Cathy, did anyone ever answer this question for you?
If not, yes, you can certainly bake it dry. The recipe I posted specifies that.
The thing about water baths is that they assure an even heat envelope, with no hot spots---including the bottom of the dish. That's why they're so often used with custards (which is all a bread pudding is, really), cheesecakes, and the like.
With cheesecakes they're critical to keep the cake from splitting. With bread pudding, what does a crack matter?
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