The base for this recipe is Keller’s brioche that will now be transformed into what is, essentially, an excuse to eat stuffing as a regular side dish, which is a brilliant idea. Maddeningly, Keller tells you you will need 12 cups of brioche cubes for this but doesn’t hint as to whether that’s one of the loaves you’ve made, one and a half, both of them, etc. (turns out it’s about 1-1/2). And if you’ve followed his instructions for storing the brioche, you’ve already wrapped one loaf of the hot-from-the-oven brioche in foil and transferred it immediately to the freezer. So I had to make do with one loaf and, therefore decided to make half of this recipe.
Keller’s instructions for cooking the leeks are uneccesarily fussy in my opinion. (One of my favorite cooking jokes is the recipe that starts “First, take a leek.” Sorry, I couldn’t resist). He tells you to put them in a dry pan and cook until they begin to soften. Then you add some butter “to emulsify” and cover with a silly piece of parchment that you’ve cut to the exact diameter of your pan, and cook for 35 more minutes. I suspect what’s supposed to be happening here is that the leeks are releasing some water and that is mixing with the butter but that never happened with mine. There was absolutely no emulsifying going on and no “sauce” at all in the pan. So my adaptation just sautees the leeks in oil and butter until they’re caramelized (because everything is better caramelized).
This dish, like the Braised Oxtail and Mushroom Tartine, probably originated as a clever and frugal way to use up some leftovers but has now been turned into a weekend project.
Like the Oxtails, though, you don’t have to spend 2 days making brioche in order to make this dish. You could use almost any kind of very rich bread and you could even — gasp! — buy it. I don’t want to discourage you from making the brioche though; it’s delicious and it makes two loaves so there is enough to make this as well as have some leftover for toast or croutons.
Leek Bread Pudding
The dish is truly delicious and satisfying as only rich, rich bread, cream, and cheese can be. I would have liked more of a leek “presence” in the dish and his picture in the book suggests that that is what’s supposed to happen but when you’re only slicing the leeks into 1/2″ slices and then cooking them down for 40 minutes you are not going to maintain any kind of leek chunks in the final product. I might also use a different kind of cheese next time. I sampled a bit of the Emmentaler before adding it and it didn’t have a strong flavor, so it was hard to detect in the finished product. You could certainly use parmesan, asiago, gruyere, or romano. You could also use regular onions or scallions in place of the leeks.
Leek Bread Pudding
I have made this recipe as well. We made a half recipe and cooked in a loaf pan (on the suggestion of another blogger – maybe Smitten Kitchen). It was delicious. We served it with the rack of lamb, cauliflower soup and asparagus coins – all from Ad Hoc. We also made the pineapple cake but I wouldn’t recommend it – turned out dry.
All of that sounds good (except the dry cake). You will see from the review of the overall book (which will be posted tonight) that I wanted to make almost everything in the book.
Thanks for reading!
Can this be frozen ahead of time?
Hi Anneliese,
That’s a good question. I don’t see why not!
Hi, Kate, thanks for posting the recipe; I made this recipe a few times already, and the reason I searched the internet for it today was because a person asked me for recipe, and I don’t have the Ad Hoc book at work; after reading your comments and experiences I thought I’ll share some of mine with you as well:
1. the dish tastes totally different if the leaks are softened but not caramelized; it has to have that silkiness of the leaks that is totally lost once they are browned; and to achieve that kind of smooth softening -well, that’s what the parchment lid is for – it does not allow all the steam to escape, but at the same time there is not an excessive liquid accumulation; parchment lid is highly recommended here!
2. I think casserole tastes better when it is not as thick; I bake it in a large shallow pan rather than pack it high in a deep baking dish;
3. you are right about the presence of the leeks in the dish – they have to be the dominating ingredient and they should not be lost and drowned by the abundance of bread; I cut 4-5 leaks into 1.5 cm slices, softened them (but not caramelized them), so they do not cook to “nothing”, and I used one loaf of bread, crusts removed and cubed into 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm cubes ; the rest of the ingredients – as the recipe says; it is a wonderful dish; LOVE it!!