Mardi Gras: Recipe for sweet potato bread pudding with whiskey hard sauce

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/02/2012 (5356 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When I moved to New Orleans, I discovered that this was a city that — at least in terms of food — was a world to itself.

Many of its foods had little in common with those of the South I grew up in. Nearly everything was new and exciting and exotic. Some things, like the sherry-rich turtle soup and the spillway crayfish, I loved. Others, like the alligator sausage, I could never quite get used to.

But the thing I loved best was the Mardi Gras king cake. The original puff pastry version of “la galette des rois” was made by the occasional “French” bakery and was a simple, yet sophisticated affair with a beautiful flaky dough powdered with sugar. And, of course, a ceramic “baby” baked into it.

But the modern-day king cake is a sweet Louisiana extravaganza and comes in more than 60 different “coffee-cake” like flavours, including king Creole pecan, apple, strawberry cream cheese, Bavarian cream and pina colada.

It is shaped like a great big baked doughnut and has a plastic baby stuck into the cake before it is decorated in purple (representing justice), green (representing faith) and gold (representing power) icing or sugar. The king cake party tradition dictates that the person who gets the baby in his or her slice must host the next king cake party during Mardi Gras season.

During Mardi Gras, I would have a king cake party almost every day, and over the course of a few years I tried almost every flavour made.

My favourite bakery boasted a “queen cake” made with Louisiana sweet potatoes. It was my favourite. And every year since moving away, I crave it.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I could take all the rich flavours of my favourite “queen cake” and make a sweet potato bread pudding (also very popular in New Orleans). I use stale raisin bread to achieve the cinnamon coffee-cake like flavour and texture of king cake, and baked garnet sweet potato puree to make the bread pudding custard rich and moist.

I also honour the revelry of Mardi Gras by topping it with whiskey hard sauce while it is still warm.

Whiskey hard sauce is one of my favourite secrets to dressing up almost any warm cake, pie or pudding. Contrary to what it sounds like, it’s not actually a sauce. It’s more like a spread, until you put it on a hot dessert and the butter and sugar and whiskey melt and become a heady “sauce” that is truly the icing on the cake.

Hide a “baby” in the bread pudding once it comes out of the oven and before you ice it with the hard sauce, then carry on the Mardi Gras tradition.

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding With Whiskey Hard Sauce

Want to prep ahead? The bread pudding can be made the day before it is baked and stored, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.

Start to finish: 1 hour 15 minutes (20 minutes active)

Sauce

125 ml (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

250 ml (1 cup) sifted powdered sugar

1 ml (1/2 tsp) vanilla extract

15 ml (1 tbsp) best-quality bourbon or rye

Pinch of salt

Bread Pudding

2 l (8 cups) torn or cubed stale raisin bread (about 1 large loaf)

250 ml (1 cup) coarsely chopped pecans

50 ml (1/4 cup) granulated sugar

2 ml (1/2 tsp) cinnamon

1 ml (1/4 tsp) mace

1 ml (1/4 tsp) nutmeg

1 ml (1/4 tsp) salt

50 ml (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted

500 ml (2 cups) half-and-half

250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream

4 large eggs

250 ml (1 cup) packed light brown sugar

10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract

250 ml (1 cup) mashed baked garnet sweet potatoes

Sauce: In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, liquor and salt. Continue mixing until smooth and creamy. Cover and set aside. Also can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Bread Pudding: Heat oven to 180 C (350 F). Coat a 2-l (8 cup) baking dish or individual ramekins with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, toss together raisin bread with pecans, then set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together granulated sugar, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg and salt. Toss sugar mixture over bread and pecans, then stir well. Drizzle everything with melted butter, then toss to evenly distribute.

In a medium bowl, whisk together half-and-half, cream, eggs and brown sugar. Add vanilla and sweet potatoes, then mix well. Pour sweet potato-cream mixture over bread mixture and stir until well blended. Let stand for about 5 minutes, then spoon into prepared baking dish or ramekins.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes (bake ramekins for just 15 to 20 minutes) or until set.

As soon as the bread pudding comes out of the oven, top with hard sauce so that it melts into the crevices. Serve warm.

Makes 10 servings.

Nutrition information per serving (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 620 calories; 360 calories from fat (56 per cent of total calories); 40 g fat (19 g saturated; 1 g trans fats); 175 mg cholesterol; 62 g carbohydrate; 8 g protein; 3 g fibre; 220 mg sodium.

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Elizabeth Karmel is a grilling and Southern foods expert and executive chef at Hill Country Barbecue Market restaurants in New York and Washington, as well as Hill Country Chicken in New York. She is the author of three cookbooks, including “Soaked, Slathered and Seasoned.”