Dutch Oven Bread Pudding

The last couple days I've had two opportunities to try a new recipe: Dutch Oven Bread Pudding (in case you missed the title of the post). I couldn't believe how good it tasted. Well, okay, when you look at the ingredients it's not at all surprising that it tastes that good.

I figured it would be good to post the recipe I used, in addition to some of the things I found to be very important when making it. That way I'll know where to find the recipe in a couple weeks when I make it again.

I'm a little embarrassed that out of two full pots of the stuff I didn't think to take a single picture. I'll add a picture to the post the next time I make it.

Up until this week I had never really thought of making desserts other than cobblers in a dutch oven. On Saturday, though, we had lunch at Famous Dave's and we've grown to love the bread pudding there. But we just didn't have any room for it at the time. So after a quick internet search I found a recipe that turned out just perfect.

Here it is (the original recipe can be found at dutchovenchef.com).

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf day-old French bread
• 3/4 cup golden raisins (optional)
• 8 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the sauce:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

I started by cutting the bread into 1x1 inch strips and put it all in a size 12 dutch oven. Then, in a separate bowl, I mixed the eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla, then dumped the mixture over the bread. It's important to make sure all the bread gets dunked, so I took a fork and pressed all the floaters down into the milk and egg mixture. At this point I added the raisins, but I suppose you could do that any time (before you cook it).

Depending on the crowd you're cooking for, you may want to leave a raisin-free section. I'm not a fan of raisins in things (I'm really trying to like them, though) but the raisins in this really didn't bother me too much. Oh, the original recipe called for golden raisins, but we just used regular brown(?) raisins. Well, we used sweetened raisins, which may have made the difference. We also didn't use anywhere near 3/4 cup of raisins.

I found the cooking instructions were exactly right: 8 coals on the bottom, 16 on the top, for 45 minutes. It was also essential to rotate both the dutch oven and the lid 90 degrees every 10 minutes.

About 30 minutes into the cooking time, I made up the sauce by melting the butter in a sauce pan, then adding the sugar, egg, and vanilla (mixed together separately). Stir it constantly for about 10 minutes on medium high heat. It should firm up a bit as you stir.

When it's done, serve the pudding with a bit of the sauce on top. It tasted really good with some vanilla ice cream, too.

It tasted great, and wasn't much more work than a regular cobbler. Enjoy!