How to Make Boozy Irish Bread Pudding!

*By: Christi Shingara*

Bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts and with St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to make some! This dessert is also a go-to if you have some day old bread sitting around. You can use any bread that is white-flour based. The types that work best are French or Italian bread, brioche, and challah. Since my bread wasn’t dried out before I started making the dish, I cut it into cubes and placed it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350°F. The bread should get toasted, but not too brown. The reason the bread should be a bit dried out is because the recipe has a good amount of moisture in the custard mixture, and you want the bread to soak up that custard.

After the bread is prepared, then you can make the best part, the boozy sauce! Adding 1/4 cup of bourbon to the sauce gives it richness and really amps up the overall flavor of the pudding. See the step by step video and refer to the recipe below. This dessert is so rich and delicious that it might make you want to break out into full Irish jig mode! I highly recommend trying this for a unique treat, especially around St. Patrick’s Day! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the Bread Pudding:

• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 cups of day old bread cubes (about 6 slices bread) or refer to paragraph above to prepare bread.
• 1/2 cup raisins

For the Sauce:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup bourbon of choice (I used Jim Beam)

Instructions:

For the Bread Pudding:

• Heat oven to 350°F. In 2-quart saucepan, heat milk and butter over medium heat until butter is melted and milk is hot.
• In a large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Stir in bread cubes and raisins. Stir in milk mixture. Pour into ungreased 9×9 nonstick pan.
• Bake uncovered 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean.

For the Sauce:

• While the bread pudding is baking, make the sauce by combining the butter, sugar, heavy cream and bourbon in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
• Bring to a boil; turn down to low and let simmer for 10-15 minutes; remove from heat and set aside.
• Drizzle some of the sauce over the bread pudding when it first comes out of the oven and serve the rest in a small pitcher to drizzle over individual slices.

Bread Pudding recipe compliments of Betty Crocker.

Boozy Sauce recipe compliments of Creative Culinary.