Gingered Butternut Bread Pudding with Coconut and Maple

Directions

1. Slice day old baguette and cut into 1-inch cubes. You should end up with about 8 cups of cubed bread. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Use a traditional Japanese metal ginger grater (oroshigane), or microplane, to grate peeled ginger to a pulpy puree. You should end up with one generous teaspoon of mostly fiber free ginger. (The oroshigane has fine metal teeth that separate the stringy fibrous parts of the ginger from the pulp and juice).
3. Make Squash: Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. In a large bowl, add butternut squash cubes, ginger pulp, brown sugar, butter cubes, and salt. Toss to combine mixture. Spread out in a single layer on foil. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring mixture with a wooden spoon half way through cooking. Remove pan from oven; squash should be fragrant and just tender. Allow squash to cool, and then transfer to a bowl. Turn oven off. (Squash can be made ahead; cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate if preparing hours in advance.)
4. Make Pecans: Heat a small skillet over medium heat. Toast pecans in dry pan, stirring, until fragrant and beginning to brown, 1-2 minutes. Be careful not to burn pecans. Add maple syrup, stirring to combine, cook about one minute more. Remove pan from heat and sprinkle pecans with sea salt. Stir to combine. Allow pecans to thoroughly cool (they should harden) and transfer to an airtight container.
5. Butter a 13 x 9 x 2 glass-baking dish. Spread 1/2 of bread cubes in a single layer. Top with 1/2 of roasted butternut. Repeat one more layer of each to use up bread and butternut. Set aside.
6. Make Custard: In a small saucepan, combine coconut milk, 2% milk, and maple syrup. Split 1/2 vanilla bean and carefully scrape seeds into pan. Stir mixture to combine and slowly heat until warm, but not hot (can put clean finger in liquid without burning).
7. In a separate bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Temper eggs by slowly adding 1 cup of warmed milk-maple mixture into eggs, whisking to combine. Slowly whisk egg-milk mixture back into saucepan of warmed milk, and cook for a minute more. Remove from heat. Ladle warm custard over butternut-bread mixture, lightly pressing down on bread to submerge in liquid. Allow mixture to cool slightly, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to three hours.
8. When ready to bake bread pudding, preheat oven to 350°F. Remove bread pudding from refrigerator and bring to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Top bread pudding with maple pecans and bake for 30-35 minutes until pudding has puffed up and custard is just set. Remove from oven and allow pudding to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy as a slightly sweet side to turkey and all the trimmings, or with vanilla ice cream -- you decide!