Christmas Krispy Kreme Doughnut Bread Pudding
Hello and Merry Christmas everyone,
Well, I can’t believe the holidays are here already. It seems like it was Christmas just a couple of months ago. Moma always said time flies when you get older. I guess I know what that means. Anyway, have I got a recipe for you!! It’s easy and when you taste it you’ll fight your best friend for another bite.
You know, pudding is a very interesting food. There are so many different kinds of pudding from custards to pop-overs to those English delights made of suet, sheep’s paunch and pluck (heart, liver and lights boiled in sheep’s stomach) to Black Pudding, aka Blood Pudding - not my favorite. I had so much fun researching pudding that I wanted to share some of my findings with you. I hope you are forever enlightened. Pudding can be sweet or savory, served hot or cold, and can have a wide variety of bases including a fruit and kidney base. The texture can be cake-like, sausage-like or custard such as Flan and Crème’ Brulee. When one thinks of English puddings, Yorkshire comes to mind (pop-overs) or Plum Pudding at Christmas just as Mrs. Cratchit presented to her family in Charles Dickens’ story of Ebenezer Scrooge. Bob Cratchit proclaimed that her Plum Pudding was “the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage”. In the 1600’s English puddings were meat based sweetened with sugar, fruit and nuts. They were encased in a dough and boiled which produced a sausage-like delicacy. Is that the word I’m looking for? Bread pudding was actually born in the 13th century and was thought of as a poor man’s pudding. Stale bread was soaked in milk or water, then sugar, butter, fruit and spices were added and the concoction was baked which produced a wonderful aroma and the poor man couldn’t have wanted to be any richer when he delighted himself in his bread pudding. Have you ever wondered what “pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold” was? I always thought it was pea soup. It is actually a boiled pudding made from pease meal.
Well, as time passed, pudding changed and in the 1800’s bread pudding became more of the delicious dessert we recognize today. Now, no trip to London would be complete for a bread pudding lover without topping off his meal with a nice portion of either Spotted Dick or Spotted Dog. Don’t ask me the difference. This fine old traditional English dish is a sweet suet pudding, typically cylindrical and spotted with currants or raisins. The English rave about it. Now that you are versed on pudding let’s get to the recipe you’ve been waiting for. Miss Irva Belle Goodman, one of Moma’s best friends, says it’s the best she has ever tasted and she asked me for the recipe. It’s usually the other way around.
You will need the following for your Christmas Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding:
18- day old glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts (no substitute will do)
(You can refrigerate them for 2 or 3 days prior )
1- Pint (2 cups) heavy cream
3 and 1/2 cups milk
4 large eggs
4 egg yolks
1- 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
¾ tsp. cinnamon
1- 6 oz. box raisins ( optional )
Grease a 9X13 glass casserole dish. Cut doughnuts into 1 inch cubes and set aside. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, egg yolks, milk, condensed milk, cinnamon and vanilla. Stir in heavy cream and mix well. Add raisins and doughnut cubes and stir to coat. Pour this mixture into the greased casserole dish and let set for about thirty minutes. Stir again. Bake in a 350 degrees preheated oven for about an hour or until golden brown and the smell makes you float to the oven.
If you would like to serve the pudding with butter rum sauce, melt 1 stick of butter in a saucepan over low heat. Slowly stir in 3 cups of powdered sugar. Remove from heat and whisk in 2 Tablespoons of white rum. Pour over pudding and ENJOY!!
Now of course this is a no-guilt, very low calorie dish and has lots and lots of nutrients. (Just in case, you might want to have a larger size pants on hand when you eat this.)
Since Miss Irva Belle likes this bread pudding so much, I made it for her Christmas present. I just got back from making the delivery and wanted to share a Christmas memory she told me about with you all. We were sitting around reminiscing about Christmas’s past when she began to laugh. Of course, I wanted to know what was so funny. She told me about the time her father was in the hospital over Christmas. Hank had an attack of appendicitis and had to have surgery. He was well on the road to recovery on that Christmas day when the whole family surprised him at his bedside. There was Sadie Belle, his wife, Miss Irva Belle and her brother Earl, Aunt Lucille and Big Ed, Aunt Geneva and Uncle Claude with the picture of their son Nathan who was killed in the war. They always brought his picture to
Christmas festivities so he could be remembered each year. Cousins Gracie, Mavis, Pauline, Robert Billy, Little Etta Mae and Newbaby were there. The Hagerman twins who always came with Big Ed, since they had no family weren’t there. They had joined the Army and didn’t get leave that year. The hospital granted special permission for the crowd to visit. Everyone was about to get ready to leave after sharing a few stories, get-well wishes and kisses when Earl whispered something into Hank’s ear. All of a sudden, Hank jumped up out of his bed and ran like a pirate with two wooden legs down the hall of the hospital. You know how unflattering those hospital gowns are, especially in the back. After the commotion had settled and Hank had stopped running, Sadie Belle asked what in the world had happened. Hank said Earl whispered to him that he had brought his pet rattle snake with him. He kept it coiled in a little tin salve can and the can came open when Earl was leaning on Hank’s bed. When Earl heard this he said, “Pop, I didn’t say rattle snake, I said rat snake.” Well, everything turned out all right. The only thing bruised was Hank’s vanity.
You know, Christmas is a time for family to share no matter where they are and if you know someone who has no relatives or lives far away from family, then be their family this year. The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of giving. It maketh a heart merry. Laura Ingalls Wilder said, “Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time.” Love a child this Christmas and they will always remember you. Moma’s favorite Chrismas quote is by Charles Dickens, “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.” May you have a wonderful Christmas this year and God Bless You, Everyone!
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