Recipe(tried): Dahlia's Bread Pudding with a Brandy Sauce

Hi Cathy,
I found this Bread Pudding recipe in my Aunt Tourmalines notes...it did contain currents...also known as raisins of sorts in yesteryears cooking. But I think you could adjust it without the currents/raisins.
I will try to give you the recipe for it best I can..but the way they cooked in the "Old" days is rather peculiar...but know that if you take the time to do this...it truley is delicious. The liqour in the sauce can be alcohol free by quickly bringing the Brandy to a fast boil for 30 seconds..the alcohol is then released from the liqour and the sauce....Good luck on this, and know it's a recipe that's from Colonial Virginia days...dates back to early Virginia...
My Aunt Tourmaine got this recipe ages ago from a wonderful friend of our family. Her name is Dahlia Jefferson...She is nearly 97 years old...but still as alive and wonderful as she was the first day she probably first made this. The recipe came down to her by her grandmother...a slave at Somerset Plantation..(It was a Tobacco Plantation)..about a mile from where I live. The past and feelings of this recipe is so close to my heart...Take it and enjoy it...it's very special!

Dahlia's "Bread Pudding"...With A Brandy Sauce!!!

Get about 12 to 15 slices of old cinnamon bread and make sure it's mighty stale.
Tear the bread up and stick it in a bowl. Beat up the following stuff...
4 cups scalded milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup butter, melted
OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup seedless raisins.

Break up the stale cinnamon bread into small pieces and combine with milk and cream. Beat eggs and add sugar: pour into bread mixture. Add the rest of ingredients. Let this all rest for 1 hour in the fridge.
Pour into a 3 quart baking dish; set in a pan of warm water. Bake at 350* for 1-1 1/2 hours. Then it's done....now let it set a bit, and fix the sauce to serve atop it all! Ummm...This is the secret to it all! The Sauce....

3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups milk
1 Tb cornstarch
1/4 Cup water
1 1/2 OZ. Brandy... or Bourbon!

In the saucepan, slightly beat yolks; add sugar, vanilla and milk. Blend cornstarch into water; stir into hot mixture. Continue cooking until thick. Remove from heat and stir in the brandy/bourbon when cool.

Slice the Bread Pudding into squares and drizzle the sauce over it!

Jubilee! It was certainly a dessert of the "Old South"...and hope shareing this old one with you will make it all the more interesting...Hope you can find the time for this one Cathy! :-)

Peace To All On TKL!
David In Virginia