Favorite Bread Pudding (Low-Fat) by Beachdee

[BakerAunt]

DESSERT: Favorite Bread Pudding
Submitted by beachdee on April 24, 2004 at 9:18 pm

This is my revised, Low-Fat-But-Still-Tastes-Great version of a high-fat Pasta & Co. recipe. Used to get chunks of this from their deli in Bellevue, WA. When we moved away I HAD to find a way to make it. Goes together easier/quicker than it looks.

In honor of the sugar in this recipe, photo shows a Maui sugar cane field being burned, across the bay, in pre-dawn light. If the wind blows our way, we get "Maui Snow" (black soot in large and small bits drifting down out of the smoke cloud...). It's good to know where your food comes from and what's involved--this was an eye-opener for us when we first came here. [picture did not post in BC]

3/4 cup dried sour (pie) cherries (OR can use the new cherry-flavored dried cranberries but will be sweeter).
6 dried apricots, quartered
2 whole eggs
2 egg whites
2 cups skim milk
1/4 cup lowfat sour cream
6 oz. apricot preserves (I use the all-fruit kind, no sugar)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 to 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon, to taste
1 1/2 Tblsp cream sherry or bourbon
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups crumbled bread (leave crusts on) (coarsely crumbled in a food processor or blender)
3 cups cubed bread (leave crusts on, cut into 3/4-inch cubes)
1 Tblsp butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 Tblsp sugar, preferably demerara (raw chunky-style) sugar crystals

Steep cherries and dry apricot chunks in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain well and reserve.

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a shallow 8x8-inch broiler-proof baking dish (i.e. Pyrex).

In a bowl large enough to eventually hold all the ingredients, use an egg beater or electric mixer on low speed (I use an egg beater) to combine eggs, milk/sour cream (whichever you are using), preserves, sugar, cinnamon, sherry, and vanilla. Break up any apricot chunks in the preserves as much as you can.

When ingredients are well-combined, fold in crumbled and cubed bread, also the drained cherries and apricots, gently mixing until bread is well-coated in egg mixture and fruit is evenly distributed. Spoon mixture into baking dish.

Melt the butter, then stir in sugar and cinnamon. Drizzle as evenly as possible over top of pudding in dish.

Bake until golden, about 35-45 minutes. If browning too quickly, cover dish with parchment paper or foil. Remove paper last 5 minutes. If not crusty enough for your tastes on top when done, put under broiler just until sugar in topping caramelizes (caution will quickly burn if not baby-sat).
Serve warm or at room temperature or cold, with lightly whipped & barely sweetened cream, or with a dab of vanilla ice cream, or with milk--it's even great just plain! Yum yum!!

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