Bread Pudding

Good evening!

I made and tasted my first bread pudding tonight and I liked it! I never wanted to make bread pudding because it sounded gross to me. It sounded soggy. And I hate soggy bread. That's why I hate stratas. I had some dried out hamburger buns & a couple slices of stale raisin bread staring at me; so I made bread pudding. I did halved the recipe because I didn't want to get stuck with a big pan of something I'd have to throw out. And I didn't make the sauce - I'm out of brown sugar. What a delightful surprise. I did add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon instead of the 1/4 teaspoon & I tossed in the last of my vanilla which was about 1/4 teaspoon. If you've never tried bread pudding, I encourage you to make this. I bet you'll like it!

The recipe is from www.allrecipes.com

Bread Pudding

3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 cups whole milk
10 slices hearty farmhouse-style bread,
toasted and cut into cubes
1 cup raisins

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Directions:
1.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 2-quart baking dish.
2.
In a mixing bowl, whisk 3 eggs, white sugar, 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 cup of butter, and 3 cups of whole milk together, and gently stir in the bread cubes and raisins. Lightly spoon the mixture into the prepared baking dish.
3.
Bake in the preheated oven until browned and set in the middle, 50 to 55 minutes; cover the dish with foil after 30 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Let the pudding stand for 10 minutes before serving.
4.
For vanilla sauce, whisk 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, the flour, a pinch of cinnamon, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 1/4 cups of whole milk,and salt together in a heavy saucepan until smooth. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and the sauce coats the back of a spoon, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract. Pour sauce over warm bread pudding, or serve on the side in a bowl.

Pet Peeve

Am I the only one who gets annoyed at blogs that start out about baking and then inundate the reader with family photos, vacation photos & comments about anything other that baking under the sun?!

I get annoyed because I feel decieved. I signed up for one thing and am given another. Not fair. Not appreciated.

Lemon Souffle

Hi,

I finally made a souffle. I chose a lemon souffle. This dessert was light and not too sweet. It is a dessert you can eat and not feel full or guilty after eating it. It was easy to make. I only made one change, I used strawberries instead of blackberries.

Although this was a nice dessert, I don't think I'll be making anymore souffles. Not enough bang for the buck to me. I like rich, decadent desserts.

I used the recipe found at www.bakingbites.com

Lemon Blackberry Souffles

4 large eggs, divided and at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar + 2 tbsp sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup milk (any kind)

1/3 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 cup fresh blackberries

Preheat oven to 400F.Butter four 6 or 8-oz ramekins. Dust the insides of the ramekins thoroughly with sugar (just as you would if you were flouring the ramekins).In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/4 cup flour until well combined. Whisk in milk. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently, then whisk in lemon juice. Bring to a boil, still whisking frequently, and remove from heat. Strain into a large bowl and stir in lemon zest. Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes.In a medium bowl, beat egg whites with a mixer on medium-high speed until foamy. Beat in remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and continue to beat to stiff peaks. Fold into lemon mixture, working in two or three additions.Divide blackberries evenly into ramekins, almost covering the bottom of each ramekin. Divide lemon mixture even into ramekins. There may be a small amount of lemon mixture left over. Fill the ramekins to the very top and then level each one off with the back of a knife (as you would when measuring sugar).Bake for 16-18 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.Serve immediately, or allow souffles to cool and fall slightly, then serve chilled with whipped cream.
Serves 4.

Pound cake

Good evening,

Wanted to post about this pound cake I made. Who doesn't like a nice pound cake? This was nice, plain in flavor, nice crumb and texture. No complaints, although next time I think I would do something to change the flavor. Maybe I would add lemon, or almond.

We ate it plain the first night. The next night we topped slices of the cake with chocolate ice cream , hot fudge sauce & a big ol' squirt of whipped cream. Now that was nice!

Here's where I got the recipe: http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/04/condensed-milk-pound-cake.html

Condensed Milk Pound Cake (Recipe by Pichet Ong in The Sweet Spot)

1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. unsalted butter

3/4 c. condensed milk

1/2 c. sugar

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. sea salt

3 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325F and generously butter a 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan or three mini loaf pans. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the vanilla. Pour in condensed milk and mix until well combined. Add sifted flour mixture bit by bit while continuing to whisk until completely incorporated. Lastly, add the eggs to the mixture and whisk until well combined. Pour batter into the loaf pan(s). If using three mini pans, it is approximately 1 cup of batter per pan. Bake 1 hour for large loaf and 45 min. for mini loaves. Cake is ready when the top is dark golden brown and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake.

Box cake review

Hi, I made this box cake mix intending for my husband to take it to work to share with his coworkers. It was so awful, I was too embarrassed to send it. My husband didn't like it either. I'm so surprised that this mix was as awful as it was. Duncan Hines is a reputable company & I have used their regular cake mixed more times than I can remember. At first I wasn't going to post about this, but then I thought I should warn other bakers out there. So I dug this box out of the garbage to photograph it. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of the cake before I threw it out. It did bake up nice, but that's all I can say good about it. So save yourself some disappointment and make the carrot cake from scratch. You won't be sorry.

Pizza

Good evening!

I just have to tell you what delicious pizza dough I just made!!! It's sooooo yummy! You know I am a pizza fanatic, don't you? I could eat it breakfast, lunch and dinner and be happy.

This dough tastes great. It's not tough or chewy.

The only changes I made are substituting bread flour for the wheat flour, kneading,(well, actually, letting the Kitchen Aid knead) it for 7 minutes and then I let it rise for an hour.

Whenever I make pizza, I always preheat my cast iron skillet in a 425 degree oven. I shape the dough and put it right on the skillet, no grease or corn meal needed to keep it from sticking. I then add sauce and toppings. It only takes about 8 minutes to bake.

I got the recipe from: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/cheesy_whole_wheat_vegetable_calzones

Try this, you'll never be satisfied with a frozen pizza again. Trust me.

Dough Ingredients: 1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 3/4 to 3 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon dry yeast

1. Prepare whole wheat calzone dough by putting ingredients (in order listed) into a large bowl (or bread machine), using about 2 cups of the flour. Stir to combine; continue adding flour and knead mixture with hands to make a smooth, elastic dough. Knead 5 minutes.

Date cake

Hi, I'm back. Just got done moving. My husband got a new job. I forgot how grueling moving is. Especially as I get older.

Got the kitchen all unpacked and was itching to bake something. This date cake is very moist and delicious. It does seen a little overly sweet to me. Maybe a mix of 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar would cut down on the sweetness. I don't know if my pan was an 8 inch instead of 9 inch, but I had just a little too much batter. I filled two jumbo muffin cups with the excess batter and baked them right along with the cake. My cake sunk in the middle after I took it out of the oven. That was my fault though. I didn't do the "stick a tooth pick in and see if it comes out clean".

I liked this cake. It can be found on the mennonite girls can cook blog site.

Enjoy.

Moving

Good morning from my lovely & reasonable hotel room. My oven's been off all week. :( My husband got a new job in a new state & so we're moving! I may be able to bake something by the end of the month. Don't know for sure. Til then, happy baking to you all!