Maple Syrup Bread Pudding

During the last three weekends' Artisanal Bread Baking class at French Culinary Institute, nine of us (students) baked at least 20 different kinds of breads, at least 10 loaves each --- baguette, brioche, challah, croissants, bagels, oat breads, pane siciliano, pain aux cereales, pain de mie, and many others.

After the five-days' intensive bread baking class, all the fruits of sweat were frozen in my freezer, which is filled with at least ten loaves of breads. Defrosting and rebaking (just enough to reheat) give the frozen bread a new life, but sadly enough, after a few hours, most of the breads were dried out.

I think the best use of the dried breads is bread pudding - especially if the bread is brioche or challah bread. A few eggs, milk, sugar and touch of maple syrup and green cardamom with vanilla will make a perfect sweet finish for any meals.


Maple Syrup Bread Pudding
with Green Cardamom Crème Anglaise

(Yield: 9-10 servings / Cooking time: one hour)


Ingredients:

Bread pudding
+ a half loaf of challah bread (or brioche)
+ 2 cups of whole milk
+ 1 large egg
+ 2 Tbsp maple syrup
+ 1 tsp vanilla extract
+ (optional) golden raisins



Green cardamom crème anglaise
+ 1 cup of whole milk
+ 2 egg yolks
+ 1/2 Tbsp green cardamom pods*
+ 1 tsp vanilla extract
+ 3 Tbsp light brown sugar
* Cardamom is in ginger family. It gives definitely ginger flavor but with mild floral and minty note.




Procedures:

Bread pudding

1. Preheat your oven at 350°F (~177°C).

2. Beat an egg to make sure egg yolk and white is mixed well.


3. Heat milk until it is lukewarm, and add it to egg.


4. Pour it back to a pan and add maple syrup and vanilla extract. Heat the milk+egg mixture until small bubbles formed. Turn off the heat.


5. Cut bread into 1" cubes.


6. Pour the heated milk+egg mixture to the cubed bread and mix well. Add golden raisins in this step, if you want. Please be careful not to turn the breads into mash.


7. Scoop the soaked breads into a muffin pan. Ideally, use non-stick muffin pan with spray oil in it. (Or, you can use individual ramekins).Place the muffin pan over a sheet tray. Pull out the mid-rack of your preheated oven and place the sheet tray with muffin pan. Pour boiling water into the sheet tray halfway up the sides of muffin pan. Slide the rack into the oven.


8. Bake about 20-30 minutes until the top of the bread pudding becomes golden brown.


9. Cool down little bit in the pan, and take out the bread pudding from the pan, carefully not to ruin the shape.

Green cardamom crème anglaise

1. Prepare an ice bath to cool down the crème anglaise later.


2. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until the color of egg yolks become pale yellow.

After one or two minutes of whisking, you will see the bright yellow color change into pale yellow.

3. Crush green cardamom with back of a spoon to release the seeds.


4. Mix crushed green cardamom and vanilla extract with milk and heat over medium heat until bubbles formed.



5. Gradually whisk in the heated milk to the egg+sugar mixture. I used a strainer when I added the milk to the egg mixture to strain the cardamoms.


6. Bring the mixture back to a pan. Over low heat, cook the mixture while stirring continuously. This step is the most crucial step in making a good crème anglaise. If you overcook the mixture, you will start seeing the egg yolk coagulate and add grainy texture to the cream. Also, you need to make sure nothing is stuck on the bottom of the pan while you are cooking the cream. Cook for about 2 minutes until you can see napant consistency.


7. Strain the crème anglaise through a fine strainer into a stainless steel container and cool down immediately in the ice bath we prepared at the beginning.


8. Serve the maple syrup bread pudding with green cardamom crème anglaise at warm temperature.

Enjoy~