Sunday, February 7, 2010

365/38 Bourbon and bread ... this is the high life.

365/38 Bourbon and bread ... this is the high life.

"A horrid alcoholic explosion scatters all my good intentions like bits of limbs and clothes over the doorsteps and into the saloon bars of the tawdriest pubs."

Dylan Thomas


Today, after a long night and a short sleep, I decided I needed to make something decadent. I've long been a fan of good bread pudding and recently came across a recipe for Bourbon Bread Pudding.

I must say, I never before realized just how rich this stuff was. This recipe called for 3 cups of heavy cream, a cup and a half of brown sugar, butter, LOTS of bourbon (we certainly couldn't give the kids any of the sauce). I found myself snacking on leftover crumbles of butter, sugar, and cinnamon that managed to not make it into the last part of baking. Definitely dangerous for the gut, but only because it's making me fatter.

Oh, and as I mentioned, there was quite a bit of bourbon called for by the recipe gods: 3/4 of a cup to be exact. My wife commented about the smell from across the house while I was cooking up the raisins in the alcohol. Yes, some of it cooked down, but there was still enough left over that you could taste the alcohol ... not just the flavor of bourbon ... in both the sauce and pudding. Delicious. Oh, and the bourbon? I don't think it was anything special. I'm not a connoisseur of bourbon, but reviews on the good ol' intarwebs say that Old Forester was a solid brand. Not bad for a $13 bottle of spirits to cook with.

I think the only "bad" thing about how I made this recipe was not cutting the bread into small enough pieces. I made fairly uniform slices and cuts, so the pudding ended up with uniformly large pieces throughout. As well, I think if I had torn up the bread it would have met with better success.

Overall, though, I would classify this one as a must cook again. Even though it's going to make me fat. This is the price we pay for being refined Internet epicureans, eh?

Oh yeah ... the bourbon bottle in case you're interested.

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