Bread Pudding Simplified

Bread pudding is one of those great, versatile, easy-to-make, and easy-to-adapt dessert recipes that are pretty universally adored. At its most basic, it contains just a few readily available ingredients and once you get the proportions and baking time right, anyone can make it (which makes for a great cooking project with the kids!).

The simplest bread puddings include:

• Bread: Usually stale or day-old so it will better soak up all the other ingredients, you can usually use what you have lying around. Avoid heavily-spiced savory breads, but things like french bread and white bread work really well.
• A custard of sorts: Don't let this scare you -- you won't need to do any pre-cooking of this custard, but a mixture of eggs and milk will provide the binding for the bread pudding.
• Sweetener: Of course, this is a dessert, so it's going to include sweetness. The most common is sugar, but you may find uses for honey and other sweeteners as well.
• Spices: The prototypical dessert spice is cinnamon, and that is indeed what you'll find in most bread puddings, but you'll also normally use nutmeg and vanilla. Raisins are a popular add-in, but can be omitted to taste.

So, you've got your basic ingredients, now what? There's not a whole lot to making bread pudding -- combine everything but the bread (milk, eggs, sugar, spices) well, pour over the stale bread that's been cut or torn into approximately bite-sized pieces, and toss lightly to distribute. Many recipes recommend allowing this mixture to sit overnight to let the bread soak up all the custardy goodness and then bake, but if you're in a rush, you can curtail the soaking time a bit. Pop your bread pudding in a 350 degree oven until the center is set, let it cool a bit, and enjoy!

You can find some good bread pudding recipes here or ask around -- friends and family are likely to have some tried and true versions also. Other great variations include using different types of bread like challah, croissants, raisin bread, or even donuts (Paula Deen has a famous Krispy Kreme Donut Bread Pudding!) and incorporating other fruits (dried, canned, or even fresh) into the mixture.

Now, that's a pretty delicious dessert to start with, but you know that sauces just make desserts better and bread pudding is indeed traditionally accompanied by a sauce of some kind. Sauce possibilities include:

• A simple glaze: Combine powdered sugar with milk (in very small amounts) and drizzle over the cooled bread pudding.
• A vanilla-custard sauce: This might be the most work-intensive sauce option, but it's worth it. Combine milk, eggs, cream, sugar, and vanilla and cook until creamy - this recipe is borrowed off an apple strudel recipe, but will work beautifully!
• A liqueur sauce: The most popular options are rum or bourbon sauces. Most are basically the liqueur, butter, and powdered sugar -- and you can adjust just how much liqueur flavor you'd like. The Butter-Rum Sauce for Paula Deen's Bread Pudding can be found here, and a yogurt-bourbon sauce is included with this recipe.
• A fruit sauce: Especially if you've incorporated a particular fruit in the bread pudding, you can enhance that with a fruit sauce. Melt down some jam or jelly for a super-quick sauce or cook down some fresh fruit until it can be spooned over the pudding.
• Vanilla Ice Cream: If you're serving your bread pudding warm, it's hard to beat good old vanilla ice cream as a dessert topping and sauce.

Enjoy!