Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding with Maple Sauce

How was your memorial day weekend? My two friends Megan and Kaitlyn from Loyola came to visit me for the weekend…we had so much fun!  That’s us on the beach in the picture above.  They ended up staying over last night too so they could miss the traffic leaving the island…and to hang out with me of course  We got dinner/ice cream and went to the Red Box (never used it before…it’s really cool!).  We ended up renting the movie Conviction.  Have you seen this movie? We LOVED it.  It is a true story about a lady (Hilary Swank) who puts herself through law school in an effort to represent her brother (who has been wrongfully convicted of murder).  It is amazing/horrible how many wrongly convicted people are in prison.  Anyway…it’s a great movie so if you are looking for a movie to watch one night…this is a winner.

The night before Megan and Kaitlyn came to visit me, Mary and I made Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding for dessert.  We both love bread pudding but never attempted to make it before.  It was fun to make and very simple! Plus we felt a little better about eating it because we got it from the “Essentials of Healthful Cooking” (by Williams-Sonoma) Cookbook.  This recipe is a sort of “light” version of regular bread pudding….and still delicious!  The Maple Sauce (in addition to the frozen yogurt we served the bread pudding with) really made this dish.  We both thought that a type of caramel sauce would be delicious with this as well!

 

Recipe for Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 loaf of Challah or other egg bread, about 1 lb (500g), torn into 1 1/2 inch pieces (about 10 C)
• 3/4 C raisins
• 1 very ripe banana, peeled
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups of 2% milk
• 1 C sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• tsp of vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place the bread in a large bowl. Add the raisins and mix with your hands to distribute them evenly.
2. Place the banana in a bowl and mash with a fork until it is pureed.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs until blended.  Whisk in the milk, the banana, all but 1 tsp of the sugar, 1 tsp of the cinnamon, and the vanilla, mixing well.
4. Pour evenly over the bread and set aside to soak for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven 350 degrees.  Coat a 9-by-2-inch (23-by-5 cm) round cake pan with canola-oil cooking spay.
6. Spoon the soaked bread mixture into the prepared pan, smoothing the top to level it. It will reach the rim of the pan. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1 T sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the pudding.
7. Bake the pudding until it has puffed about 1 inch above the rim of the pan, the top is medium brown, and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hr.  Remove from the oven and let cool to look warm temperature.
8. Cut the pudding into wedges and place on individual plates/bowls.  Spoon 2 T of sauce over each wedge and top with vanilla frozen yogurt/ice cream.

 

Recipe for Maple Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 C maple syrup, preferably grade B
• 1/4 C orange marmalade
• 2 cinnamon sticks, each 3 inches long

Directions

1. In a small frying pan, combine the maple syrup, marmalade, cinnamon sticks, and 1/2 C water.
2. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Boil gently, reducing heat if necessary, until the liquid is reduced by 1/3, about 6 min.
3. Remove from heat.  You will have about 1 C of sauce.  Let cool to warm or room temp before serving.  Remove the cinnamon sticks.

Tomorrow Mary and I are moving to philly! Can’t wait!   We are going to be pretty busy for a few days so look out for some guest posts!!

Question: What did you do this weekend?

Question 2: Did you cook/bake anything good this weekend?

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Tagged as: bread pudding, cinnamon raisin bread pudding, conviction, essentials of healthful cooking