Sweet Potato Bread Pudding!

I find lots of my favorite recipes in magazines and recently I’ve become very enamored of Cuisine at Home. Of the 10 dishes I cooked over Thanksgiving weekend, 3 of them came from their November issue, and one of them was so popular I’ve made it for every gathering this year, always to rave reviews. The tang from the orange and cranberry combine with the sweet potato and streusel to create a wonderful alternative to the yam-marshmellow side dish at holiday gatherings. This dish is popular even with people who don’t care for sweet potatoes.

For the Pudding –

Whisk together:

– 1 cup sour cream

– 3/4 cup milk

– 3/4 cup sugar

– 3 eggs

– 1 T. baking powder

– 2 t. vanilla extract

– 1 t. ground ginger

– 1/2 t. kosher salt

– 1 cup dried cranberries

– peel of 1 orange

Mix this together with 4 cups of french bread, chopped into fine (1/2 inch) cubes.

Soak overnight (or for as long as possible)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, coat a 1-qt. casserole dish with nonstick spray.

Cook and puree, then fold into bread mixture

– 1 lb sweet potatoes

For the streusel, combine and stir together:

– 1-1/2 cup pecans, chopped

– 1/2 cup brown sugar

– 1/3 cup all purpose flour

– 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

If you like a finer streusel, throw this in the cuisinart and blend until it’s the consistency of cornmeal.

Pour the pudding into the casserole dish and cover with the streusel. Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Enjoy!