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December 19, 2007

Savory Goat Cheese and Pecan Bread Pudding

I was making a big lamb dish on my birthday, and I wanted something starchy to go with it. I've always loved lamb with goat cheese, and I happened to have some goat cheese on hand. I also made a couple loaves of (modified recipe) no-knead bread a few days ago, and they were getting stale. So I decided to make a goat cheese bread pudding to go with the lamb. I also think goat cheese goes extraordinarily well with beets, which were going to figure heavily in the final dish. So it seemed perfect.

I had never made any bread pudding, let alone a modified savory bread pudding, so I looked up a few recipes on the web and came up with a recipe that I thought had a good chance of success. And wow, it actually turned out very well! Jeanette and my roommates all raved about it. In my opinion, it wasn't quite perfect--the texture was a bit too granular rather than being really nice and smooth. So in the recipe below, I've made one change: I substituted additional heavy cream for some of the milk. This will lower the water content and increase the smoothness, with the extra fat helping slow down the setting process. So I think it will work out even better as written below.

The final plating of this bread pudding in context of the lamb dish will be posted later.

Savory Goat Cheese Bread Pudding with Pecans

Makes enough for 4 large sides. Can easily be doubled in a larger baking dish. Prep time: 10 minutes. Cook time: 50 minutes.

The ingredients:
6 oz. good, crusty bread (can be fresh or stale), cut into 1/2 inch cubes (about 4 cups)
6 oz. goat cheese (one of the small logs)
1/2 cup pecans, crushed into very coarse chunks
2 eggs, plus 1/2 a yolk
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp rosemary
pinch thyme
salt and pepper to taste

The algorithm:

Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit.

Whisk eggs and yolks in a large mixing bowl, then whisk in milk and cream. Add goat cheese and whisk to break it up until mixture has a more smooth consistency (there can still be some small chunks of goat cheese).

Melt 2 tbsp butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When butter is completely melted, add minced garlic and take it off the heat. Stir for a minute or so, while residual heat cooks the garlic. Add melted butter and garlic to the custard mixture.

Add herbs, then taste the custard and add salt and pepper to taste (I'm guessing I added three grinds of a black pepper grinder and 1/2 tsp salt). When properly seasoned, add crushed pecans, then bread chunks. Mix up a bit, then pour the whole mix into a small baking dish (I used an 8 1/2" pyrex baking dish).

Bake for about 40 minutes at 325 Fahrenheit, then once center is no longer wobbly, turn up the heat to 400 Fahrenheit for another 5-10 minutes until top is nicely browned. Let cool at least twenty to allow the bread pudding to set. If waiting more than 30 minutes to eat, re-warm in a 200 degree oven for 6 minutes before serving.