Pecan Butterscotch Bread Pudding Recipe

By Lu

Pecan Butterscotch Bread Pudding

For as long as I could remember, I wasn't a big fan of bread pudding. I just wasn't really into a mushy dessert. However, one day, my friend Tina took me to a restaurant called Markethouse and I fell in love with their Butterscotch Bread Pudding. I wrote about the restaurant and the bread pudding too. Here's the link to that post. It was mushy inside but crunchy outside, and creamy with the addition of ice cream, and richness from the butterscotch. Since then, I am a fan. Nevertheless, time marched on, and I forgot about it.

Until, I was cooking dinner one night and I invited Tina over to join me and the rest of our friends. She told me she would stop at Markethouse to get some bread pudding to bring for dessert. I told her that it sounded good. But then, she texted me to x the plan. Since I was fixated on eating that bread pudding again, I decided to make it myself.

I like to watch this cooking show on Food Network called, "Chopped." I like it because it is less pretentious compared to the other competitive cooking shows filled with celebrity chefs. These are real cooks in Chopped, and they are the people that actually prepare your food if you were to eat at their restaurant. Every time the secret ingredients included bread for the dessert round, they always made either bread pudding or pain perdu (French Toast). I knew then that it was easy to make and can be done in a short period of time since they were only given twenty minutes to make a dessert. Also, from watching Chopped, I knew how to make bread pudding though I have never really attempted to make it before. It's pretty much bread, whipped eggs and milk together. That's it. I looked around a little bit for references, and it was pretty much the same rule of thumbs to make bread pudding.

So, here goes the recipe I came up with:

INGREDIENTS

1 loaf cinnamon raisin bread
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups milk
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup Pecan, chopped
1 cup butterscotch chips

For Butterscotch Sauce
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
a pinch of salt

METHODS

Cut up cinnamon bread into cubes and place in a big mixing bowl. Add melted butter and two or three table spoons of sugar from the 1.5 cup sugar allotted for the recipe. Set aside.

Cut cinnamon raisin bread into..

cubes, and place them in a bowl

Add melted butter, and sprinkle sugar on it, set aside

Using an electric mixer, add the remaining of the sugar and the eggs. Whip at high speed for about 3 minutes until eggs are light in color. Reduce speed, and add cream and milk. Whip again for a couple more minutes until eggs and milk are well blended in and frothy. Add salt and vanilla, and blend for a little bit more.

Add eggs and sugar into electric mixing bowl

Mix at high speed until light in color

Add cream and milk

Egg and milk mixture should be light in color and frothy

Pour egg and milk mixture over bread cubes. Set aside for a couple of hours or even overnight if you prefer. We need to let the bread to soak in all the liquid.

Add milk + egg mixture to bread

When ready to bake, heat up oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit or 190 degree Celcius. Add pecans and butterscotch chips to the bread Pour mixture on to an ungreased square pyrex or baking pan. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the top is looking golden brown and toasty.

Yummm....

Serve while hot with vanilla ice cream and drizzle the butterscotch sauce on top. To make the butterscotch sauce, all you had to do is cook over medium heat brown sugar, butter, and salt until it became a slurry or thick syrupy liquid. Remove from heat and add cream. Whisk until they blended well together.

I was so proud because the bread pudding turned out really great! I made it a couple of times more after this time, and they're almost fool proof. I made some to bring to my friend, Helen's house for St. Patty's day dinner. I know there's nothing Irish about it but we enjoyed it just the same. If you're looking for a decadent dessert that's super easy to do.....here it is!

The reason I use cinnamon bread was to eliminate two more ingredients to buy: cinnamon and raisins. The flavors of the cinnamon and raisins really come through by using the bread. Some people don't like raisins, but this way, you had a little raisins in the bread pudding, but not a lot. At the same time, you didn't really have to measure the cinnamon to be added to the mixture. The cinnamon in the bread is enough to give that sweet smelling that's so distinctive of cinnamon, yet it won't be overpowering. All and all, I thought it was a good call on my part when I made the decision to buy the cinnamon raisin bread that was on sale to be used for the bread pudding.

Hope you will try it. I can assure you, you will be making it over and over again!