Bread Pudding

We pondered what to do with the leftover loaf of Italian Pugliese bread after we made the fondue the other night.  My wife thought that bread pudding sounded good, so I sent her off to find a suitable bread pudding recipe.  She ended up finding one on allrecipes.com that we modified based on some of the posted comments.

We were surprised that many of the bread pudding recipes don’t give a volume measurement for the bread.  For instance: use 6 cups of bread, but instead they have semi ambiguous measurements: use six slices of bread.  So, I looked in The Deen Family Cookbook and Paula Deen’s recipe uses a full loaf of French bread – 16 to 20 inches long cut into one-inch cubes.  We decided to use the full loaf of pugliese cut into one-inch cubes.

My first tasks, was to get out our 8x8 inch glass Pyrex baking pan, cut the bread into cubes, and fill the baking pan.  The recipe calls for an optional 1 /2 cup of raisins and I used up a small amount of regular raisins and then the end of a box of golden raisins that equated to a handful (talk about ambiguous measurements).  I lightly shuffled the bread cubes to distribute the raisins so they would not all fall to the bottom of the pan.

Then in a medium bowl, I mixed the four eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of whipping cream, 1/3-cup of white sugar, 1/3-cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  I used our hand mixing wand to whip the custard mixture until it just started to get frothy (I didn’t want to make whipped cream).

I melted two tablespoons of butter in the microwave and sprinkled it over the bread cubes then poured the custard mixture over the bread.  I used a spatula and pressed all the bread cubes down into the custard mixture so that all the bread was saturated. 

Now I turned on the oven to 350 degrees.  While the oven warmed, the bread had time to sit and fully absorb all the custard each little cube could hold.  When the oven was hot, we put the pan in the center of the oven and set the timer for forty minutes.  The recipe calls for baking for forty-five minutes, but I didn’t want it to over bake.

After the forth minutes were up, I checked and the center was still very soupy, so I put the pan of pudding back into the oven for another five minutes.  I checked again and this time my wife agreed that the center was not quite cooked, so we placed it back in the oven for another five minutes.

After fifty minutes, the bread pudding was completely cooked without burning.  A few of the raisins on top were a little dark, but the bread was just fine.  We let it cool to set for about ten minutes, then served ourselves a piece and added a little vanilla ice cream.

The bread pudding was very light and moist, it had a slight cinnamon flavor, but I would have liked it to have a little move vanilla flavor.  I said to my wife that we could just finish the pan, but she has better restraint than I do, so we will have it tomorrow.


Find the orginal recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bread-Pudding-II/Detail.aspx

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Cheese Fondue

As we reviewed some pictures of our trips to Central Europe, we enjoyed looking at pictures of the Alps and the surrounding areas.  One of the pictures showed the fondue that we ate in France, and my wife asked when we could have cheese fondue for dinner.  I replied that as soon as I could buy some cheese, I would be happy to make fondue.  Later that day we had to run some errands, so we stopped at Costco (our super mega-mart) to purchase our cheese.

As we walked through the store, there were several stands demonstrating different products and offering samples to taste.  We stopped at one and picked up some Jarlsberg cheese that is a variety of Swiss cheese manufactured in Norway.  It had a very soft texture and a mild and pleasant taste that we enjoyed.

We walked to the refrigerated case to get the two cheeses that I needed: Gruyere and Emmenthaler.  We picked up a small brick of the Gruyere, but there was no Emmenthaler or any other Swiss type cheese.  Ah, the Jarlsberg is a Swiss cheese, so we went back and picked up a wedge of the Jarlsberg.

Here is the recipe that I use for making cheese fondue:
   1 small garlic clove, halved
   1 cup dry white wine
   3/4 pound Gruyere cheese
   3/4 pound Emmenthaler (or Jarlsberg) cheese
   1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
   1 tablespoon kirsch wasser (optional)
   kosher salt
   ground black pepper
   A loaf of crusty bread cut into one-inch cubes

1. Rub the cut side of the garlic around the bottom and sides of a medium saucepan.  This supplies all the garlic flavoring needed without overpowering the cheese.  Sometimes I will also run the garlic on the inside of the fondue pot.
2. Remove the skin from the cheese and grate it into a large bowl.  Add the cornstarch to the cheese and toss to mix.
3. Add the wine to the saucepan and bring to a simmer.
4. Slowly add the cheese to the simmering wine, stirring each addition until it is melted.  Once all the cheese is added, stir until all the cheese is melted.
5. Add the kirsh which is a cherry flavored spirit (by itself is pretty nasty tasting) and heat until bubbling which takes one or two minutes.  Season with the salt and pepper
6. Transfer to a fondue pot and keep warm while serving.

This recipe is very easy to make and really wows the guests.  Though the first time I made fondue; I used the recipe that came in the box with our ceramic fondue pot.  This should really be categorized as lesson learned, as I exactly followed the recipe.  It said to place the pot on the stove, add wine and heat and add the cheese until it was melted, so I place the fondue pot on the stove and half way through melting the cheese, it made a loud pop and split in two.  My wife informed me that the directions assumed I knew to use a metal saucepan.  Nope!  So now, we have a new fondue pot that I only heat by placing it over the small burner that came with the set.


While it is possible to dip other items into the cheese such as: steamed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, apple, salami, kielbasa, etc, we usually just use bread.  We prefer to just use bread.  We really like to use a very dark bread that has a lot of flavor, but it is very difficult to find.

This recipe will easily serve four people as a main course with some raw vegetables on the side.  A little fondue served with a nice dark beer makes for a great evening between friends.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell