Egg Nog Bread Pudding

It happened again last week.  We were out as a family at the grocery store when suddenly Matt stopped at the dairy case and smiled.  He had something he wanted to show me.  Egg Nog was back in the dairy case for the holiday season, and that could mean only one thing: Egg Nog Bread Pudding.

Exhibit B--Space Shuttle Atlantis in
the background

Exhibit A-Vehicle Assembly Building

The Lansing bread pudding fixation started back in 2009 when we were living temporarily at Cape Canaveral, Florida so Matt could pose his Mustang with space shuttles and other NASA landmarks (see Exhibits A and B below), I mean work at Kennedy Space Center.  One night we went to Fish Lips, one of our regular spots, and had a Grand Marnier Bread Pudding that was absolutely fantastic.  A few days later my best friend Stephanie came in to town for a visit and we decided to try and recreate the Fish Lips dessert.  Innocently enough we headed out to the grocery only to return a long while later with the makings for four different bread puddings.  A bread puddingapalooza was about to take place and egg nog bread pudding was born.  I should disclose at this point that I am a second generation bread pudding lover.  I am my Dad's favorite based on the bread pudding allowances he has received the past few years.  

The problem with bread pudding, and why so many people turn up their noses to the dish, is that it is really easy to make a bread pudding blob, a soggy mess that sticks in your throat.  This bread pudding maintains the integrity of the bread pieces and gets additional moisture from a bourbon sauce served on top rather than from adding more and more liquid to be absorbed by the bread pieces before baking.  

Here are the players:

Nutmeg, Cinnamon, eggs, french bread, bourbon, egg nog,
brown sugar, vanilla

Ingredients:

1 quart egg nog
1/4 cup bourbon, plus 2 tablespoons
1 loaf french bread
5 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup brown sugar, plus 4 tablespoons
3 tablespoons nutmeg
2 tablespoon cinnamon
8 tablespoons of butter, divided
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup raisins
3 tablespoons of vanilla pudding powder

Directions:

1.  Cube the bread and fill up an 8x8 pan.  The bread should be packed in there pretty well but not squished.  

2.  Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and 4 tablespoons of brown sugar in a non-stick pan.  I always add in a sprinkle or two of cinnamon but that is a personal choice.  Once melted, add in the raisins and pecans.  

3.  Stir the pecans and raisins at medium high heat for 10 minutes or so until they are toasted and crunchy.  Set aside to cool.  Stop now and sample because this alone is a tasty treat.  

4.  While the pecans and raisins cool, start mixing your wet ingredients.  Mix the eggs first to break up the yolks, followed by the egg nog, bourbon, 2 tablespoons nutmeg, and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.  

5.  Add half of the raisins and pecans to the pan with the bread and mix it in gently so that some are down in the bread.  Sprinkle the rest over the top.  

6.  Pour the wet mixture over the bread and press down gently with your hands. I like that I can still see individual bread chunks rather than mush.   Preheat the oven at 375 degrees and let the bread pudding set up for 20 minutes.  Right before baking push down on the top again to rehydrate the top layer with egg nog goodness.  

7.  Bake it at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes or until it is slightly browned on top.  Since it wasn't overly moist you can see that the top is browned slightly and the bread chunks are still visible.  That means it is thirsty and needs a bourbon sauce on top.  

8.   Wylie was up sick last night so I forgot to take pictures of the bourbon sauce but it is super easy to make.  Melt the remaining six tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of bourbon, 1 tablespoon of nutmeg and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.  Whisk until well combined and add the dry pudding powder.  This should thicken the sauce slightly.  Add more pudding until it is to your desired thickness.  I prefer the pudding method for thickening over the egg method because I usually end up with my bourbon sauce looking like egg drop soup due to the egg cooking before it gets incorporated thoroughly into the sauce.  Plus I like the vanillany (is that a word) taste that it adds.  

9.  I always pour the sauce of the whole dish all at once, especially if I am taking it somewhere.  This one went to church Sunday (don't judge me for the bourbon) so I didn't want to haul a separate bowl of sauce along for the ride.  

"It smells like Christmas!"--a quote from a friend at church when
I opened the cover on the dish this past Sunday.  

Tips:

This is a dessert that is really hard to mess up.  If you have too much liquid, add bread.  If you have too much bread, add liquid.  Problem Fixed.