Carole’s Bread Pudding

Listen! Ms.Carole is a chef and all of her creations are top tier. Ms. Carole is one of my chosen moms (am I the only one who sees their best friend’s mom as their own?) and the real mom to my best friend Olivia. I resonate with her so much because we both enjoy the kitchen and honestly everything she cooks is delicious but my two favorites are her Haitian mac and cheese and this bread pudding! I literally dream about it. Olivia brought some over during Thanksgiving and I’ve been dreaming about it ever since so I finally hit up my girl Carole and she shared the gist of the recipe. She obviously has been making this for years and doesn’t measure so I went with what she could share and added a few tweaks. Baby, did not disappoint!

This recipe is simple and delicious and great to make for a group. Simply bake in a dish and then cut into squares, dust a little bit of powdered sugar on each square and drizzle some caramel on top. Voila! A fancy dessert. A yummy one too!

Here are the deets:

• Carole uses golden raisins that she soaks in rum but if you’re not a fan of raisins (like me) you can omit. I still wanted the rum flavor so I added the rum right in with the caramelized apples. I list the directions below if you choose this route as well.

• The recipe calls for rum but I used whiskey instead. This still came out bomb with Jameson and it tasted exactly the same.

• You can use a mixture of Challah, Brioche or Croissant bread for this. Just make sure that the bread is a bit stale before making this. When it’s stale its soaks up the custard without making the bread pudding mushy. There’s a science to this thing and Carole is a pro so just follow the directions lol

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of sugar

• 2 cups of milk

• 2 cups of heavy cream

• 2 cups of apple juice

• 5 large eggs

• 8 cups of cubed bread- you can use of Challah Bread, Croissants, and/or Brioche

• 2 apples peeled & diced

• 1/2 cup of water

• 1/2 teaspoon of apple spice or cinnamon, divided in half

• 1 cup of golden raisins (optional)

• 1/4 cup of rum or whiskey

• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

• Pinch of salt

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

First we caramelize the apples and cook until soft. In a sauce pan under medium heat combine the sugar and water and cook until the mixture creates a syrup. Then, add the diced apples & apple spice (or cinnamon), and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the apples soften and the mixture turn a light golden brown color. Now, add in your apple juice and combine.

If you are adding golden raisins to this, remove the caramelized apples from the heat and set aside as is. Then, add your raisins into a bowl with the rum or whiskey and let sit while you create your custard.

*If you’re not adding golden raisins to this, add the rum directly to the caramelized apples and cook for another minute and then remove from the heat and set aside.

Next, we create our custard. Heat milk, heavy cream, and vanilla extract in a deep pot just until the milk mixture is warm to the touch. You don’t want to boil this, heating until the milk is warm is enough. The next step is to temper the eggs to create the custard. Add your eggs to a bowl. Then add 3 ladles (one at a time) of the warm milk mixture to the eggs while whisking simultaneously. Then, add the egg and milk mixture into the rest of the warm milk in your pot. Whisk to combine.

Now it’s time to add the caramelize apples mixture to the custard. Add the apple mixture to the egg custard and combine. If you are using the rum (or whiskey) soaked golden raisins, add the raisins and rum they soaked in, into the egg mixture as well and combine.

Now we bring it all together. Place the cubed bread in a greased baking dish and press down to ensure that it all fits in your baking dish. Then, pour in your custard mixture, making sure to pour all around the baking dish to ensure that all of your bread cubes are soaked in the mixture. The apples and raisins in the custard tend to sit at the bottom. After pouring the custard, use a spoon or your (clean) hands to spread the raisins and apples on top.

Now we bake! Bake your bread pudding covered with foil for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. After 30 minutes uncover & bake for an additional 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from your oven and let the bread pudding cool. The bread pudding will settle after cooling. Enjoy warm with a drizzle of caramel and ice-cream or refrigerate to enjoy cold.