Ham and Cheese Bread Pudding

Sadly, there is no photo of this tasty dish as we forgot our camera at home when we took this to the potluck, so please enjoy this gratuitous photo of some candles on my dining table in order to get in a festive mood.

My mother has been making a family favourite Christmas breakfast called "Christmas Morning Wifesaver" from time immemorial. Well, maybe not that long, but at least since I was seven or eight. She clipped the recipe from the local newspaper that first year and sello-taped it to the inside of the kitchen cupboard door. Each time we moved house, that scrap of newspaper would be peeled off the cupboard door and transported to the new house for taping into a new cupboard. My best guess is that the still pristine scrap of newspaper has been variously pasted on five different cabinet doors over a period of 25 years.

Christmas Morning Wifesaver is essentially a savoury strata. It is also very much informed by the gourmet standards of the newspaper from which (and when) is was clipped. It calls for a couple loaves of white bread, sliced and trimmed of crust, tinned mushroom slices, diced onion, diced green bell pepper, and a topping of crushed cornflakes and butter as well as the usual egg/milk mixture. How much more late-seventies can you get?

As I was recently contemplating the wisdom of initiating a change in the formula of this recipe (if for no other reason than the idea of tinned mushrooms makes me feel slightly ill) I was browsing around epicurious the other day and stumbled across this recipe. I was so intrigued by the concept that I instantly threw over my previous commitment to make a Paella for the annual Christmas Potluck gathering for the Downunder Club of Edmonton and decided instead to make a version - more like a bread pudding than a strata and with adjustments to some of the ingredients to suite my personal preference (the original recipe has the balance of cheese wrong for my taste). Besides, I'm essentially a lazy cook, and, where I can turn a strata, with the need for layering, into a bread pudding, which is really just a jumble, I will. So here's what I did:

INGREDIENTS:

• 680 grams French bread (about 1.5 loaves - loaves are usually about a pound or 454 grams each)
• 60ml (0.25 cup) canola oil
• 875 ml (3.5 cups) 2% milk
• 500 ml (2 cups) cream
• 7 large eggs
• 5 large cloves garlic, chopped
• 10 ml (2 teaspoons) salt
• 5 ml (1 teaspoon) black pepper
• 2.5 ml (0.5) teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 30 ml (2 tablespoons) chopped fresh sage
• 30 ml (2 tablespoons) chopped fresh thyme
• 10 ml (2 teaspoons) herbes de Provence
• 275 grams (approx 2 cups) soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled
• 500 grams (about 3 cups) coarsely chopped ham
• 16 canned artichoke hearts (approximately 2 x 400 ml cans or jars), drained and chopped
• 750 ml (3 cups) packed grated Fontina cheese
• 250 ml (1 cup) panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
• Spray on olive oil

Grease a large baking dish (I used a small foil roaster - the dish should be more than 3 inches deep).

Tear bread (leaving the crusts on) into 2-3 inch pieces. Set the bread pieces aside. 

Stir together until thoroughly combined: cream, milk, oil, eggs, garlic, salt, pepper, nutmeg, sage, thyme and herbes de Provence. Pour milk mixture into a large mixing bowl with bread cubes. use your (clean) hands to squish the bread and milk together gently until bread is thoroughly soaked, about 3-5 minutes. Don't worry that you're breaking the bread up too much, that's what's supposed to happen. Add ham, artichoke hearts and cheeses to the bread mixture and combine with your hands until it is all evenly distributed.

Pour the mixture into the pan, cover and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350F. Bake pudding, uncovered for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle top of pudding with panko. Spray with olive oil. If you don't have spray on oil (not Pam!) Use your hands to mix a few tablespoons of softened butter into the bread crumbs before you put them on the pudding. return pan to oven and continue to bake for a further 20 minutes. If the panko isn't brown enough for you, give the pudding a few minuted under the broiler to finish it off.

This pudding is soft and cloud like in the middle and crispy on top. I made it for a late supper potluck, but it would be great for brunch as well.

Comments

[mireille]

I hope you feel adequately acknowledged ... because I confess a growing dependency on your amazing recipes. I am not a cook of your calibre, but your recipes are helping me develop!! xoxo

[Lyn]

Mireille,
Thanks you!!! I feel more than adequately acknowledged! Although I am baffled (and pleased) when people compliment me in this way, despite the fact I don't deserve it. ;-)

[Paige]

Wifesaver has always been my family's Boxing Day breakfast dish. Ours is pretty similar to your mom's recipe, only it leaves out the mushrooms and uses a layer of ham instead. Tons of nice sharp cheddar, as well.

[kitchenette]

Thanks a lot for this recipe. I often don't know what to bring to parties as I am a bit tired of quiches and cakes. I will try this one next.

[Lyn]

Paige, I'm thinking I might try to sneak some Applewood smoked cheddar into mum's Wifesaver this year.

Kitchenette, I know what you mean. I am always racking my brain as to what to bring to a potluck. I want to make something good, but it's got to be easy to transport and serve elsewhere and capable of being made ahead! I always struggle with what to bring!