Bread Pudding Experts - Help Needed

[sweet_polly]

I want to make a sweet potato bread pudding for Thanksgiving. Bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts, but the couple of times I've tried to make one, the bread has stayed kind of "springy" (for lack of a better word). It didn't come out nice and dense like the restaurant variety always does. I think I'm not prepping the bread correctly. When the recipe calls for a "stale loaf of French bread", how stale does it mean? Do you leave the whole loaf sitting out until it's hard, or just overnight...or something else? Is it cut into cubes before or after you let it get stale? Thanks!

[goodhealthgourmet]

you shouldn't need to stale the bread for more than a day - cutting into cubes first will help ensure even/total drying. the more important factors for making it dense (as opposed to light, fluffy & custardy) are to use dense bread - i lke challah - fewer eggs, and *slightly* less liquid, though if you cut back too much it'll just be dry.

[Cherylptw]

You can dry the bread out by cutting it into cubes or slices and lightly toasting in the oven. Also, the more liquid you use, the less dense it will be.

[chowser]

Let the bread sit in the egg mixture longer, even overnight so it absorbs more liquids.

[sweet_polly]

Thanks so much, everyone. I'm going to incorporate all three of your tips into my Sweet Potato Bread Pudding with Eggnog Angliase...will report back on how I fare. :)

[goodhealthgourmet]

if you can, assemble it the day before baking, and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. as chowser said, the longer it soaks, the more the bread will absorb the liquid.

[sweet_polly]

Thank you all! With your tips, I nailed it!

Cut the bread into cubes first. Check.
Dry cubes overnight. Check.
Soak cubes overnight in sweet potato custard mix. Check.

Bread pudding nirvana! :)

[goodhealthgourmet]

hooray! enjoy :)