Hey family, welcome back to Recipe Friday. I'm Chef Rent and we're wrapping up week one of restaurant week. Monday we had our Mongolian trio. Wednesday we made miso glazed black cod. And today we're going out for dessert. We're making my dairy-free bread pudding with warm whiskey sauce. And dairy-free does not mean that we're sacrificing the restaurant quality bread pudding. I want a soft custody center, vanilla, brown sugar, toasted pecans, and a little toasted pecans for the top texture with warm whiskey sauce running all over everything. We're going to know it's ready by touch, aroma, resistance, temperature, and timing. Now, let's get into this culinary cockpit. Here's what you're gonna need. This recipe makes approximately 10 to 12 servings. You know, you got some of that extra. For the bread pudding, three cups of cube Italian bread, two cups of granulated sugar, five large eggs beaten, two teaspoons of pure vanilla extract, one cup of lightly packed brown sugar, a quarter cup of country croc plant-based butter softened, one cup of chopped pecans. For the dairy-free custard, you got two options. Option one, milk consistency plant cream. Add one cup of country croc plant cream, one cup of water. Use this when your bread has been cubed and allowed to stale overnight. Or you can do option two, rich restaurant version, two cups of country croc plant-based cream. For this version, completely dry the breads first so it can absorb that richer custard without becoming mushy. For the warm whiskey sauce, one cup of packed lightly brown sugar, a half a cup of country crock plant-based butter, one large egg beaten, two teaspoons of pure extract, a quarter cup of whiskey, and a pinch of culture salt. A bourbon style whiskey works beautiful here because those vanilla, caramel, and oak notes pair naturally with the brown sugar and pecans. So, right now we're going to set up our culinary cockpit. You want to preheat your oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You want to grease a 13 by 92 inch baking pan dish with country croc plant-based butter. You want to locate your bowls, whisk, saucepans, baking dish, oven mitts, and utensils, and establish a safe landing zone for the hot baking dish before it ever goes into the oven. Everything has to have a home. That is safety through systems. Next, you want to check your bread. Pick up one of your bread cubes. If your bread was left stale overnight, it should feel dry and firm on the outside. A little softness in the center is okay when you're using our plant cream and water mixture. But if you're using the full two cups of the country croc plant cream, you need to dry your bread completely. Spread the cubes onto the baking sheet and place them in your 350-degree oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, just tossing once. Let one cool enough the handle, feel it, lightweight, dry and firm. Now break it. You should hear a little crackle instead of a soft tear you get from fresh bread. Smell it. Warm, slightly nutty, but not burnt. That's our first texture, sound and aroma checkpoint. Next, we're gonna build our custard. We're gonna get a large bowl, whisk together our five beaten eggs, two cups of granulated sugar, and two teaspoons of vanilla. At first, you may feel some graininess from the sugar through your whisk. Keep whisking until everything feels combined, and add either your one cup of plant-based cream plus one cup of water or your two cups of full strength plant cream. Whisk until smooth. Now use the SEE. I need you to stop, engage, and evaluate. Move that whisk through the custard. It should feel smooth and fluid without a heavy layer of sugar sitting at the bottom. And smell that vanilla and cream. We're ready for the bread. Now, what you're gonna do is you're gonna let that bread drink up all that mixture. Pour the custard over your bread and gently fold everything together. Don't beat it into mush, don't beat it into submission. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. Now compare. Before soaking our bread, it was light, dry, and firm. Now it's heavier, softer, swollen with custard. Press one piece gently. You want to feel that the moisture has reached the center instead of just coating the outside. But the bread still should have structure. Saturated, not mushy. That's your texture checkpoint. We're going to build our pecan topping now. We're gonna combine one cup of lightly packed brown sugar, quarter cup of softened country crock, plant butter, and one cup of chopped pecans. Use clean fingertips to work everything together. Feel those textures change the granulated sugar, the soft plant-based butter, and the firm pecans. They should come together in a moist, crumbly mixture. Squeeze a little in your hand. It should hold together briefly, then break back apart into crumbs. When you rub it between your fingers, that's what we want. Next, we're moving on to the baking part. You want to pour your soaked bread and custard into prepared baking dishes. Spread it evenly without packing them down. Now distribute your pecan topping. If you're not depending on sight, use your spatial system. Start at one short end of the dish and move left to right. Move forward, left to right again. Continue until you reach the other end. That gives us an even coverage without even depending on sight. You want to bake at 350 for approximately 35 to 45 minutes. Around a 35-minute mark, let's start gathering information. First, aroma. The vanilla becomes deeper. The brown sugar begins to caramelize. The pecans begin to toast. You should smell something warm, nutty, sweet, and caramel like. Now carefully press the center with the spoon. Earlier, our custom was loose and wet. Now you should feel more resistance. The center should give under your spoon, but shouldn't feel loose liquidy movement underneath. That's your texture point. Confirm the center has reached at least 160 degrees with the accessible instant read thermometer. Remove the dish and place it in the safe landing zone. Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Now you're at the quiet point. It's time to make our whiskey sauce. While the bread pudding is resting, grab a medium saucepan. Add one cup of packed light brown sugar, a half a cup of country crock plant butter, two beaten eggs, two teaspoons of vanilla, and a pinch of culture salt. Whisk everything together before turning on the heat. Place the saucepan over low to medium low heat, but keep stirring. At first, you'll feel some graininess from the brown sugar, but as it heats up, that graininess begins to disappear. The sauce becomes smoother and you'll start feeling a little more resistance against your spoon. We're not looking for pudding, we just want enough body to lightly coat the spoon. Remove the sauce from the burner and now carefully stir in your quarter cup of whiskey. If you're cooking over gas, make sure that the pan is completely away from the flame. We're making sauce, we're not flamming anything. Now, smell, warmth from the whiskey, vanilla, caramel, oak, maybe a little spice. Return the saucepan to low heat for another two to three minutes, stirring continuously. As that sharp alcohol aroma softens, it should blend into the brown sugar, vanilla, and plant butter. Run your spoon through the sauce. Smooth, silky, porrable, enough body to lightly coat the spoon. That is your texture point. Turn off the heat, sauce is done. Now, let's serve. Press your serving spoon onto the rested bread pudding. Feel the contrast, a little resistance from the pecan topping. Then, soft, custody bread underneath. Spoon a portion onto your plate and pour some warm whiskey sauce over the top. Don't drown it. We want that texture from those pecans. Now smell vanilla, brown sugar, toasted pecans, warm bread, whiskey. Take a bite. Soft custody. Crunch from the pecans. Caramelization from the brown sugar. Silky whiskey sauce. And the warmth from the whiskey at the end. That's Restaurant Week's dessert. And yes, it's dairy-free. You can also make a nut-free brown sugar crumble if you're allergic to nuts. But we're not trying to make good dairy-free bread pudding. We're making good bread pudding that happens to be dairy-free. There's a big difference. And that's our standard. Now, let's talk about restaurant week accessible hospitality. Before we leave our restaurant table this week, here's today's hospitality thought. If you're putting a hot dessert or coffee in front of somebody who's blind or have low vision, tell them where you put it. Your bread pudding's at 6 o'clock, your coffee's at 2. Simple. If you move their glass or clean something from around them, just let them know. Communication gives the guests information and control. Accessible is hospitality. Today, we felt dry bread become saturated with custard. We built our can topping through touch. We followed vanilla, brown sugar, and pecans through aroma. We felt our custard move from loose to softly set. And we felt our whiskey sauce change from grainy to smooth and silky. That's Unseen Cuisine. The food gave us information. We just have to pay attention. And if you enjoyed today's Restaurant Week's episode, head over to unseencuisine.com for more sensory cooking resources, recipes, my book, and information about the Culinary Cockpit Foundations course. And share this episode with somebody who's ready to build more confidence in the kitchen. That wraps up Restaurant Week number one. Next week, we're going back out to eat. Different food, different techniques, different sensory experiences. Same culinary cockpit. I'm Chef Rick, and this is Unsync Cuisine. Trust your senses, trust your systems, and become the pilot.