From A Past Issue Of The New Orleans Menu Daily Originally published November 13, 2007 Ten Best Bread Puddings Bread pudding is my favorite dessert. They're all different, which is what makes the search for great bread pudding so delightful. Here are the ones that I've liked best. 1. Mr. B's. This is the lightest bread pudding around, with an incomparable flavor and a fine contrast between the center and the slivers of crust that always gets in there. Their secret is baking it at the very low temperature of 250 degrees for a couple of hours. A fine light sauce completes it. 2. Dakota. Elegant, hot, buttery, and aromatic. Rominds me of the wonderful version they used to make at Crozier's. 3. Arnaud's. Their pudding bears my name, although it's not my recipe. It is a good one, though, in a layered European style, with lots of cinnamon. 4. Pascal's Manale. They seem to have downsized the block of light, very moist (it actually wiggles when you touch it), raisiny pudding, served in a bowl of a very sweet rum sauce. But it needed to be downsized. 5. Bon Ton Cafe. The most alcoholic bread pudding imaginable, with a custardy sauce full of whiskey. It's such a signature dish here that they have a special dish for serving it. 6. Commander's Palace. The bread pudding soufflee, first premiered at Commander's 100th anniversary dinner in 1980, is a spectacular in every way.  It's light to start with, and made almost cloudlike with an admixture of sweet meringue. 7. Brigtsen's. Frank Brigtsen and his staff make a terrific banana bread pudding that's further enriched with a banana custard sauce. 8. Dickie Brennan's Steak House. They make their bread pudding with the sauce and flavor of bananas Foster, the cinnamon-and-run flaming dessert the Brennans invented decades ago. 9. Red Maple. Even when the Red Maple was mediocre for most things (it has become a much better restaurant in recent years), their light, warm bread pudding was first-class. Still is. 10. Palace Cafe. The inventors of the much-imitated white chocolate bread pudding make one that makes your eyes cross with its richness. One for your own list, maybe: The chocolate bread pudding at Red Fish Grill is extremely rich and popular. But chocolate and bread pudding don't go together to my palate, so it's not on my list. © 2006 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com