Bread puddings deliver the comfort we crave

DESIGNER FOOD has its place in any food lover's heart. But there are times — and now seems like one of them — when all you crave is comfort.

In these stop-the-world-I-wanna-get-off days, bread pudding delivers. Perhaps that's why bread pudding has sprouted in Seattle restaurants like mushrooms after a warm rain — running the gamut from the sweet dessert concoction at Boat Street Kitchen and Café to the savory cornbread pudding at Tom Douglas' Etta's. (Even "Jeopardy" champ Ken Jennings, a Seattle denizen, devotes space on his blog to the topic.)

Frugality was likely the mother of this invention, as cooks used up scraps of bread and leftovers in the pantry to craft a quick dessert. "Various forms of bread pudding are pretty universal in Western food cultures," says Darra Goldstein, editor in chief of "Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture." She notes that in some Eastern European and Scandinavian versions, bread pudding is made from breadcrumbs instead of cubes, and layered with sweets such as applesauce, jam, fresh fruit or honey. In America, Goldstein adds, the dessert is especially popular in the South, where it might be served with a sweet bourbon sauce.

So is there a classic recipe? "There are so many different types that it's hard to say," Goldstein says. "When bread pudding had a revival of sorts a decade or so ago, you started seeing new incarnations such as chocolate bread pudding with dried cherries. If there is a classic dessert bread pudding, I suppose it would call for a brioche-style bread with a custard base of milk, eggs and sugar, probably some raisins, and be topped with a sauce."

What better balm to ease our winter-weary souls?

For the granddaddy of Seattle bread puddings, head to Boat Street. Susan Kaplan created her recipe 20 years ago when faced with a hundred hungry diners at the church where she cooked. "I'd run out of ingredients for the dessert," Kaplan recalls. "So I had to wing it. I made this ugly-looking bread pudding with goo poured over it." She chuckles at the memory. Her worries dissolved when she heard people "moaning with pleasure."

Since the fateful church dinner, Kaplan has played with the recipe over the years, using what she calls basic flavor combinations where every ingredient serves a purpose. (Read: no fussy rose-cut strawberries.) Her current version is the No. 1 seller at Boat Street. Its origins may be humble, but there is nothing Spartan about this bread pudding. Chunks of French bread piled in a generous bowl are lightly soaked in a cream sauce and a hint of spirits. The texture wanders from crunchy to soft, moist to dry. It's sweet, but stops just short of sticky. Pine nuts and raisins add layers of flavor. "It's what you wished your childhood tasted like," says Kaplan.

On the savory side, bread pudding often takes up with cheese, vegetables or ham. Paired with a soup or a salad, these variations can hold their own as main dishes.

Or serve one on the side, as Janet McDevitt of Seattle likes to do. A pastry chef and blogger for Farm Fresh Family, McDevitt concocted her own wild mushroom bread pudding recipe. "It's very easy to make," she says. "You use stale breads and toss in some eggs and cream and whatever you have on hand."

McDevitt likes to do field research for the blog, which promotes buying food from local farms, at the University District Farmer's Market. There, she buys black trumpets and chanterelles from Foraged and Found Edibles. McDevitt prefers wild mushrooms to their domestic cousins because they provide richer textures and flavors. "They're just more interesting," she concludes.

Eve M. Tai is a Seattle freelance writer. Ken Lambert is a Seattle Times staff photographer.

Janet McDevitt's Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding

Serves 6

1 medium onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon butter

8 ounces coarsely chopped wild mushrooms

2 cups whole milk or cream

2 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon rosemary

¼ teaspoon pepper

4 cups packed 1-inch cubed bread*

¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, sauté the onion and garlic in butter. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft.

2. Whisk together the milk or cream, eggs, salt, rosemary and pepper. Add the cubed bread to the milk mixture and let soak 20 minutes. Once the bread has absorbed most of the liquid, add the mushroom mixture and cheese and stir together.

3. Bake in a 10 ½-inch pie dish for about 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

*McDevitt likes to use Whole Grain Sourdough Spelt from Tall Grass Bakery.