Peach bread pudding with whiskey hard sauce

Happy Easter! 

No, I'm not a week late. I'm orthodox, I go to an American Orthodox Church here in the bay area and Orthodox Christians are on a different calendar. So that means that our Easter is usually a couple of weeks after most Easters also known as "the Catholic Easter" during the great Lenten fast Orthodox Christians fast from all animal products and liquor alcohol. It's basically means that I spent six weeks of the sober vegan, and yes it was very difficult. It's true that on the weekends I would indulge in some seafood and maybe some beer in moderation of course. Then comes Easter and we celebrate go to church you have a good time and afterwords is the Paschal feast which basically is a lot of meat, dairy, liquor. Lol. My contribution to the feast was bread pudding something simple but with all those wonderful horrible things that we abstain from during the most holy time. My boyfriend had inundated me with bread including a baguette. This bread pudding recipe is a variation of a traditional southern recipe, peach bread pudding with whiskey hard sauce.

Ingredients
3 cups stale French bread, cut in 3/4-inch cubes
2 cups milk
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup diced or jar peaches
1 tbsp whiskey or bourbon
Chopped pecans (optional)


With an electric mixer on high speed in a separate bowl, beat eggs and milk with sugar until thick and pale. Stir in the vanilla, ginger and cinnamon to the egg mixture. Add whiskey. Place a layer bread at the bottom of a casserole dish gently pour over a small portion of the egg mixture over the bread topped with walnuts and peaches repeat this layer by layer until you get to the top should reserve about a half a cup of egg mixture to pour on top then wrap and store in the refrigerator until overnight or at least four hours. Bake until firm, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 35 to 45 minutes. Let it slightly cool in the dish.


Whiskey Sauce:
2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 cup bourbon or other whiskey

Pinch salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a 1-quart saucepan set over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, and sugar. Place the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of the bourbon in a small mixing bowl and whisk to blend and make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the cream mixture and bring to a boil. Once the sauce begins to boil, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat, add the salt, and stir in the butter and the remaining 1/2 cup of bourbon. Serve warm.