This weekend, I just wanted a little something sweet, so I started looking through my recipe book to see if anything caught my eye. A high school friend turned pastry chef gave me her fabulous recipe for bread pudding that I used to absolutely adore when I was home and would visit the restaurant where shed used to bake. She kindly shared the recipe, although it was definitely scaled up for mass production. I just wanted a small taste of bread pudding without making enough for a party, so I tried to scale it waaay down, and to my surprise it worked quite nicely. I ended up with two ramekins of bread pudding: One for a tasty afternoon snack and one for after dinner. Mmmm. The small sprinkling of chocolate chips on top gives it just enough chocolate to make my taste buds happy, but not enough to take away from the delicious pure nature of the custard.
It didn't take more than 10 minutes to put together and make. Don't be discouraged if you don't have ramekins either. You could make them in oven-proof tea cups or other small dishes and then place them in a brownie pan with an inch or so of water for the water bath.
Be creative and enjoy!
Clarence House Bread Pudding - Small Scale Style
From Carla
Makes enough for 2 ramekins.
2 pieces of toast, toasted until golden brown, crusts cut off, cut into 2cm cubes
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a teapot on the stove, start boiling some water.
2. Place the pieces of cut up toast into 2 ramekins until almost filled to the top.
3. In a small or medium sized pan over medium heat, scald the cream (until its bubbly). Add the sugar and whisk until dissolved. Don't let it burn / brown.
4. In a separate small bowl, place the egg yolk. Add spoonfuls of the warm and bubbly cream to the egg yolk while mixing with a fork constantly until the eggs are warmed. Then, quickly, transfer the eggs into the main pan of bubbly cream and whisk whisk whisk to prevent the eggs from clumping. Add the vanilla extract and whisk some more.
5. Remove egg-cream mixture from heat and pour over the toast in the ramekins. Over the top, sprinkle chocolate chips and then cinnamon.
6. Place the ramekins in a larger, deeper dish. Add an inch or so of boiling water into the pan around the ramekin dishes. Place the whole apparatus in the oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the chocolate chips are melted and the custard is thicker and not runny.
7. Serve warm.
PS - I'm sure you could double / triple this very easily to fill more ramekins. Could also try 1/2 2% or whole milk with 1/2 heavy cream.
