Haupia bread pudding

Haupia, a Hawaiian coconut pudding, makes a mighty tasty topping to a good bread pudding.

This recipe is an almagamation of a few things. My mom sent me a recipe for haupia bread pudding a few months ago, but I didn't like the bread pudding part of the recipe very much. I borrowed a bread pudding recipe from Cook's Illustrated, but it wasn't quite right to be topped with the very sweet haupia. So I adjusted... and here you are.

Bread Pudding Ingredients
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons bourbon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
About 8 cups of large-ish chunks of bread -- 1" pieces or so. This is great to use up any slightly dry ends of bread you have on the counter; I store them in the freezer until I need to make bread pudding or stuffing or something similar. If you're buying fresh bread, I'd use something with a little tooth, but not too much -- somewhere between wonderbread and a dense black bread. Challah is excellent for this.

Haupia ingredients
2 cans coconut milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch (yes, that's one cup)

Making the bread pudding

1. Whisk eggs (and yolk) and sugar together in a large bowl.

2. Whisk in the milk, cream, bourbon, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt.

3. Pour the liquid mixture over the bread and mix them together well.

4. Cover and let stand in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. If you're using a heavier bread, like a crusty italian artisan bread, you'll want to give it more standing time. For a morning event, I like to mix it up the night before and let it stand overnight.

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees; butter the bottom and sides of a 13x9 baking dish.

6. Pour the bread mixture into the baking dish, smooth the top, and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until it's mostly firm but still jiggles slightly in the middle.

7. Let cool for 45 minutes. Don't be dissappointed when it sinks a bit; that's the way it goes.

Making the Haupia and topping the dish

1. Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a pan. Add the coconut milk.

2. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

3. STIR CONSTANTLY. It won't thicken, and it won't thicken, and then suddenly it'll be library paste and if you're not stirring religiously it'll stick to the bottom of the pan and burn and you'll be making excuses for your cajun haupia.

4. Once it's thickened -- you're looking for the consistency of, say, library paste, or maybe a thin yogurt -- pour it over the bread pudding. Allow it to set for 10 minutes or so, and serve.

Mighty tasty warm, still very good cold. So rich but SOME ‘ONO YEAH BRAH?