bread pudding troubleshooting

[bettysue]

All the different bread pudding recipes I have tried have either been not sweet enough, gone flat in height, or the bourban sauce way too strong. Idealy, I want a solution to all three in the same recipe. The best combination of sweetness, plus that not too strong not too weak bourbon is usually from Louisiana cajun food restaurants. I welcome any and all suggestions.

[todao]

Try sticking with one recipe and working with it until you find the balance for the amount of sugar you're looking for. Sweetness is a matter of individual taste so it's difficult to answer that aspect of your question directly. But switching around from one recipe to another make it nearly impossible to achieve excellence in your creation.
As for the bourbon sauce, I'd start with 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, about 3 Tbsp. of confectioner sugar, a cup of granulated sugar, one egg (beaten) and 4 Tbsp bourbon.
Remember that there's a lot of sugar in the bourbon sauce so, if the bread pudding has too much sugar, it's going to be far too sweet. Balancing the sweetness of the sauce with that of the pudding is (IMHO) the secret to success with this recipe.
If your bread pudding is going flat it may help to allow the bread and egg mixture to rest for a while before putting the pudding in the oven. It could also be that you need more eggs in the mix.

[bettysue]

That all makes perfect sense. I couldn't un- clutter my thinking/see the forest for the trees so to speak . Thank you. I will use your sauce recipe on the next try.

[The Old Gal]

As a general rule I add 1/3 less sugar than any pudding type recipe I get. Rarely do I have to add more the next time. For me it is something about the pudding, bread, tapioca, or rice puddings that the stated recipes I get are just overly sweet.

[mpalmer6c]

Hard for anyone else to know what your criteria are. I'd say just experiment.