It all started with a craving for bread pudding and an emergency substitution of coconut milk for regular milk ... One idea led to another, and pretty soon we were whipping up a dessert rich with the Indian-inspired flavors of coconut, cardamom, and pistachio. In fact, we loved this coconut version so much that we never returned to making bread pudding with plain old cow's milk!
The first time we made this, we added golden raisins but those have since been replaced with candied ginger, which pairs even more wonderfully with the pistachios and cardamom. We also like using jaggery, a full-flavored, unrefined sugar found in Indian markets, but if you don't already have it in your pantry, regular granulated sugar is fine. As for the bread, any odds and ends of stale bread will do – brioche, challah, even whole wheat sandwich bread (as we've used in these pictures). Serve it warm with a scoop of coconut ice cream if you're feeling really decadent!
Makes 1 9x7 or 8x8 pan
1 tablespoon butter
6 slices bread, dry or lightly toasted and torn into bite-size pieces (about 6 cups)
1/4 cup shelled pistachios
2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger
1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
3 large eggs
1 cup jaggery (or 3/4 cup granulated sugar)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
Pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 325°.
Butter a 9x7 or 8x8 baking dish. Arrange the bread pieces in the dish and evenly sprinkle the pistachios and ginger on top.
In another bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, eggs, jaggery or sugar, cardamom, and salt.
Pour the coconut milk mixture over the bread, pressing down with a spoon or fork to make sure all the bread gets soaked.
Bake for 45 minutes or until set. The center should spring back when lightly touched.
Let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Related: Basic Recipes: How to Make Sweet Bread Pudding
(Images: Emily Ho)
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Oooh yes, this is similar to a dish call Umm Ali that I had in Dubai, 'cept it used puff pastry which made it absolutley decandant.
Here's a good recipe for that:
http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2009/06/umm-ali-egyptian-bread-pudding.html
Though this would be a tasty way to use up stale bread. Mmm
Whenever you don't have jaggery/gur, you can just use light brown sugar. Or, that's what my mother-in-law always advises.
Hmm, new bread pudding ideas area always welcome. It is such a satisfying way to end a cold night. I've discovered that savory bread pudding is also a good meal, for example, squash and carrot bread pudding.
I first tried this recipe from Aarti Parti...the Next Food Network Star. I loved it the moment I saw it. I made it with whole wheat bread for my husbands Christmas party aand WOW what a hit!
@joyvwal I've never seen Aarti Parti ... did she do a similar recipe?
i love this! i saved it immediately to http://cookmarked.com - my online cookbook.
does it matter if it's green or black cardamom?
The http://www.food52.com/ recipe contest for this week is cardamom! If you enter this it will probably win. Sounds amazing.
I made this for my mom and she said it was the best bread pudding she has ever had. Thank you!
Any tips to make this vegan?
I finally got a chance to make a variation of this and it was amazing! I used raisins and frozen blueberries, omitting the nuts. Instead of sugar I used about 3 TBS honey, plus a drizzle of butter with sugar at the end.
I made this the other night for the lactose-intolerant boyfriend and it came out AMAZING. I used leftover whole grain bread, some past-ripe bananas and the cardamom... it baked up beautifully! This is getting written in my only-for-really-special-recipes book! Thank you so much for sharing!!!
I made a vegan bread pudding last week using Almond Milk and almond extract instead of vanilla. You can probably do the same with this recipe by omitting the eggs. Tastes better the next day.
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/quickeasydesserts/r/breadpudding.htm
Here's a link to Viva Vegan's recipe for Mango Guava Bread Pudding that's completely dairy-free: http://sveltegourmand.com/3705_vivavegan
I made it the other night and it was really delicious. It wasn't light and fluffy; more like a dense cake, but according to the notes in the cookbook, that's how it was supposed to come out. Once I tried that, I decided to master veganizing bread pudding recipes. This will be next on my list - I'm a sucker for anything with cardamon in it.