Argentine Bread Pudding with Caramel (Budín de Pan)
Budín de pan is the Argentine dessert built out of stale bread: day-old bread soaks in milk, eggs go in, a dark caramel lines the bottom of the pan (tin) and it bakes for an hour in a water bath. Twenty minutes of work, twenty of soaking and the oven — then it has to chill, because cold it turns out in one piece and lukewarm it breaks.
You will also need: a 24 cm loaf pan (loaf tin) and a larger roasting pan for the water bath.
Serve it with dulce de leche and whipped cream — that is how it is eaten in Argentina. Its closest relative is the condensed milk flan: same caramel, same water bath, no bread. And if you bake your own, day-old country bread is exactly right.
Ingredients
- 300 g day-old bread (baguette, white bread or sandwich bread)
- 1 liter whole milk
- 6 eggs
- 200 g sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- The zest of 1 lemon
- 100 g raisins (optional)
- 200 g sugar for the caramel
- 50 ml water for the caramel
Method
- 1
Caramel: put the 200 g of sugar for the caramel and the 50 ml of water in a skillet (frying pan) and do not stir — a spoon in the syrup crystallizes the sugar; if you need to move it, swirl the pan. Once it turns an even amber, pour it into the 24 cm loaf pan and tilt the pan so it coats the bottom and a little of the sides. It sets in under a minute, so work quickly and without hesitating.
- 2
Soaking the bread: cut the 300 g of bread into cubes of about 2 cm and put them in a large bowl. Heat the liter of milk until warm (not boiling) and pour it over. Leave it 20 minutes, until the bread falls apart just from being squeezed between your fingers. The bread has to be day-old: fresh bread brings its own water and the pudding turns out soggy.
- 3
Texture: this is where you decide which pudding you want. Mashed with a fork it keeps visible pieces of bread and a rustic crumb; blended with an immersion blender (stick blender) it goes smooth and eats like a flan. Both versions are equally right, but choose before you go on, because after this there is no going back.
- 4
The mixture: whisk the 6 eggs with the 200 g of sugar only until combined, without letting them foam. The air you beat in now is the holes you will see when you slice it. Add the vanilla and the lemon zest, and fold everything into the soaked bread.
- 5
Raisins (optional): soak them for 10 minutes in warm water, drain them well and only then fold them in. Dry, they pull liquid out of the mixture; soaked and undrained, they give back too much.
- 6
Baking in a water bath: pour the mixture into the caramel-lined pan, set it inside the larger roasting pan and fill that with hot water to halfway up the side of the loaf pan. Bake at 170 °C for 60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. The water bath is not optional: without it the egg curdles and the pudding ends up full of holes and grainy.
- 7
Cooling and unmolding: let it cool completely on the counter, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Only cold does it turn out in one piece. Run a knife around the edge, set the plate on top and flip it in one movement; the caramel from the bottom runs over it and becomes the sauce.