Cherries Jubilee Bread Pudding

Are all bread puddings this easy to make? In the morning, we tore a baguette into small-ish pieces, whisked the ingredients around in a large bowl and let them "marinate" in the fridge all day. Come dinnertime, all that was left to do was divide the mix into ramekins, pop the pudding into the oven, then congratulate ourselves on a fantastic-smelling kitchen and a gourmet dessert.

We had to make adjustments to a few of the ingredients, but fortunately it's hard to go wrong when eggs, sugar, and a quart of heavy cream are involved. The grocery store around the corner doesn't carry brandied cherries, so we bought two cans of cherries in heavy syrup and poured some brandy into the mix instead. (Most canned or jarred cherries are packed with high fructose corn syrup, red food dye, and a host of other mysterious ingredients, so try to find cherries in a basic syrup made from good ole' sugar and water. We used the Oregon Fruit Products brand.) Also, the store didn't have white chocolate coins, so we scooped up some white chocolate chips and hoped for the best. Last adjustment: we chose to leave off the additional cherries and chocolate, fearing that the ramekins were too full already.

The recipe mentions a bake time of 15 to 20 minutes, but it was at least 30 minutes before our pudding was past the "milky" point. Despite all these unexpected changes to the original recipe, the dessert that emerged from the oven was truly wonderful, made even more delicious served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Friends, this is so easy and yummy, and although eating this much cream and sugar on a daily basis is probably not part of a healthy diet, we're just saying that one could be tempted to do it.

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 qt. heavy cream
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 4–5 cups stale French bread, cubed
• 1 + 1/2 cups brandied cherries, strained from liquid (plus some for topping)
• 1 + 1/2 cups white chocolate coins (plus some for topping)
• 2 cups candied pecans (optional)
• powdered sugar
• vanilla ice cream

Method:

1. Whisk together cream, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Still whisking, gradually pour in sugar and continue mixing until sugar is dissolved. Add diced French bread and mix by hand. Add cherries and chocolate and mix by hand. Refrigerate overnight for best results (optional).
2. Preheat oven to 300ºF. Scoop 1 cup into small baking ramekins, then top each serving with 5 chocolate coins and 5 cherries. Bake for 15–20 minutes or until golden brown and center is "mushy" but not "milky." Garnish with candied pecans and powdered sugar. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.