Campfire Recipes – Dutch Oven Bread Pudding

There are 27 days until fall! To go on a bit of rant, there are also Halloween decorations up in almost every store.

I love the fall. The temperature starts to drop, the days start to get shorter and sitting around a campfire involves friends, blankets, and lots of wood.

Fall is also the time for some of the best recipes for cooking over the fire. Check out today’s Dutch Oven recipe!

Ingredients for Dutch Oven Bread Pudding:

• ½ large loaf French bread
• Five eggs
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ⅔ cup of sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla
• ¼ cup flour
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ⅛ tsp. salt
• 4 Tbsp. chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• For Jack Daniels Sauce:
• ½ cup butter
• 2 Tbsp. water
• One large egg
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 ½ Tbsp. Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey

Directions for Dutch Oven Bread Pudding

This recipe for Dutch oven bread pudding requires prep about 8 hours ahead of time so the bread can soak up the custard. By working ahead, you make it easy to time this out to be delivered nice and warm right after supper. Since it uses a lot of the same ingredients, prepare it ahead as part of your breakfast prep and throw the whole Dutch Oven in the cooler until it’s time to bake.

1. To make the bread pudding:
2. Line 12-inch Dutch oven with aluminum foil or D.O. liner. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
3. Tear at least half a large loaf of French Bread into bite-sized chunks. Use enough bread to amply fill the bottom of the Dutch oven. Position so that bread covers the bottom, but is not mashed into place.
4. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cream, ⅔ cup sugar, and vanilla. Once well-mixed, pour evenly over the bread.
5. Place lid tightly on Dutch oven and store in cooler or refrigerator for at 8-12 hours.
6. In a zipper top bag, mix together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Drop in pieces of chilled butter and use your hands to combine the ingredients in the bag well. It should create a “crumble” topping. Place bag in cooler, too.
7. When ready to bake, take Dutch oven and bag out of cooler. Evenly sprinkle crumble topping over the soaked bread in Dutch oven.
8. Bake for one hour at 350 degrees. For a 12-inch Dutch oven, that’s 16 charcoal briquettes arranged evenly on top and 8 under the bottom.
9. To make the sauce:
10. Near the end of the time for the bread pudding to bake take a small sauce pan and melt the ½ cup butter over low heat. Do not allow it to brown.
11. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
12. Mix together water and egg in small bowl; then stir into butter until well-blended.
13. Stir in the sugar.
14. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture begins to boil; remove from heat.
15. Stir in the Jack Daniels and cool at least 10 minutes before serving.
16. Allow guests to ladle as much sauce as they choose over their servings of bread pudding.