Food historians trace the history of bread pudding to the early 11th and 12th centuries, as a way for cooks to find ways to use stale, leftover bread instead of letting it go to waste.
In 13th century England, bread pudding was known as “poor man’s pudding,” as it was a popular dish with the lower classes.
Basically, the dish is made of bread and any add-ins in a dish and pouring a custard sauce over before baking.
The possibilities for the dish are endless, because you can vary the type of bread and any ingredients they choose to add.
Using only stale bread is important, because it absorbs liquid ingredients more easily.
If you don’t have stale bread, dry fresh bread out in the over for about 10 minutes or let it set out overnight.
Bread cubes should be measured loosely, not packed in the measuring cup.
Varying the proportion of liquid to bread changes the denseness.
Basic Bread Pudding
Recipe by pastry chef John Vasquez of Tosca Grille, Illium Café and Le Marche Vert in Troy.
1 cup milk (or half-and-half, or 3⁄4 cup milk and 1⁄4 cup heavy cream)
1 vanilla bean or 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1⁄4 cup sugar
6 slices of bread
1⁄2 to 1 cup raisins
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Heat milk to just under boiling point.
If using a vanilla bean, open it up and scrape the seeds into the milk as it is heating. Whisk the eggs with sugar.
Pour the milk over egg mixture.
Whisk well.
Skim any foam off the top and strain. If using vanilla extract, add it now.
Shingle the bread into a ramekin or mold and scatter raisins on top.
Pour the milk mixture over top and let the bread soak it up, making sure that the bread is sufficiently moist before it goes into the oven.
To help it bake evenly, put ramekins into another pan filled with water before placing in the oven.
Bake until the bread pudding is puffy and no liquid is visible when a knife is inserted. Bake it at 325 degrees.
Here's a recipe from 1747
"A bread pudding
Cut off all the crust of a Penny white loaf and slice it thin into a quart of new milk, set it over a chafingdish of coals, till the bread has soaked up all the milk, then put in a piece of sweet butter, stir it round, let it stand till cold, or you may boil your milk, and pour over your bread, and cover it up close, does full as well; then take the Yolks of six eggs, the whites of three, and beat them up, with a little rosewater, and nutmeg, a little salt, and sugar, and if you choose it, mix all well together, and boil it half an hour."
---The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse [1747] p. 109
