Irish Bread Pudding with Caramel-Whiskey Sauce
This recipe, which uses less butter, light cream cheese and low-fat milk, actually comes from a magazine that emphasizes on light and healthy cooking. But you’d never be able to tell. The pudding is buttery and dense; the sauce is rich and sweet. Trust me, it’s so good you won’t care about how many calories it has.
The bread pudding has layers of texture punctuated with bites of sweetness from the raisins. The bread pieces on the top are golden and crispy, where as the bread in the center are soft and creamy. I might add some sliced almonds on the top for some extra crunch or some diced apples for some fruitiness next time.
As if the bread pudding isn’t delicious enough on its own, the caramel-whiskey sauce just sends it over the top. The sauce is sweet and sticky with hints of oak and molasses from the whiskey. You can make the sauce alone and drizzle it over vanilla ice cream, French toast, or this panna cotta.
I love bread pudding recipes because they are a great way to use up stale bread. We used a baguette here. You can use any crusty bread like sourdough or whole wheat.
You can make this recipe ahead of time and heat it up in the oven on the day you want to serve it. Perfect for prep-ahead entertaining. But let me tell you, this is so good you might not want to wait till the next time you have guests over.
Irish Bread Pudding with Caramel-Whiskey Sauce
Adapted from Cooking Light, March 1998
Bread Pudding
- Butter, 1/4 cup, melted,
- French baguette, 10 ounces, cut into 1-inch-thick slices
- Raisins, 1/2 cup
- Irish whiskey, 1/4 cup
- Low-fat milk, 1 3/4 cups
- Sugar, 1 cup
- Vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon
- Evaporated skim milk, 1 12-ounce can
- Eggs, 2 large, beaten
- Cooking spray
- Sugar, 1 tablespoon
- Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon
Caramel-Whiskey Sauce
- Sugar, 1 1/2 cups
- Water, 2/3 cup
- Butter, 1/4 cup
- 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, 2 ounces
- Irish whiskey, 1/4 cup
- Low-fat milk, 1/4 cup
To make the bread pudding:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brush melted butter on one side of the bread slices and place bread, buttered sides up, on a baking sheet. Bake bread for 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Tear bread into small 1/2-inch-cube pieces and set aside.
Combine raisins and whiskey in a small bowl. Let stand 10 minutes or until soft. Do not drain.
Combine milk, sugar, vanilla extract, evaporated milk and eggs in a large bowl, stir well with a whisk. Add bread and raisin mixture to the egg mixture, press gently to moisten, let stand for 15 minutes.
Spoon bread mixture into a 13-by-9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine 1 tablespoon of sugar with the cinnamon. Sprinkle over pudding. Bake for 40 minutes or until set and the top is golden.
To make the sauce:
Combine sugar and water in a medium heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Cook an additional 15 minutes or until golden, do not stir.
Remove from heat. Carefully add butter and cream cheese, stirring constantly with a whiskey. Mixture will be hot and bubble vigorously. Cool slightly and stir in whiskey and milk.
To assemble:
Pour half of the caramel-whiskey sauce over the bread pudding. Reserve the rest for serving at the table.
Serves 12.
YUM! I had some mexican bread pudding a couple of days ago. I have to try this one.
I’d try anything that has whiskey, whisky, brandy, armagnac, cognac or any other type of spirited drink among the ingredients! teehee ;o)
Don’t drink (or eat anything with alcohol in it!) and fly!
I have some leftover cinnamon swirl bread that would be AMAZING with this recipe. This looks killer, I can’t wait to try it!
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