Bread Pudding:sweet and/or savory?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Thinking about the idea of bread puddings now .... I have made them both sweet and savory. The latter was less than successful using artichoke hearts and cheese ...

Which brings me to my question(s):

Have you made both types? and, if so, which was more interesting to your guests, or you?

Does bread pudding go best with a sauce? Or is that superfluous?

Is there a sauce for a savory bread pudding?

Is this purely a winter type dish?

Is there a low carb bread pudding now possible?

Variations on a theme?

Would enjoy your input on this topic!

[Katherine]

Thinking about the idea of bread puddings now .... I have made them both sweet and savory. The latter was less than successful using artichoke hearts and cheese ...

What was wrong with it? Sounds like it ought to have been tasty. Maybe you need to work on the recipe.

Which brings me to my question(s):

Have you made both types? and, if so, which was more interesting to your guests, or you?

Yes. The level of interest depends on how well thought out the recipe is.

Does bread pudding go best with a sauce? Or is that superfluous? 

Whether your bread pudding needs a sauce would depend on what's in it and how fancy you want to get.

Is there a sauce for a savory bread pudding?

One sauce? No. Depending on the ingredients and the rest of the menu, you might be able to use any of many sauces.

Is this purely a winter type dish?

No.

Is there a low carb bread pudding now possible?

Sure, if you find a low carb bread you like, and are willing to use Splenda.

Variations on a theme?

Almost anything is possible.

[marie-louise]

There is a restaurant in Oakland (Jojo's on Piedmont Ave.) that makes the most amazing savory bread puddings. It is always on the menu as their vegetarian entree, so the vegetables vary by the season. I've never tried to duplicate it at home, but I do believe that lots of eggs and cream would be involved!

PS Savory bread puddings are AKA Panade-you may be able to find some recipes under that name. For instance:

Tomato/ Onion Confit recipe from Zuni Cafe

and

Panade of Leeks and Mixed Greens with Cantal Cheese from Paula Wolfert's Slow Mediterranean Kitchen

Edited May 30, 2004 by marie-louise (log)

[Behemoth]

There's a great savory bread pudding recipe in the Greens cookbook that I used to make fairly often. It comes out all nice and souffle-like...uses eggs, like a sweet bread pudding would. Great way to use leftover bread and varoius scraps of cheese. I think a Panade may be slightly different...those recipes don't seem to include eggs, which is what I think of when I think "pudding".

Edited May 30, 2004 by Behemoth (log)

[andiesenji]

I prepare a great many bread puddings, both sweet and savory. For the savory ones I usually use a bread which has a savory base, such as Asiago cheese bread, or Calamata olive, cheese/onion, etc.

You may find more savory recipes listed under recipes for "strata" - all a strata is actually, is a layered bread pudding.

I have used artichoke hearts in savory bread puddings, however I usually do not put the cheese in the pudding with a vegetable, but put it over the top during the last 10-15 minutes of baking to allow it to melt.

Cardoon, which grows like a weed in my garden, has the same flavor as artichoke and I often use it, chopped and blanched, in strata or puddings.

When I do use cheese in a pudding or strata, I use a fairly hard cheese, shredded and put into the pudding in layers, instead of mixed in, to make sure it is evenly distributed.

I use bacon, cut into bite size pieces then cooked until crisp, ham, also cut into bites and sizzled and cooled before adding. Shredded beef, pork or chicken, all work.

Think of the flavor you want and work from there. You can make one that has Mexican flavors, incorporating mild peppers in the pudding or strata, with chicken, beef or pork, and a cheese, such as a queso fresca, then serving two or three salsas, mild, medium and hot, so your guests can add the amount of heat they wish. Also sour cream...

Fresh onions may cause the pudding to be soggy, I use carmelized onions or dried, toasted onions.

I also use dried tomatoes with olives and cheese such as a ricotta salata for a Mediterranean theme.

I use low carb bread and Splenda to make sweet bread puddings for myself because I am a diabetic. I have added fresh fruits, dried fruits that have been plumped, nuts, etc.

Sauces can be sweet or savory, milk or cream based, fruit sauces, meat sauces and all kinds of condiments.

I usually try to set out something that will contrast with the flavors in the pudding.

Also remember that you can prepare any of these puddings ahead of time, bake in a loaf pan and refrigerate. Then when ready to prepare the meal, slice and fry on a griddle and serve hot with the various sauces, or for a sweet one, fresh fruit or syrup. This is a good way to work when cooking for a croud. I have served a sweet bread pudding as "mock French toast" to huge numbers at fund-raising breakfasts when it would have been impossible to make regular French toast.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I knew I would get the most precise, most highly usable, viable ideas from you all .... and your detailed, highly descriptive comments, andiesenji, have now triggered even more of my desire to experiment with these bread puddings .. I know about "strata" and have used them successfully. I make a french toast creme brulee for large brunches for exactly the same reason as you have offered here!

Thanks to everyone!! and if you have more to add to this thread, I will be most appreciative!

[marie-louise]

I think a Panade may be slightly different...those recipes don't seem to include eggs, which is what I think of when I think "pudding".

Yes, I think you're right. It's a variation on a theme, like those potato gratins made w/ stock instead of milk/ cream-are they still called gratins? But, as you said, both are "Great way to use leftover bread and various scraps of cheese." I almost always have leftover bread around, usually in the freezer. Plus scraps of cheese, eggs, and at least milk if not cream. I don't know why I don't ever think of making these. This thread has inspired me (and since our cold & foggy summer weather will start any day now-it's the perfect season for them!)

Now, what is the difference between a Strata and the others? The layers or the ingredients?

[Bux]

Sweet bread puddings need a sauce like ice cream needs a sauce, which is to say that it doesn't need a sauce one bit, but may become something special with a sauce. For a simple family meal, a sauce may seem inappropriate, while a fancy dinner party may call for a sauce to make it special.

Savory bread puddings will usually soak up whatever sauce comes with the meat if it is a garnish. If it were such an interesting bread pubbing that it arrived as it's own course, I'd be more tempted to served it with a sauce, but the sauce would be chosen on the basis of the other ingredients in the savory pudding. I wouldn't expect a pudding of just bread, milk and eggs to stand on its own as a course--probably not even with a sauce, unless that sauce was beef stew or something.

[andiesenji]

I think a Panade may be slightly different...those recipes don't seem to include eggs, which is what

Now, what is the difference between a Strata and the others? The layers or the ingredients?

The layers - that is what strata means.

Melinda Lee has some great strata ideas, and a master recipe, on her website:

http://melindalee.com/recipearchive.html?a...=124&item_id=46

She also has some killer salsa recipes, including a watermelon salsa that I will be fixing to go with duck tacos which I am preparing for tomorrow.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Sweet bread puddings need a sauce like ice cream needs a sauce, which is to say that it doesn't need a sauce one bit, but may become something special with a sauce.

Visits to New Orleans where the bread pudding is a definite "must", a nécessité définie, turned me on to a divinely decadent whisky hard sauce which accompanies the dessert at Commander's Palace .. and now I find that the sauce is something I sorely miss when delighting in this calorific finale to my meals ...

[Suzanne F]

I too make both kinds -- don't fry enough to need all those crumbs.

My favorite savory includes lots and lots of sauteed mushrooms and onions. The only protein I add besides the eggs is cheese; don't like the idea of meat, fish, or poultry in the pudding.

I also tend to make both savory and sweet with a lot of liquid, so that they are pretty moist and not in need of sauce. (Although I do like a crust to form on top.) But I'd be more likely to put a sauce on a sweet one -- say, bourbon-cream-brown sugar sauce, as they used to at the late Bon Temps Rouler.

And as an aside:

. . .Cardoon, which grows like a weed in my garden, has the same flavor as artichoke and I often use it, chopped and blanched, in strata or puddings.  . . .

You lucky lady!!! Mmmmm, cardoon (except for the ouch! factor )

Edited May 30, 2004 by Suzanne F (log)

[Bux]

Visits to New Orleans where the bread pudding is a definite "must", a nécessité définie, turned me on to a divinely decadent whisky hard sauce which accompanies the dessert at Commander's Palace .. and now I find that the sauce is something I sorely miss when delighting in this calorific finale to my meals ...

I have to say I was generally disappointed by Commander's Palace, more by the service and attitude than by the food, but that is a bread pudding that needs to be placed in some other category if only to allow some light to shine on other bread puddings. Is is, as they say, "something else."

[Gifted Gourmet]

Visits to New Orleans where the bread pudding is a definite "must", a nécessité définie, turned me on to a divinely decadent whisky hard sauce which accompanies the dessert at Commander's Palace .. and now I find that the sauce is something I sorely miss when delighting in this calorific finale to my meals ...

I have to say I was generally disappointed by Commander's Palace, more by the service and attitude than by the food, but that is a bread pudding that needs to be placed in some other category if only to allow some light to shine on other bread puddings. Is is, as they say, "something else."

Truly agree about the service, etc, at Commanders' Palace but the bread pudding, if I recall correctly, must be ordered a full half hour in advance because it is more of a souffle .. and is made as you give your order, thus achieving both lightness and "specialness" on their menu .... c'est "une autre chose" ... indeed!!

without further ado, the recipe itself!

and, of course, an unsolicited testimonial to its greatness:

The Proof is in the Pudding .. or the sauce anyway!!

Edited May 30, 2004 by Gifted Gourmet (log)

[Bicycle Lee]

In making a savory bread pudding, I think it is most important to reflect what it is the starch for...I would not serve savory bread pudding all by its lonesome...it would have to accompany something that it complimented...and in that case, the sauce for the protein should be equally as beneficial to the pudding...like a demi...

I am more familiar with making sweet bread puddings...and my call is to sauce...but not too much. Bread puddings have a tendency to be very filling so you do not want to drown it in sauce, just enough to add a touch of flavor and to help coat the mouth.

[Steve Martin]

It's a variation on a theme, like those potato gratins made w/ stock instead of milk/ cream-are they still called gratins?

They are indeed. The Gratin Savoyarde is, perhaps, the original and it is potato and stock.

A gratin is any dish finished under a salamander or broiler, in a shallow dish.

Gratin original referred to scratchings or gratings from the dried remains of a previous dish. This is more likely to be breadcrumbs these days, but is often just the natural burning of the surface.

Nothing to do with milk. Gratin Dauphinoise just happens to be the most famous.

Nothing to with cheese either, though the Savoyarde does have it.

[Adam Balic]

This is my recipe adaptation/bastardisation/rip-off  of a recipe for quaking pudding from balmagowrie's "Lobscouse and spotted dog" (see link). This type of bread pudding is part of a whole bunch of similar type recipes, by changing the flavours and the ration of liquids to solids the variation in the puddings are endless. Christmas Plum pudding is a bread pudding, where the bread has become a minor or non-existant componant.

Holyrood Quaking Pudding

6 egg yolks

3 egg whites

1 pint single cream

3 cups of fresh bread crumbs

cup of crushed rataffia buscuits

2 large spoonfuls of marmalade

pinch of ground cloves, teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger, salt.

(plus butter/flour for the pudding cloth)

Prepared pudding cloth

Beat egg whites and yolks seperately, add cream to yolks and beat together, do not thicken. Add breadcrumbs, crushed rataffia, mamalade and spices, fold in egg whites. Mix well, put in cloth, tie and boil for 45 minutes. Turn out and served with sauce of choice.

Sauce: beat three egg yolks in a bowl over gently boiling water or in a double boiler with 2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar, add a good slug of rich muscat wine beat until thickened to a custard. You can add the whipped egg whites at this point if you want a lighter sauce.

Lobscouse and Spotted Dog

Edited July 5, 2004 by Adam Balic (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Many thanks for this recipe, Adam Balic! and I, too, am a devoted fan of the author of Lobscouse and Spotted Dog ...