Oeufs au pain (bread pudding soufflé)

Another recipe originating in From the Hearth, this one is a bread pudding with a difference. Not your typical dense bread pudding, it’s light and airy due to the addition of beaten egg whites. This is another dish using candied peel, which you can make yourself.

Ingredients

4 cups bread, cubed
4 cups milk
1 cup sugar
6 eggs, separated and beaten
salt
1-2 tsp orange flower water
2 tbsp candied peel, chopped fine

Instructions

Bring the milk to a boil. Pour over bread and mix in sugar, salt, orange flower water and candied peel. Let sit for 20-30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Run through a sieve (I didn't do this). 

Add the beaten egg yolks. Then fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. 

Pour into a buttered dish (or two - expect to need two medium-large oven-safe bowls), and place in a bain-marie (water bath). 

Bake about 1 hour, or until tester comes out clean. 

Option: sprinkle top with sugar and brown under the broiler until golden. 

This made a LOT. I had to use two baking dishes, and two bain-maries (neither of which was deep enough). I feel like my kitchen is pretty well stocked, and I was a little stumped as to how I’d arrange big baking dishes into other even bigger baking dishes. I will cut this in half next time.

I decided not to try and sieve the bread post-soaking – it was almost all broken up anyway (with the exception of a few bits of bottom crust), and I like my bread pudding with some texture.

The result was really light and airy and moist. You expect the moist part from bread pudding, but honestly I would not have predicted this texture from a dish with 4 cups of bread in it.

The recipe book suggested pureed fruit or cream sauce to go with it – I went for strawberry.

The verdict

This was really, really excellent. Super light. Just the right amount of citrus/floral from the peel and orange flower water. Not too sweet. Overall, fantastic. I will make this again. Just … less of it.