The Comfort of Bread Pudding

By Lauren Kramer

Bread pudding is one of those great American comfort foods that go way back in the history of our home and restaurant dining rooms. Sweet or savory, this is a dessert or starch accompaniment that makes frequent appearances on a wide range of restaurant menus, be they white tablecloth or casual eateries. Well prepared, aptly described on the menu and impeccably plated, bread pudding can be a profitable and popular dish.

              “I’m selling 36 orders of bread pudding a day,” confesses Michael Rogers, executive chef at the Fog City Diner in San Francisco. Rogers introduced a banana brioche bread pudding a couple of months ago, when he was trying to come up with a classic dessert that would accommodate his own special twist.

              “I’ve ordered bread puddings in the past and found them dry, so when it came time to make my own, I added caramel sauce and chocolate chips,” he explains. “It’s served warm, so when you’re eating it there is melting chocolate and caramel running out of it. It’s not your typical, standard, dry, over-sauced bread pudding.”

              Rogers touches on some of the challenges presented by this classic, seemingly uncomplicated dish. “If you put too much sugar in bread pudding, it’s like eating a block of sugar served with sweetened cream and crème anglaise,” says John Folse, a restaurant owner, cookbook author and vice president of the American Culinary Federation, who creates a variety of bread puddings for his clients.

“I caution my chefs to look through the plated dish. If you’re going to serve it with other sweet things, tone down the sugar in the custard so you have a pleasing finish to the dessert,” he advises.

“The same thing goes when serving bread pudding as a savory accompaniment: ensure that all the power of the savory pudding is there, rather than beating your diner in the face with garlic and pepper. Let your bread pudding be delicate, always ensure the custard is in the proper proportion and take care to achieve proper browning on the top of the dish, to make it eye appealing to your diner.”

Pleasing Plating

              Put bread pudding on a plate and as delicious as the dish can be, if not well plated it can easily resemble the dog’s breakfast. “Presentation is always an issue with bread pudding,” admits Todd Gray, executive chef and co-owner of the Equinox Restaurant in Washington, DC. Gray surmounts the plating challenge by cutting his bread pudding with circular cutters, or baking it in individual ramekins.

              Equinox offers a lamb and butternut squash bread pudding that accompanies a rack of lamb. On his dessert menu, Gray he often features either a banana bread pudding or a chocolate bread pudding. “Many people perceive this dish as a common food, but despite that, they love it,” he says. “It’s a very popular dessert, and I’ve never had anyone say, ‘oh, it’s just bread pudding.’”

              To some extent, that’s thanks to the dish’s description on the restaurant menu. “You have to be smart about the way you write the menu,” cautions Gray. “The description has to be exciting, and unique combinations are important. Elevate your bread pudding with fruit or chocolate, get your staff to promote and sell bread pudding in the dining room and ensure it’s plated and delivered to the table well.”

              Each chef finds their own way around the plating dilemma. For Folse, it was a three-step process. “A couple of years ago I created a white chocolate bread pudding that soufflés generously out of the baking pan but settles back into it,” he says. “After it cools overnight, I take a pastry cutter and cut a cylindrical shape before reheating the pudding as it goes into the dining room. The quick, 20-second reheat re-soufflés the bread pudding and creates a magnificent presentation, served with crème anglaise and fresh fruit.”

              Your imagination is the only limit on this versatile dish, according to Folse, who has served artichoke and oyster bread pudding, smoked trout bread pudding and crab meat and asparagus bread pudding on his various menus. “Bread pudding is such a great starch accompaniment, it solves a lot of problems,” he explains. “It shows imagination on the plate, when coupled with your upscale entrée items, and gives the dish an interesting ring and a full flavor.”

              Leah Chase, owner of Dooky Chase Restaurant in New Orleans, agrees that imagination is key for chefs trying to put a new look on an old but no less popular comfort food. “The bread, cream, eggs and sugar are your base for a bread pudding, but after that you can add whatever you like – chocolate, candied cherries, fruit or nuts – to make it interesting,” she says.

              At Boar’s Head Grill and Tavern in Savannah, Ga., Executive Chef Phillip Branan uses croissants to make his Belgian chocolate bread pudding. “The croissants give it a real light texture, and I bake the dish in a water bath, much like a soufflé,” he says. The dessert has been on his menu since the day his restaurant opened, eight years ago, and is his most popular dessert item, with two-to-three dozen served per day.

              “It’s popular because it’s an unusual preparation for a bread pudding,” Branan speculates. “Most people expect bread pudding to be dense, and a way to utilize leftovers. This is a fresh, updated take on an old-fashioned dessert, with a pretty presentation. We bake it in a soufflé mould and invert it, serving it with a crème anglaise, warm chocolate sauce and whipped cream.”

              Dooky Chase has featured a praline bread pudding for over a decade, one that contains pecans, coconut and praline liqueur, served with a sweet sauce and whipped topping. “We do about 50 or more servings a day of this dish, and find it’s popular year-round,” says Chase. “It’s a southern, New Orleans, sweet dessert that everyone seems to like.”

Nostalgic History

              That could have something to do with the history of bread pudding. “Many European cultures that came to settle in the United States served bread pudding,” explains Folse. “Particularly in a culture like Louisiana’s commingling of French and English, these puddings offer chefs a tremendous ability to present an old-world product in an authentic fashion.”

              “Don’t disregard bread pudding as something not worthy of the table,” he warns. “Look at it as a traditional, cultural icon. Understand what it represents to the cultures who brought it here, and you’ll have an interesting dessert that can make money on the bottom line.”

              Research is an important, yet oft-overlooked ingredient in preparing and presenting bread pudding, cautions Rogers. “I believe that food, like a song, can trigger a memory, and comfort food is making a comeback,” he says.

“I would tell younger chefs that want to put bread pudding on their menus to do their research, so that when customers ask, servers know the history and story behind the dish. Knowledge about food can take us places a sauté pan never will.”