Key Lime Bread Pudding
The basis of this recipe was the Wash House Restaurant famous bread pudding. I have never been to this old time southern cooking Meca, located south east of Mobile Alabama right on the Mobile Bay but they say the food is wonderful. I tried their recipe and loved it a lot .. but got to tinkering and came up with a few things to make it “mo betta’ or at least I think so.
Ingredients:
5 (4-inch) stale yeast rolls (these are just dinner rolls, you could use use Hawaiian rolls but true be told any semi-stale bread except for very hard crusted would do I think).
8 eggs, separated
1 pint half-and-half
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 crushed toasted Pecans
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 pound butter, melted
2 (14-ounce) cans of sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup Key lime juice
whipped cream, to garnish (Store bought is fine, home whipped is “mo betta”!)
confectioners’ sugar, to garnish ( I usually pass … makes me feel like a coke addict:)
Key Lime Slices to garnish – Sliced thin and then twisted all cutesy like the chef
Roasted Pecan to garnish – just plop that bad boy right on top of the whipped cream next to the Key Lime slice – oh baby!
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut your bread up into ~1 inch chunks or cubes if you feel very retentive. Mix egg whites, half-and-half, Confectioners sugar and vanilla thoroughly to create egg wash. Soak stale, sliced bread in egg wash until saturated. Place bread onto greased sheet pan. On the shelf below place the pecans for roasting 2 min till they are just showing darkening. Watch them closely they burn easily.
3. Bake soaked bread for 6 – 10 minutes, until lightly brown. Remove bread from oven and line a 9-by-9-inch greased baking pan with cooked bread. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
4. Meanwhile, mix together brown sugar, and graham cracker crumbs in a bowl. Crush ~1/4 cup of the Pecans (save enough half to put one next to each slice of key lime as a garnish) Add melted butter to crumbs and stir until well combined.
5. Then, in a separate bowl, mix egg yolks and condensed milk until blended. Stir Key lime juice slowly into milk-egg mixture. (Wait until the very end to add Key lime juice.) Do not over mix.
6. Pour this mixture over bread. Top with graham cracker mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. You can slip this under the broiler for a minute to really harden and darken the crust if you like.
7. Refrigerate for approximately 3 – 4 hours to allow bread pudding to set. Cut into approximately 12 squares.
You can go crazy on garnishing this dish, make it your way or adjust for your guests:Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, a dusting of confectioners’ sugar with a slice of key lime (if you have any guests that are musicians or grew up in Miami …you can put little lines of confectioners super in front of the desert to give it that “good to be crazy and young” authentic feel.. and add a roasted Pecan half on top. Makes about 12 servings.
Yum !