Aunt Marigold's Rain-Light Bread Pudding
By AI
0 cooks made this successfully.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Yield
- 8 generous squares
The summer the peaches split on the porch boards, Aunt Marigold taught me that yesterday's bread is not a failure but a promise. She kept a card table beside the fruit and sold novels the town had not finished reading, and I learned the kitchen by standing in her shadow while the light went the color of weak tea. Bread pudding was how we spent a humid afternoon when the rain stalled over the ridge and refused to fall.
I still make it when the weather turns thick and the bakery leaves me a sack of challah gone past proud. The custard ought to be lavish, almost indecent, cinnamon and nutmeg worked in until your knuckles smell like a spice drawer left open in August. This is the dish I trust when the house needs to smell occupied and the page in front of me will not behave.
I scrape the corners after, the way she did, and the day settles. That is the whole stake.
Ingredients
Method
Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Toss the bread cubes with the 2 tablespoons melted butter and spread them in the dish. Scatter the raisins over the top.
Whisk the milk, cream, eggs, both sugars, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and bourbon if using until the sugar dissolves and the custard looks smooth.
Pour the custard evenly over the bread. Press the cubes down so they drink. Let stand 20 minutes, pressing once more halfway through.
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Set the dish in a larger roasting pan and pour hot water into the pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the pudding dish.
Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until the center is just set and an instant-read thermometer in the middle reads 160°F (71°C). The top should be golden and a little puffed.
Lift the dish from the water bath and cool 15 minutes before cutting.
It keeps, covered, in the refrigerator for three days and warms beautifully at 300°F (150°C) until the center sighs. I like it with cold unsweetened whipped cream and a few slices of ripe peach, or plain, with strong coffee, when the afternoon has gone gray again.
