Carmelized Pear Bread Pudding

Bread pudding would have to be one of my favorite deserts. It's a comfort food for me. It's best served warm, with pockets of sweetness hidden in all of those nooks and crannies. My friend made a version of it for the 4th of July this year. It was humid and disgusting out, and we were inside without air conditioning with the oven heating up the bread pudding. I ate it, even though it was really hot because it was bread pudding. It was delicious, and I have no regrets.

Plus, I like bread pudding because it's a recipe that you can let sit around while you go and get on with the rest of your life.

I can't find the exact recipe online, but this one is close.


CUSTARD

10 cups stale bread, cut into 1”-1 ½” cubes
5 eggs
1
⁄₃ cup granulated sugar (increase to ½ cup if using unsweetened bread)
¼ cup (yes, ¼ cup!) pure vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt
2 cups whole milk
1cup heavy cream

PEAR TOPPING

2 pounds pears (about 6-8 medium), peeled, quartered, and cored
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter  
¾ cup granulated sugar
Additional 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened, to grease pan
Preheat oven to 350°.

To make the custard:

Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a large enough bowl to hold your bread cubes.  Whisk in the
milk and cream.  Toss in bread and with your hands push down on the bread to submerge it into your
custard.  At this point you could cover the bowl and refrigerate the pudding overnight or you could
continue with the recipe while occasionally stirring or pushing down on the bread to keep it covered with
the custard.

Caramelizing pears:

Melt butter in a large skillet (big enough to hold all your pears in a single layer) on low heat.  Sprinkle the
sugar evenly over the melted butter and lay your pears over the sugar.  Turn the heat to high and allow the
pears to cook undisturbed for 8-10 minutes.  Once the juices and pears begin to caramelize, carefully shake
the pan to distribute the heat and turn the pears over onto their other sides.  Once the pears and juices are a
medium amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
Pour the bread and custard into a greased 9” x 13” pan.  Distribute the pears and their juice evenly over the
pudding.  Bake in the middle of the oven for 40-45 minutes or until the custard is set and the bread that is
popping up between the pears is crispy.  Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.  This pudding is great on
its own or with a pear-brandy-spiked vanilla sauce.
Storage:  This bread pudding is best served the day it is made but any leftovers can be wrapped in plastic
and refrigerated for 2-3 days.  Re-warm in a 300° oven for 10-15 minutes



When we made it, we used whole milk instead of heavy cream to try to reduce some of the fat content.

Here is ours soaking. We kept pressing it down with a potato masher to make sure it stayed down.

After we baked it, we tore into it before I realized I hadn't taken a picture of it. So, here's a picture of the part we didn't eat right away.

Whoops. My bad.

 I had so much left over that I wound up eating it for breakfast the next couple days. I figure it's better than eating ice cream for breakfast. Or candy bars. Not that I regularly eat either of them for breakfast, but the logic works well enough for me.