Coconut Bread Pudding

Bread pudding used to be referred to as poor man's pudding. I remember my Mom making this pudding and it was a way of salvaging stale bread..nothing was wasted. And since milk and eggs were plentiful on the farm this dessert could be made with little cost. When I made this bread pudding I sure wasn't thinking that it tasted like a 'poor man's pudding' but rather it had a wonderfully rich flavour and the sauce just put it over the top! Mom didn't make a sauce and we ate the pudding plain. This is a large recipe but can easily be halved.

Ingredients:

12 thick slices bread (diced and crust can be left on or off, your choice) this can be stale or fresh..I used pannetone bread and left the crust on
3 tbsp melted butter
3/4 cup sugar..if using a sweetened bread you could use 1/2 cup sugar
9 eggs
3/4 cup coconut
1 1/2 cups whipping cream..or increase milk and decrease cream as long as you have 3 cups
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon..I used 3/4 tsp
1 tsp vanilla

1. Dice your bread and set aside.
2. Using a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, cream, melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and coconut. Beat until well blended.
3. Add in diced bread and mix with a spoon till all the bread is covered in the liquid. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and allow bread to absorb the liquid for 1 hour. Give the mixture a stir once in awhile.
4. Put bread mixture into a greased 9"x 12" pan or individual baking dishes.
5. Bake in 350º for 45 to 50 min.
Allow to sit 5 min before serving.

Serve with ice cream or with this Bailey's Irish Cream Sauce:

4 egg yolks
2 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp( or slightly more if you like the flavor) Bailey's Irish Cream
2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water

1. Heat whipping cream till scalding, not boiling. Continue to stir so it doesn't burn. I heated the cream in the microwave and didn't stir at all while it heated up.
2. In small bowl whisk egg yolks, sugar and Bailey's. Add a little scalded milk to the bowl to bring up the temp of the yolks.
3. Add yolk mixture to scalded milk slowly, whisking the whole time.
4. Place bowl back in microwave and cook for a few min stirring a couple of times.
5. Add cornstarch and water mixture and cook for a few more min until sauce thickens, again stirring a few times.
6. Pour into a pitcher and serve hot with warm bread pudding. This is a very smooth sauce and can be reheated, but with a few reheats it changes texture a bit although it still tastes just as good!!
In this photo the sauce had been reheated and it doesn't look as creamy as it does when first cooked.