Bread Pudding made with BISCUITS!

The other evening I stopped into the newly opened and very popular, Jacob’s Pickles, on the Upper West Side.  A couple items on the dessert menu caught my eye, but I couldn’t resist ordering the Biscuit Bourbon Bread Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream.  It’s quite fitting that this Southern/Soul Food restaurant uses biscuits for the “bread” in their bread pudding. I love biscuits!  I love bread pudding!  This will be a good relationship I think!  It came to the table, piping hot, and in a mini cassoulet pot.  The huge scoop of vanilla ice cream was sprinkled with sliced almonds and was sitting right on top, literally melting into all the nooks and crannies.  I couldn’t resist digging in to my hot biscuits!  The traditional crumbly, crunchy top of the biscuits added a nice texture to a normally soft pudding.  The rich, butter taste in the biscuits also added a great flavor that was unique!.  As I got to the bottom, there were a few raisins baked in as well that seemed to be out of place.  I would have preferred no raisins at all or actually more of them because the few that were there seemed like a mishap.  On another note, one suggestion to take this dessert to the next level would be to add a sauce on the side to use at the eater’s discretion.  The biscuits and vanilla ice cream, although DELICIOUS, became just a bit bland towards the end of the bowl.  A rich bourbon caramel sauce (or creme anglaise) and raspberry coulis perhaps, would have helped to add flavor and soak into the dense pudding.  It could be a play on the “biscuits and jam” or “biscuits and honey” pairing we all know and love.  However, all in all, it was the perfect dessert to have on a cold winters night and I can’t wait to go back to Jacob’s Pickles for dinner and more dessert!