I had four stale wholewheat rolls that were making the rounds between the counter fridge freezer and back on the counter for three weeks; they tasted like sawdust from day one. So last night, I’d had it and gathered all the bits of bread, random corner of challah, a couple of slices of sandwich white bread, and the sawdust rolls. Cut the bread in chunks, mixed two cups whole milk, three eggs, ¼ cup of sugar, tsp of vanilla extract, a sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon, chopped up two dates, a handful of toasted pecans in a bowl, added a splash of Taylor Fladgate 10-Year-Old Tawny Port, tossed and left on the counter for 10-15min while my oven was preheating to 375F. Buttered a baking dish, poured the bread concoction into it, added a few extra butter cubes at random on top, and popped it in the oven for 40min. My dish wasn’t deep, so it wasn’t precisely a bread pudding, but all the flavor profiles were there. I poured myself a slightly chilled glass of the Taylor Fladgate 10-Year-Old Tawny Port while waiting for the dish to bake and looked up bread pudding (or Wet Nelly in the UK) on
Wikipedia . It was fascinating reading about the history of this dish, and I admired our ancestor’s creativity and thriftiness with ingredients at hand. I cut myself a nice wedge of the pudding while it was still warm with a dollop of whipped cream and savored the caramelly, nutty, toasty, vanilla flavors, which the Tawny Port perfectly matched; this was comfort food at its best – cheers, and warm your fall nights with a glass of port!
