Photo: Pumpkin-Ginger Bread Pudding Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 4-pound sugar pumpkin or kabocha squash
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 loaf cinnamon brioche, challah or plain pound cake, diced (about 10 cups)
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/4 cup diced crystallized ginger
- Confectioners' sugar, for garnish (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cut the pumpkin or squash into quarters and remove the seeds. Brush the insides with a little olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet, skin-side up. Roast in the oven until the pumpkin or squash is soft all the way through, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool. Discard the skin and puree the flesh in a food processor. (The puree can be prepared 1 or 2 days ahead.)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups of the pumpkin or squash puree, the eggs, brown sugar and spices. Whisk in the cream and vanilla.
Combine the bread, raisins and ginger in a 7-by-11-inch baking dish. Pour the pudding mixture over the bread to cover and let sit 15 minutes. (You might not use all of the pudding mixture at first; add more if there's room in the dish once the bread has soaked.) Bake in the preheated oven until the custard is set, about 40 minutes. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle a dusting of confectioners' sugar on top, if desired. It's fall in a dessert.
Photograph by Con Poulos
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By MsMarieB
New Jersey
on October 24, 2012
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I make this recipe EVERY fall, love it so much, instead of putting nuts and raisins in the mix, I usually just buy a pecan raisin bread, use about 7-8 cups of that and then 2-3 cups of pound cake mixed together, SOO yummy. I also always use the left over candied ginger for Ina's Ultimate Ginger Cookies : look forward to it every fall.
By muddskippers
NC
on October 19, 2012
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This was absolutely delicious. I used a 4lb. pie pumpkin as the recipe calls for and it made *exactly* 2.5 cups of puree! Also, the 40 minute baking time was spot on. This is a very good recipe, resulting in a rich fall dessert (though the cream makes it quite heavy... but I'm not sure I'd want my bread pudding any other way.
The only reason I'm giving this 4 starts instead of 5 (it's really more like 4.5 stars is because of the crystallized ginger. I love the flavor the ginger brings to the dish, but the texture was a bit inconsistent from bite to bite. In the cases where the crystallized ginger had softened a bit- it was perfection. However, there were many bits of ginger that were still 'chewy'. This seemed to interrupt the enjoyment of the rest of it. Maybe had I cut back on the bread a bit the ginger could be more saturated. Anyway- this is a solid recipe and definitely worth making for company.
By brandy&john
Raleigh, NC
on October 09, 2012
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The verdict is still out for us on this one; we had to increase the cooking time (for some reason the custard didn't set right for the time prescribed--perhaps because we used canned pumpkin? and it didn't have an intense "spice" I was looking for. Will have to try the recipe again and made some minor adjustments...
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