Bacon-Waffle Bread Pudding with Blueberry Syrup
Niknud
- Serves
- A Crowd
Ah, the great frustration of Food52. In thinking about this week's contest, I had a genius mashup idea to make a breakfast bread pudding. Yum - leftover challah and homemade breakfast sausage. I was sure I was onto some thing amazing! I googled bread pudding recipes to get the egg-milk ratio since I've never made bread pudding before.... Yah, aargersi made it back, like, 4 years ago. And, to add insult to injury, it looked freaking amazing (cream cheese was an awesome idea, btw). But by then it was too late, I was stuck on the idea of bread pudding. Because it's bread pudding. So I figured, why not waffles? With homemade blueberry syrup. Oh goodie!
I declined to do a search for waffle bread pudding on account of being super sensitive and not feeling like I could handle the disappointment.
The blueberry syrup recipe was adapted from Food and Wine circa 2010. Some general ratio/methodology from aargersi on account of her having the brilliant idea I had today...about four years ago.
Ingredients
Waffle Bread Pudding
- Bacon! (I used ~6 pieces but let your conscience be your guide. There's no such thing as too much bacon. No, really.)
- 6-7 cup torn waffles (I used Aretha Frankensteins Waffles of Insane Greatness)
- 8 eggs
- 2 cup milk
- 1 cup cream
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- butter or bacon grease for the pan
- blueberry syrup (recipe below)
- Bloody Mary
Blueberry Syrup
- .75 pound blueberries, rinsed
- 2 cup water, divided
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 1" strips of lemon peel
- .5 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1.5 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
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Directions
Waffle Bread Pudding
- Step 1
Fry bacon and drain on paper towel. When it's cool enough to handle, chop into ~1/2" pieces. If you would like to, you may go ahead and grease your 8x11 baking pan with leftover bacon fat (recommended!) or with butter.
- Step 2
Mix eggs, milk, cream and pepper in a bowl. You should add salt here if you're not using bacon, but I left it out on account of salty-bacon goodness.
- Step 3
Put half of the waffle pieces on the bottom of your greased pan and generously sprinkle with bacon pieces. I won't judge if you hum, "It's raining bacon, hallelujah!" under your breath while doing this. I do. Pour half of the eggy mixture on top. Repeat.
- Step 4
Cover your pan and refrigerate overnight.
- Step 5
The next morning, preheat your oven to 350. Drizzle 1/4-1/2 cup of blueberry syrup over the top and cook until the eggs are set and the pudding is nice and deep brown and puffy - about 70-90 minutes. If the waffles start to get too crispy before the eggs are set, cover with foil for the last bit of cooking.
- Step 6
Serve with a Bloody Mary because it's a weekend morning and the pudding is super rich. If you're making this on a weekday, you are far too much of a go-getter and I dislike you on principle. Oh yah, and extra blueberry syrup because, duh.
Blueberry Syrup
- Step 1
In a pot, combine the blueberries with .5 cup water. Smash up the blueberries and bring to a simmer. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Strain blueberries, pressing on the skins to get as much liquid out as possible. Discard the skins.
- Step 2
Rinse de pot. Combine sugar, lemon zests and remaining 1.5 cups water and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.
- Step 3
Boil the syrup over medium heat until it registers 225 on a candy thermometer, about 20 minutes. Add blueberry and lemon juices and boil over high heat for 1 minute. Let it cool then discard the lemon peels.
- Step 4
Note: The syrup may set up a bit overnight in the fridge. Just pop in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up and thin the consistency.