1^st Place My Mom's Best Recipe (Using Eggs) Contest - 2021

Marilyn Collins, Caroline County Fair

Makes 6 - 8 servings

Grandma Ollie's Bread Pudding

Ollie worked for the Federal Government in Virginia for decades, which meant daughter and top prize winner, Marilyn Collins, got to spend a lot of time with her grandmother, Pearl. Both Pearl and daughter, Ollie, loved to cook and this is one of their favorites. Pearl is gone now, making Ollie the grandmother in the family. They used leftover bread (usually home baked), which they topped with berries in the summer, and served at special birthday dinners. Bread Puddings are great, since you can change the texture and flavor with the types of breads used, the flavorings added, and the type of fruit included (or no fruit added at all). It all comes together with a custard made with eggs and milk or cream. It's important to use cream in this one, as the soaking water for the raisins, would water down regular milk. Marilyn used berries and stewed apples, as a garnish.

Ingredients

6 eggs
1 cup cream
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
½ cup raisins soaking in 1 cup water*
6 cups bread** (crusts removed if tough), cubed

Icing:

6 T butter, room temp.
2 cups powdered sugar (or less)
2 teas. Lemon juice.

Directions

Grease sides and bottom of a round 2-quart stoneware pan or souffle dish (about 8"x3" deep). Preheat oven to 375°F. Place a cotton dish towel and 4 cups of water into a large metal pan and place in oven. This is a Bain Marie and will allow the custard to cook evenly.

Blend 6 eggs in a large bowl. Add cream, flavorings, and sugar. Whisk for 2 minutes. Add raisins and soaking water and whisk again. Toss in the bread cubes to coat evenly and pour into the baking dish. At this point, we'd suggest you let it sit about 10 minutes to allow bread to soak up the liquid.

Carefully place baking pan into the Bain Marie in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. In testing, we found, stirring the mixture at the 20-minute mark helped cook the pudding more evenly. Remove and cool bread pudding for 15 minutes.

For icing:

Soften butter and slowly add enough powdered sugar to make a moist and thick mixture. Stir in lemon juice. Spoon this thick icing over the warm bread pudding OR add a bit of milk for a sauce that can be poured on warm pudding. Garnish with berries and fruit. Refrigerate leftovers.

*Rum or brandy (real or flavorings) may be added as part of the soaking water to add another layer of flavor.
**This winner used her own homemade bread and did not remove crusts - in testing, we chose a store-bought artisan white bread - dense and thick and did remove much of the crust.