NEW ORLEANS BREAD PUDDING AND LEMON SAUCE AND CHANTILLY CREAM

New Orleans Bread Pudding and Lemon Sauce and Chantilly Cream image

Provided by @MakeItYours

Number Of Ingredients 15

3 large eggs
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups milk
½ cup raisins Lemon Sauce (recipe follows)
Chantilly Cream (recipe follows)
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans, roasted
5 cups very stale French or Italian bread cubes
1 ½ tsp. Ronald Reginald's Pure Vanilla Extract or 1 tsp. Ronald Reginald's Vanilla Bean Marinade®
1 lemon, halved
½ cup water
¼ cup sugar 2 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water
1 tsp. Ronald Reginald's Pure Vanilla Extract or ½ tsp. Ronald Reginald's Vanilla Bean Marinade®

Steps:

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs on high speed until they are extremely frothy and the bubbles are the size of pinheads (about 3 minutes, or 6 minutes with a metal whisk). Add the sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and butter and beat on high until well-blended. Beat in the milk, then stir in the raisins and pecans.
Place the bread cubes in a greased loaf pan. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes and toss until the bread is soaked. Let sit until you see only a narrow bead of liquid around the pan's edges, about 45 minutes, patting the bread down into the liquid occasionally. Place in a 350° oven. Immediately lower the heat to 300° and bake 40 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 425° and bake until pudding is well-browned and puffy, about 25 minutes more.
To make the sauce, squeeze the juice from the lemon halves into a 1-quart saucepan; add the lemon halves, water and sugar and bring to a boil. Stir in the dissolved cornstarch and vanilla. Cook one minute over high heat, stirring constantly. Strain, squeezing the sauce from the lemon rinds. Makes about ¾ cup.
To serve, put 1 ½ Tbs. lemon sauce in each dessert dish, then spoon in ½ cup bread pudding and top with ¼ cup Chantilly Cream.