Caramel Bread Pudding (ATK)

• servings: 8

Ingredients

15 slices hearty white sandwich bread, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 16 cups)

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1½ sticks)

2 cups packed (14 ounces/397 grams) light brown sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

5 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups half-and-half

5 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange bread in single layer on 2 baking sheets. Bake until golden and crisp, flipping bread and switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking, about 12 minutes. Let cool. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

2. Grease 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Melt butter and sugar in large saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring often, until bubbling and straw-colored, about 4 minutes. Off heat, whisk in cream, corn syrup, and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Pour 1 cup caramel over bottom of prepared pan; set aside. Reserve additional 1 cup caramel for serving, then whisk half-and-half into remaining caramel.

3. Whisk eggs and salt in large bowl. Whisk in half-and-half mixture, a little at a time, until incorporated, then stir in remaining vanilla. Fold in toasted bread and let sit, stirring occasionally, until bread is saturated, about 20 minutes.

4. Transfer bread mixture to caramel-coated pan and bake on lower-middle rack until top is crisp and custard is just set, about 45 minutes. Let cool 30 minutes. Drizzle with 1/2 cup reserved caramel sauce and serve, passing remaining sauce at table.

Notes

Why This Recipe Works

The test kitchen's basic bread pudding recipe starts with soaking stale bread in a custard of egg yolks, heavy cream, and sugar before baking the pudding at a low temperature. This rustic dessert emerges from the oven with a soft, creamy interior and a slightly crunchy crust. We wanted to introduce caramel by adding store- bought caramel sauce to the egg custard, but that made the custard too heavy. Worse, the custard was so sweet that the caramel flavor was barely detectable. For a caramel bread pudding recipe that actually tasted like caramel, we made a simple caramel sauce with brown sugar, butter, cream, and corn syrup this gave us the prominent caramel flavor we were after. Starting with an additional layer of caramel sauce under the bread pudding as it baked and then topping our baked Caramel Bread Pudding with extra caramel elevated the flavor to new heights.

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2008 COOK'S COUNTRY in 2007 annual