Bourbon Sweet Potato Bread Pudding
Scale
Ingredients
For Bread Pudding
- 1 loaf Jamaican Hardo Bread*, cut into chunks (may substitute with Challah bread)
- 3 large eggs OR Vegan Egg Replacer
- 2 ½ cups Half & Half OR Vegan Coffee Creamer
- 1 ½ cup sweet potatoes, pureed
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup chopped pecans, optional
- 3 TB butter, melted OR Vegan Butter
- 3 TB butter, cut into small pieces OR Vegan Butter
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
For the Praline Sauce
- 16 tbsp. (2 sticks) butter OR Vegan Butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup Bourbon (for the brave and bold)
- OR
- 2 tsp Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
For Bread Pudding
- Heat oven to 350 degrees
- Place bread chunks in an even layer on a flat surface for 1 hour to air
- Butter a 2-quart casserole dish
- In a large bowl toss Hardo bread chunks, 1 tsp cinnamon, melted butter and pecan (if using)
- In another bowl, whisk eggs, Half & Half, sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom
- Beat in sweet potatoes
- Add vanilla extract
- Spread half of bread chunks in a buttered casserole dish in one even layer
- Pour half of sweet potato mixture over bread; make sure that the mixture has moistened all of the bread.
- Repeat with remaining bread chunks and sweet potato mixture, making sure the mixture has moistened all of the bread
- You can let the bread pudding stand for 20 minutes before putting it into the oven. Letting it stand allows the bread to soak in the mixture before cooking on it’s own or you can simply pop it right in!
- Place the butter pieces intermittently over the bread
- Bake for 45-55 minutes
For the Bourbon Praline Sauce
- Melt butter in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.
- Add sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until sugar melts. Once mixture comes to a slight boil, reduce the heat to low. Simmer for approx. 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in pecans
- Add bourbon OR Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract slowly, Caution: it will fizzle!.
- Spoon warm sauce over bread pudding. I prefer to use a fork and poke holes in bread pudding before spooning over the sauce
Notes
*If you have not tasted Jamaican Hardo Bread then you haven’t lived honey! It’s firm yet soft, slightly sweet bread that can be found in any Caribbean grocery store or on the international aisle of some major grocery stores. I prefer it in bread pudding; because it’s strong enough to stand up to the sweet potato mixture without disintegrating and it lends a subtle sweet, buttery taste that enhances this dish. I’m all about fusion and I seize opportunities to fuse my Jamaican culture into food.