Peach Bread Pudding With Brown Sugar Almond Crumble

Peach Bread Pudding

The peaches at the fruit stand looked and smelled amazing--I had to make something with them!  I worked with several recipes from my collection and one from Ina Garten.  The result is silky, lightly sweet, crunchy on top, and the peaches shine through as the star ingredient.

To get started, there are a few basic things you need to know:

First, peaches need to have their skins removed for this dish.  If the peaches are underripe, you can peel them with a sharp knife.  My peaches were getting a bit soft so that wouldn't work.  I cut an "X" on the bottom of the peaches and dropped them into a large pot of boiling water.  In about one minute the skin begins to curl around the "X".  Remove from the water using a slotted spoon and drop into ice water. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, peel back the skin with your fingers and slice them away from then pit.  I like to leave them in large chunks.

Second, a custard dish like this is best cooked in a water bath.  Find a large roasting pan that can accommodate your pudding dish surrounded by 1" of water.

This can be eaten warm or cold--I love it both ways!

INGREDIENTS
1 loaf Challah bread cut into cubes (depending on the size of your dish, you may only need 3/4)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 split vanilla bean (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
4 eggs
4 medium peaches peeled and cubed
1/3 C sugar
TOPPING
3 TBS brown sugar
1 TBS Flour
2 TBS softened butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 C sliced almonds

Put the bread cubes into a buttered 4 Qt casserole dish.  Mix in the peaches so they are evenly distributed.

Heat the milk, cream, sugar and vanilla over medium heat until boiling--set aside to cool slightly. Remove the vanilla bean pods and scrape out the seeds.  Add the seeds back into the custard mixture. Whisk the eggs in large bowl.  Very slowly add the slightly cooled milk mixture stirring constantly. Strain the mixture onto the bread and peaches--it is important to strain the custard to remove any bits of slightly cooked egg.  Let it stand on the counter for 10 minutes until the custard begins to get absorbed into the bread.

Place the whole casserole into an empty roasting pan and place it in a 325 degree oven.  Carefully pour hot water into the pan around the pudding so that it comes up about 1".  Use a water kettle for this so the water dos not get on the pudding.  Bake for 25 minutes then add the crumble on top and bake for another 25 minutes.

CRUMBLE
To assemble the crumble, add the sugar and flour to the softened butter and rub it with your finger tips. Add the cinnamon and almonds.