess I never tried it.  This dish was so cool to watch it cook and rise in the dish.  I know too that there was sugar in the dish but you don’t think that the dish will be as sweet as it is.  And then the whiskey.  It is added into the sauce at the end so none of it gets cooked out.  Don’t let you minors drive after eating this one.

The Creole Contessa and I must have been thinking a like because both offerings today use bread – showing the versatility of bread.  So today I share Creole Contessa’s Spoonbread – aka Cajun cornbread which she says:

“Can you believe it, 5 days of Cajun goodness has already passed. Well, it’s day 6 and I’ve decided that I want to make one of my favorite side dishes, Cajun Spoon Bread! I love cornbread, but think of Cajun Spoon Bread as cornbread kicked up 100%. ”

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter, softenened
3 medium eggs, beaten
1 qt whole milk
2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
12 ounces day-old French bread
Whiskey Sauce (see below)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a baking dish of your choice and set aside.  Break the breadcrumbs and drop into a bowl.  Just pull it apart with your hands.

Add the milk a little at a time over the bread.  Mix it with you hands and make sure the bread absorbs the milk.  (I had a some milk that did not get absorbed so I drained it out before I put my mixture into the baking dish.

 

In a small bowl, combine the eggs and the sugar using a whisk or an electric mixer. Pour in the vanilla extract.  Then pour over the bread.

 

 

 

Pour the bread pudding into the buttered dish, spreading it evenly in the dish.  Place the dish in a shallow roasting pan filling the pan with boiling water 1″ up the side of the casserole dish.

Place in the oven and bake 50 – 60 minutes.  You will know it is done when a knife goes in and comes out clean.

 

Whiskey Sauce

8 tbsp butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup whiskey

Place the butter in a bowl and melt over a pot filled with near boiling water.  Stir the sugar and the egg together.  Once mixed, add it to the butter.  Again, be careful to not let this boil.  Stir for 2 – 3 minutes and it will thicken up.  Let cool to room temperature.  Add the whiskey.