Nerdy Mama Makes Bread Pudding or Screw Diamonds, Carbs And Booze Are A Girl's Best Friend!

When I married Husband, I assumed he was a normal bloke. He liked Guinness and good music and was cute, so I didn't ask a lot of questions. Little did I know though, that he's one of those strange people who doesn't like sweets. I was shocked. I was floored. Not like cookies? Not like cake? What is this madness!?!?

In the (nearly) three years we've been married I think I've probably made a grand total of 4 sweets he's actually liked. PLAIN oatmeal cookies (no raisins, no chocolate chips, no nothing!), homemade oreo cookies, plain vanilla cupcakes, and a chocolate Guinness cake with very little Bailey's cream icing. Four.

So sufficed to say, when I make sweets, it's up to me and Wee One to devour them. Tragic, I know.

Recently, I got a craving for something full of carbs and sweetness. Surprising, yes?

As any intelligent woman would, I took to Pinterest and sought out the goodness I so desperately craved. What did I find?

Bread Pudding.

Not just any bread pudding mind you, Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce.

I was ecstatic. Carbs, sweets, AND BOOZE? WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

I'm glad you asked actually, because it DOES get better. The recipe is based off of the infamous one from Bon Ton Cafe in New Orleans, my absolute, all-time favorite restaurant in the history of ever. I'm not kidding. If you EVER go to New Orleans, even for just a few hours on a layover, GO TO THIS PLACE!!!! I ORDER YOU!!!! They have the world's greatest crawfish etouffe. Oh my god, just thinking about it is making me salivate.

Okay, back to the business at hand: Bread Pudding.

I was ecstatic, found recipe, Bon Ton, blah, blah, blah... Right! So, I immediately set to work figuring out what I needed for the recipe, and luckily enough, we had an entire baguette in our pantry that we'd forgotten about and had gone too hard to eat without breaking your teeth. Tres bon!

Until, that is, I realized I'd never made bread pudding before. Eaten it, yes; but actually made it, not once. In our school cafeteria, they used to serve huge truncheons of it in one of the hot lines, and I am not the least bit ashamed to say that I completely skipped actual food on those days and dined solely on bread pudding. (Pretty sure I'm not the only one though...) It was delicious. Flecked with plump, warm raisins and covered in caramel sauce. Mmmm...

So I became utterly terrified that I would not be able to reproduce the Bread Pudding of my yesteryear.

But I overcame that fear, I rose above it and began to assemble my ingredients.

First obstacle: We had no bourbon. (I know, I was shocked too!) And despite his fondness for bread pudding, Husband totally nixed the idea of using a cup of whiskey to be cooked down into a "meager sauce". (Insert eye roll here.) So there went the bourbon sauce.

I rolled with it though. I grabbed a bottle of Bullit Rye Whiskey and tossed a bit in with the milk and bread that was soaking in it, replacing the vanilla extract. (Husband even agreed to letting me put raisins in it. Blew my mind.) I popped my soggy bread into the oven and realized that I needed a sauce that would be just as delicious as the recipe's, but not include bourbon. I figured a caramel sauce would suffice.

As I often do, I turned to The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. I had all the ingredients for her caramel sauce, so I went with it.

That's when I realized that vanilla extract is basically just vanilla beans soaked in BOOZE! (Alright, I understand that's not really what it is, as vanilla beans soaked in booze is technically a tincture, not an extract, but go with me on this one.) I grabbed the Rye Whiskey again and replaced the vanilla in this recipe with it as well; it created...THE NECTAR OF THE GODS!!!!

I kid you not people, I would have been happy drinking this stuff with a straw. I've never tasted anything so sinfully good before, and I've tasted a lot of sinful things. (Alright, you get one dirty joke, then keep reading. Made your joke? Good, now let's continue)

As happy as I was with the sauce, and as content as I would have been eating it by itself, my timer alerted me to the fact that the pudding was finished.

I pulled it out of the oven, smelled it, and purred.

There is nothing that beats the smell of bread fresh from the oven, except maybe the smell of fresh bread pudding. The cinnamon and the pinch of allspice and the raisins all mingled together along with the butter and the cream and the baguette to create an absolutely singular scent.

As we all know, bread pudding is best served warm, right out of the oven. So, I spooned some into a bowl for me, one for Husband, and one for Wee One to share as well. Then I spooned the whiskey-caramel sauce over mine and proceeded to dig in.

There are no words, my friends, to describe the serenity that a bowl of warm, boozy carbs will give you. And in fact, there don't need to be. You know why? Because this recipe is so simple that you can go and make it yourself. Right now. Go!

 Until next time, Kitchen Comrades!