Sunday, November 1, 2009

SMS: Sweet Almond Bread Pudding with Raspberry Sauce


This week’s Sweet Melissa Sunday treat is Sweet Almond Bread Pudding with Raspberry Sauce. If the name of the dessert contains both raspberry and almond, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll enjoy it. In fact, this recipe was on my short list when I first got the book and started baking with the group. However, when it was my turn to choose a recipe, I was anxious to try making jam, and besides, it was July and bread pudding was not very appealing. The recipe recommended stale brioche for the bread, but I decided to buy French bread since I knew we’d enjoy eating the part of the loaf not used for pudding (I scaled the recipe down to one quarter).



This recipe was quick to put together, and I thought the custard baked up beautifully. I wish I could remember the exact baking time for the three little ramekins I made, but I had a bit of an oven mishap (meaning I accidentally turned it off rather than a burner on my stove when I put the pudding in), so it’s hard to say. It was pretty late by the time I got around to making the raspberry sauce, so I skipped processing and straining it; luckily neither of us minded the sauce being a little seedy and chunky. I thought the contrast of sweet cream, crunchy almonds, and tart raspberries was perfect, a stellar bread pudding recipe.



This bread pudding received a solid 8 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 4. Many thanks to Candace of Candy Girl for selecting this recipe at just the right time of year – really, it’s excellent Autumn comfort food. You can find the recipe here on Candace’s site and see what the rest of the bakers thought by visiting the SMS blogroll.

14 comments:

Candy said...

Your bread puddings are beautiful and so elegant! Thanks for baking with me this week.

Karin said...

These were a big hit for me too. Quick question... since you seem to scale down recipes quite a bit- how do you do it for the eggs? With a lot of recipes, the eggs don't seem to half or quarter very well.

Ras Yeti said...

Great photos! Makes me hungry...

Megan said...

Mmmm - I wish I had one of those right now...

I'll have to check out the recipe - I love the combination of almonds and raspberries.

Nina said...

YUM!
I love your plates!

JoAnn Freda said...

I want this! Where would you have bought brioche if you were to use it? Does whole foods carry it? I can't wait to try this. We are totally into bread pudding and almond and raspberry are 2 of my favorite things in sweet foods.

margot said...

@Karin: I used two egg yolks for a quarter recipe; I figured better more than less and it wasn't too eggy.

@Jo Ann: There's a bakery chain called La Boulange where I've seen brioche(there are a few locations in SF and Marin, I don't know if there are any in the South Bay), but they'd probably have it at Whole Foods. It was yummy with French Bread, though.

Susan said...

Not sure how I missed your blog, but glad I found it this go round. Your bread puddings look darling. I made mine with pumpkin pie brioche and it was delicious.

Unknown said...

Ooooh yum, love how your bread pudding looks with the raspberry sauce! I didn't have time to make the sauce this weekend but it's definitely on my to-try list :) I scaled the recipe back too and I agree with you - it's a good one!

Anonymous said...

oh my, your bread pudding looks fantastic. i didn't make it because i had no stale bread to speak of (oops) but i'll be making this for my mom :) she's a lover of all bread puddings!

Jaime said...

this looks amazing! I'm sad I missed out on this recipe

Anonymous said...

Your bread pudding looks perfect!

Leslie said...

Delicious! You're tempting me to but this book, even though I need another dessert cookbook like I need 5 more pounds on my thighs.

Paula said...

Goodness, that looks good. I came over here to view your crisp and got distracted by this. I'm looking up the recipe.