Like your boss’s lame jokes, bread has a way of getting old FAST.  Thankfully there are lots of things you can do with stale bread besides throw it out. My favorite way to use a loaf that’s seen better days is budin de pan,  Puerto Rican bread pudding. Traditionally budin is made with white bread, but you can and should use any bread you have on hand. I remember my mother mixing hot dog buns with hamburger buns, an old croissant and the butt of a wheat loaf into one of her budins. It came out amazing!

There are hundreds of recipes for bread pudding but they all have a few things in common: you soak chunks of stale bread in milk, sweeten the deal with a little sugar and then bind everything together with eggs. You can season your bread pudding by throwing in a little vanilla, citrus zest, cinnamon, nutmeg or star anise. You can also add dried fruit (raisins are a perennial favorite) or nuts to create texture.  Some people make a custard or caramel sauce that soaks into the bread adding a new layer of flavor. I like topping mine with fresh whipped cream. There’s dozens of different ways you can go with it. Experiment and develop your own family recipe. Here’s mine:

Tools

  • small sauce pan with tight fitting lid
  • 4 quart sauce pan
  • 2 quart sauce pan
  • large bowl
  • microplane
  • baking pan (you can use a casserole dish, loaf pan or nine inch cake pan)
  • roasting pan large enough to hold your baking pan
  • serving plate large enough to cover the baking pan

Ingredients

  • 1 cup raisins
  • 8 ounces stale bread
  • 1 cup sugar
  • juice & zest of 1 lime & 1 orange (about 1/2 cup juice combined and 1 tablespoon zest combined)
  • 1 can evaporated milk
  • 8 ounces butter
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 pinch nutmeg
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 4 eggs

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Make sure that there is a rack in the center of the oven.
  2. Fill the 4 quart sauce pan with water and bring it to a boil.
  3. Soak the raisins in hot water. Use enough water to fully submerge the raisins.
  4. Break the bread into 2 inch chunks and place in a large bowl. You can use almost any kind of bread, though if it has thick crusts (like the ends of a baguette) you will want to trim those off. I used 6 hoagie rolls that I got for 99 cents in the clearance bin of my corner grocery. #SCORE!
  5. Add sugar, lime and orange juice to a small sauce pan. Stir a few times until combined. Cover with a tight fitting lid and place over medium heat. It’s important not to stir your sugar mixture once it’s being heated as it can form crystals in your caramel. The lid will lock in steam which will drizzle down the sides of the pan eliminating any crystals that are stuck there. It’s really easy to burn caramel so pay close attention. Once the mixture starts to bubble it will turn a light amber color. Take it off the heat immediately. Even a few seconds over can result in a burned, bitter caramel. If you burn your caramel do not use it. Start over.
  6. Coat the bottom of your baking dish with the caramel. To clean the pan you made your caramel in simply boil water in it.
  7. In a 2 quart sauce pan combine the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, butter, zest, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir until ingredients are combined. Warm the mixture just until it starts to steam and small bubbles form where the liquid meets the side of the pan. Take the mixture off the heat.
  8. Beat the eggs lightly and add a few tablespoons of your milk mixture to temper them. Tempering warms your eggs slowly and keeps them from turning into scrambled eggs. Keep stirring in a little of the milk mixture into the eggs until the eggs are warm. Add the tempered egg mixture to your milk mixture. Stir until combined.
  9. Pour the milk mixture into the bowl of bread and mix until incorporated. The bread will break down further into a chunky batter. If the bread you used has thick crusts let the mixture sit for five minutes to soak all the milky goodness up.
  10. Strain the raisins and scatter a small handful on top of the caramel. Add the remainder to your bread mixture and stir until incorporated.
  11. Add the bread mixture to your baking dish. Create a bain marie by placing the baking dish inside a roasting pan and then placing the roasting pan on the center rack of your oven. Fill the roasting pan with enough boiling water to reach halfway up your baking dish. This will allow the bread pudding to cook gently and will keep the caramel from burning.
  12. Bake budin at 375 degrees fahrenheit. Baking times will vary depending on the dish you’ve chosen. Start checking on the budin after 45 minutes. When a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean it’s ready. It should not take longer than an hour. Let the bread pudding cool for a few minutes and then run a knife along the sides of your mold to help release it. Invert the loaf onto your serving plate. You can serve bread pudding warm or cold. I like mine warm with a dollop of fresh whipped cream on top with just a dusting of nutmeg. BUEN PROVECHO!

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