Chef Notes: Bread Pudding With Hazelnut Liqueur Sauce

I have such fond memories of my grandmother, most of which involve her cooking. My grandmother had no formal training, owned only a handful of cookbooks, and probably never heard of foie gras. She prepared relatively simple but incredibly tasty southern food and desserts. She just had a knack for it.

One of my favorite desserts was her bread pudding. Having grown up in the depression, my grandmother was very conscious of waste. She was always looking for ways to repurpose or reuse food. She would keep plastic bags full of scraps of bread in the freezer. Some bags were full of corn bread, to be used for dressing/stuffing. Other bags were full of bread ends, left over biscuits (when there were any), a half of a hot dog roll here, a couple of dinner rolls there. When she had enough scraps saved up she would throw together a bread pudding. She didn’t use heavy cream or have any liquor in the house for special sauces. It was just a sweet, eggie bread pudding.  We all loved it. The leftovers were sliced and sauted in butter the next morning and served like French toast.

My version is more complicated but I confess that I do save bread ends and incorporate them into my bread pudding, despite what my recipe says. Everyone I’ve ever served this to goes crazy over it. I hope you enjoy it as well.