why is bread pudding so popular in new orleans

Bread pudding was once considered a poor man’s dessert – a good way to make use of stale bread – but today it’s a New Orleans delicacy. Bread pudding souffle with whiskey sauce, white chocolate break pudding, pecan praline bread pudding…you could eat a different bread pudding every night for dessert and never get bored.

The Gumbo Shops Warm Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce is proof that humans have two stomachs – one for everything that comes before dessert and one for dessert alone. We adore this recipe for the 75+ year-old Gumbo Shop in the French Quarter. Its nice and moist, just the way we like it, with plump raisins and little bits of pineapple. Mmmm.

We love us some bread pudding at NewOrleansRestaurants.com and were thrilled with this one. They use only the finest ingredients, including real vanilla and heavy cream. Your Louisiana grandma would approve.

We’d walk miles for the Peach Cobbler Bread Pudding at 3 rd Block Depot Kitchen + Bar but, fortunately, the restaurant is just three blocks away from the river, Jackson Square, Canal Street and Bourbon Street. They serve it with house- churned bourbon vanilla ice cream. Ooh, baby.

Felix’s Bread pudding with Whiskey Sauce is one of the best versions of this classic New Orleans desert that we’ve ever tasted. Sticky and moist, it’s worth texting home about.

Chef Rons Gumbo Stop makes more than great gumbo. Their Fruited Bread Pudding is award-worthy as well. It’s made with peaches and raisins and cinnamon (of course) and then he drizzles homemade caramel, chocolate and strawberry on top before dusting it with powdered sugar. The best $6 you ever spent.

Chef Leon’s Famous Cooked-to-order White Chocolate Bread Pudding belongs at the top of everyone’s bread pudding bucket list. The sweet, carmelized, just a tad crunchy top is the best. Youll find it at Messinas Runway Cafe at the Lakefront Airport.

If you think a Mediterranean restaurant wouldn’t know it’s way around bread pudding you’d be wrong. Yes, Byblos makes an awesome mixture of traditional baklavass but they make sensation bread pudding as well.

This warm bread puddings signature ingredient is (you guessed it) white chocolate. The chefs at Grand Isle have truly outdone themselves with this sinfully delicious desert. Weve even been told it makes for a great breakfast.

Go Bananas! Tujagues puts a fun twist on the classic recipe by adding bananas. Top it off with a caramel sauce with banana liqueur and roasted almonds and youve got a dessert to die for.

Steamboat NATCHEZ serves a mouthwatering New Orleans soufflé of La Louisiane French bread, eggs, cream, vanilla and cinnamon with a Callebaut® Belgian white chocolate sauce on the brunch, lunch and dinner buffets.

Mulates Famous Bread Pudding is a culinary masterpiece that intertwines flavor and texture. It is unique in that we use hamburger buns instead of traditional French bread. It is topped with a homemade butter rum sauce that your tastebuds are sure to thank you for.

Commanders Palace Bread pudding will make your mouth water! This Creole version is whipped into a souffle and topped with a delicious whiskey sauce right at your table.

Makes sure there is room enough for this great dessert. Served with a nice helping of whipped cream and Oceanas very own Praline Rum Sauce, this bread pudding is sure to be the perfect ending to any meal.

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From Mardi Gras to football, New Orleans is known for its seasons, and we’ve just entered a fan favorite – crawfish. Served best wit…

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why is bread pudding so popular in new orleans

Historian Susan Tucker points out that though bread pudding recipes continued to appear in cookbooks and newspaper columns, local chefs led a pudding revival beginning in the 1970s, when dishes drizzled with bourbon and rum and amaretto sauces became all the rage. This renaissance arguably reached its climax with Paul Prudhomme’s bread pudding soufflé with whiskey sauce, created for Commander’s Palace’s centennial celebration.

Today bread pudding buffs stuff their desserts with anything and everything: caramelized bananas, summertime peaches, and chunks of white chocolate. Krispy Kreme donuts might even serve as a substitute for French bread. Though a global dish in its origins, bread pudding is now internationally recognized as an iconic dessert of Louisiana, the Gulf Coast, and especially, New Orleans.

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A century later recipes appeared in the first Louisiana cookbooks, including La Cuisine Creole (1885), in which Lafcadio Hearn writes of a “Delicious Bread Pudding”: “Butter some slices of bread, cut thin, and lay them in a dish, with currants and citron between; pour over it a quart of milk, with four well-beaten eggs, and sugar sufficient to sweeten to taste, and bake. Serve with sauce. It is easily made, and very nice. It is good hot and cold.”

Because bread puddings are often made with stale bread—a way to pinch pennies while up-cycling otherwise inedible loaves—French bread has long been the most common denominator among Louisiana recipes. The sturdy crust and crumble of French bread, an innovation of Alsatian bakers that stales easier than traditional French baguettes, has also incited local cooks to soak their leftover loaves in various liquors. But whether homely or elegant, bread pudding is always a decidedly decadent dish. The WPA Louisiana Writers’ Project turned up a bit of bygone slang for bread pudding, calling it the “heavy devil.”

Steamboat NATCHEZ serves a mouthwatering New Orleans soufflé of La Louisiane French bread, eggs, cream, vanilla and cinnamon with a Callebaut® Belgian white chocolate sauce on the brunch, lunch and dinner buffets.

From Mardi Gras to football, New Orleans is known for its seasons, and we’ve just entered a fan favorite – crawfish. Served best wit…

Still need a New Orleans restaurant for your group? Send us the specifics and restaurants will get back to you directly!

We love us some bread pudding at NewOrleansRestaurants.com and were thrilled with this one. They use only the finest ingredients, including real vanilla and heavy cream. Your Louisiana grandma would approve.

The Gumbo Shops Warm Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce is proof that humans have two stomachs – one for everything that comes before dessert and one for dessert alone. We adore this recipe for the 75+ year-old Gumbo Shop in the French Quarter. Its nice and moist, just the way we like it, with plump raisins and little bits of pineapple. Mmmm.

New Orleans Bread Pudding with Caramel Rum sauce

FAQ

What dessert is famous in New Orleans?

Beignets. Louisiana is so proud of this sweet pastry that in 1986 the legislature voted the beignet the official state donut.

Where does bread pudding originate from?

Frugal cooks in 11th and 12th century England, where it originated, could only afford to soak the bread in hot water before squeezing it dry and then adding a mix of whatever sugar and spices they had on hand.

How old is bread pudding?

Bread pudding originated with 11th-century English cooks who repurposed leftover stale bread. In the following centuries, the dish became known as “poor man’s pudding” because of the scarcity of food at the time, with the pudding being made only with boiling water, sugar, and spices.

Where did pudding originate?

It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of dried fruit, suet, breadcrumbs, flour, eggs and spice, along with liquid such as milk or fortified wine.

Is bread pudding still a popular dessert in New Orleans?

In truth, this is actually a very old and nearly forgotten method for bread pudding here in the Deep South, and although you don’t see it much anymore, it is still a signature dessert at Commander’s Palace restaurant in New Orleans, where it is served in individually portioned souffle dishes.

Is bread pudding a creole dessert?

Now considered a distinctly Southern dessert in the U.S., creative Creole chefs in New Orleans have made bread pudding their own over time. The traditional custardy version, often made from French bread or brioche, is served warm, sometimes punctuated with pecans or raisins, and doused with a rum or whiskey-forward sauce.

Where did bread pudding come from?

Bread pudding didn’t originate in New Orleans. Or even in America. It goes back centuries to thrifty home cooks in Britain who tried to transform a heap of stale bread into a treat to feed the family. Now considered a distinctly Southern dessert in the U.S., creative Creole chefs in New Orleans have made bread pudding their own over time.

Is bread pudding a good dessert?

Bread pudding was once considered a poor man’s dessert – a good way to make use of stale bread – but today it’s a New Orleans delicacy. Bread pudding souffle with whiskey sauce, white chocolate break pudding, pecan praline bread pudding…you could eat a different bread pudding every night for dessert and never get bored.

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