Author Notes
Bread pudding is cheating: It turns out like a pretty fancy-seeming dessert, but you skip all the hard parts by buying the bread. If you are the most ambitious member of the human race and/or a baker by trade, feel free to craft your own challah from scratch. If you are me, circle the Greenmarket once, eating samples from every bakery stand, and then purchase the most glorious-tasting loaf available. —Kendra Vaculin
Ingredients
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4 cups
cubed challah, thick crust portions removed
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1 cup
whole milk (don't fight this)
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1 cup
heavy cream (seriously, you're worth it)
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1/3 cup
(heaping) brown sugar
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1/3 cup
(heaping) granulated sugar
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3
eggs
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1/2 teaspoon
cinnamon
-
1/2 teaspoon
vanilla
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pinch nutmeg
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1 cup
raspberries, fresh or frozen (if using frozen, thaw first)
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Confectioners' sugar, for dusting to serve
Directions
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Preheat oven to 275° F.
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Spread bread cubes into a single layer on a baking sheet and slide into the oven to
dry out, for about 15 to 20 minutes. Once dry, remove from oven and set aside. (If
bread is sufficiently stale, you may omit this step; alternatively, you can use fresh
bread and omit this step as well, which will yield a much more pudding-y pudding -- the cube shape of the pieces will disappear entirely. Do what you like.)
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While the bread is drying, whisk the milk, cream, sugars, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg together until smooth.
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Increase oven temperature to 350° F and grease an 8-inch round pan or another small, oven-safe dish.
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Dump dried bread cubes into a large bowl with the eggy mixture and mix to coat.
Allow the mess to hang out for 20 minutes so the bread can soak up as much of it as possible. Fold in the raspberries, and then pour the prepared pan.
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Bake bread pudding for 30 minutes, until golden brown and puffed up. After removing it from the oven, allow to sit for a bit to cool. Top with a dusting of confectioners' sugar to serve. This is so, so good the next day due to melding, which is the scientific process by which leftovers become even better than their earlier iterations because they’ve had time to relax and love themselves (or something).
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