BREAD AND BERRY PUDDING

Bread and Berry Pudding image

In our house, where nothing goes to waste, you can bet that bread pudding is a highly esteemed dessert. This is a simple, delicious version (with a new twist that I just discovered). It is great in summer with any fresh berries-and frozen berries work fine the rest of the year. I like to use blueberries because they remain whole-especially small wild ones. I also like raspberries and other soft berries, precisely because they melt into the pudding and leave bursts of flavor where they baked. So you can experiment: firm strawberries would be nice, cut up, as would other semifirm fruits, like ripe pears. I would avoid very juicy fruits, though. I like white breads for pudding, but, as with the Peach Lasagna (following recipe), it should be a hearty homemade or country white bread, not sourdough. I don't like sour breads in general, and certainly not for desserts. But when we were testing recipes in Vermont, we had only day-old bread that was a bit more sour than I liked, and that prompted me to develop a new twist on the recipe. There was a jug of maple syrup on the kitchen counter at my editor Judith's house, and I decided to balance the sourness by drizzling the bread with syrup and toasting it in the oven to sweeten and caramelize it lightly. As I am sure you will agree when you taste the pudding, it's worth using the maple syrup whether your bread is sour or not.

Yield a 2-quart baking dish of pudding, serving 8 or more

Number Of Ingredients 15

Ingredients

5 to 6 cups 1 1/2-inch cubes of hearty white bread-day-old but not stale, crusts removed
1/4 cup maple syrup, preferably dark
4 large eggs
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup zucchero di canna or white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
2 2/3 cups whole milk
1 1/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons soft butter, for the pan
2 cups fresh or frozen berries (see headnote)
Heavy cream or sour cream
Maple syrup
A 2-quart baking dish, either shallow (7 by 11 inches) for more crustiness, or deeper (8 by 8 inches) for more creaminess

Steps:

Arrange one rack in the middle of the oven with space for the pudding dish, and one rack above it, to toast the bread on a baking sheet; preheat to 400°.
Put the bread cubes in a large bowl and drizzle over them the maple syrup, tossing so all the cubes absorb a little bit of syrup. Spread the cubes out on a baking sheet, place it on the upper rack in the oven, and toast for 15 minutes or so, until they're crisp and slightly caramelized all over. Remove the sheet, turn the oven down to 375°, and let the bread cubes cool while you make the custard.
To prepare the custard, beat the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and salt well with a hand whisk, using the same bowl as for the bread if you wish, then whisk in the lemon zest, milk, cream, and vanilla.
Butter the inside of the baking dish generously. Pile the bread pieces in the dish, and scatter the berries all over (if you want to use more berries, go right ahead). Pour the custard over the bread and berries; turn the bread cubes over gently to moisten them on all sides and to distribute the berries.
Set the dish in the oven, and bake 50 minutes or so, until the top is golden brown and crusty and the custard is set throughout.* Test for doneness by inserting a thin knife blade into an eggy bit of pudding and the middle of a bread cube too: the knife blade should come out clean both times. During baking, rotate the pan on the rack for even cooking. After 50 minutes, if the top is browning slowly, move the dish onto a higher rack. If the top is dark but the custard needs more cooking (if you are using a deeper pan), lay a piece of foil loosely over the top.
Serve the pudding warm with a splash of cream, if you like, or a dollop of sour cream with additional berries on top and a little maple syrup drizzled over.