Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

Bread is made well and made often on the Farm in every variety you can imagine—Brioche, Challah, A Good Loaf, Plain White, Thanksgiving Bread, and the like. There is often so much one family could not possibly eat it all! That’s why we have parties. To eat all that bread.

And that’s why we make this, Bread Pudding.

To begin, you’ll need old bread, any kind will do. Well, maybe not the Thanksgiving bread. I’d pass on that one (too much Sage). However, every other kind is just fine. Although, the richer breads do make a richer bread pudding. So, extra Brioche is often made, just for the excuse of having leftovers for this Pudding.

And how it’s made is this:

Bread is cut into cubes—about four cups worth and set into a two-quart cast iron skillet for an hour or more to dry up a bit. A cup of dried cherries is placed in with a third cup good Bourbon and left to rest there the same amount of time as the bread. When that’s just about set, three cups half and half are placed in a blender with three quarters cups sugar of the granulated variety, four eggs, a teaspoon vanilla, a teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg and a quarter teaspoon salt. It is blended, then poured through a strainer onto the waiting bread, along with the now plumped up and a bit tipsy cherries. It is all stirred gently once or twice, and I’ve been known to press the bread down just a bit—to soak up all that good cream. It’s set in a preheated three-hundred-and-fifty-degree oven for about an hour, or until it puffs up and smells just as all good Bread Puddings should. It can be eaten hot, cold, plain, or dressed. If you’re of the dressing sort, might I humbly recommend this Bourbon Sauce?

Bourbon Sauce:

In which a quarter cup butter is set in a saucepan over low heat and left by itself until it melts up a bit. A half cup sugar of the granulated variety, two tablespoons good Bourbon, three tablespoons cream, and just a pinch of salt is stirred in until all is smooth and right with the world—about three minutes over low heat. It’s left to rest a bit, then poured over the Pudding, or eaten by the spoonful, either works for me.