Savory Bread Pudding

Remember the Easy Bake Oven?  I loved that thing growing up.  What a great idea; independent cooking for kids.  You didn't have to ask Mom to open the oven for you or help you stir thick batter.  You just opened a little pouch of mix, added a couple tablespoons of water, got out a cereal spoon, and viola, ready to be poured into a cake pan the size of an English muffin, and put into the Easy Bake Oven to be cooked by the heat of a light bulb.  Ten minutes later and you were enjoying a thumbprint-sized cookie or a small mouthful of cake.  Yum!  Once I tried to create my own recipe.  I put some strips of raw potato in hoping to net a few french fries.  I got distracted and came back to three charred inedible black potato strips.  My Mom kindly showed me how to use the timer to "remind" myself to check the oven.  This memory came back to me as I pulled my bread pudding out of the oven and thought, hmm, a little browner than I had intended.  Glad I caught it before it got too dark. 

We ate this for dinner, and really enjoyed it.  It would also make an excellent dish for a brunch or Sunday breakfast.  It's so versatile too.  You could add any number of different vegetables and/or some chirizo or bacon if you feel the need for some meat.  Just do yourself a favor and set the timer!

From Edible Santa Barbara, Winter 2010

 3/4 loaf or about 1/2 pound of day-old bread
4 eggs
2 Cups whole or skim milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
black pepper
4 ounces grated cheese (Gruyere or cheddar)
1/4 Cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
Olive oil

1 onion or 2-3 leeks, white portion only, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 small bunch of chard (or kale, or any other green), stems removed and leaves cut into thin slices
1/4 grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut bread into 1-inch cubes to loosely fill an 8-inch souffle dish or 2 quart baking dish.  In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk.  Add the dry mustard, salt, and pepper.  Add the bread cubes and combine until bread is thoroughly moistened.  Stir in the grated cheese and chopped parsley and set aside.  

In a saute pan over medium heat, add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom.  Add the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until softened.  Add the greens and a little salt.  Reduce heat, cover and cook until greens are tender, 5 to 15 minutes depending on the thickness of the leaves.  Add a little water to the pan if it dries out.

Place half of the bread mixture in the baking dish, then add the greens and onion mixture.  Then add the remaining bread mixture.  Top with the grated Parmesan cheese.  Bake for 45 minutes or until pudding is set and lightly browned on top.  Let sit for a few minutes before serving.          

Sweet Potato and Zucchini Bread

Today I am thankful for my wonderful husband and my beautiful daughters.  You inspire me and fill me with love.  Sometimes I wish I could freeze time and stay in any one of those amazing moments I have with you all.  But then I remember that life moving forward means even more of those moments.  Love you three! 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.  It makes a great day after Thanksgiving morning treat. 

Adapted slightly from Bon Apetit
Makes 1 large loaf or 2 smaller loaves

2 Cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 Cups sugar
3/4 Cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 Cups grated zucchini
1 1/2 Cups grated peeled sweet potato
1 Cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray loaf pan(s) with non-stick spray.  Stir together first five ingredients into medium bowl.  Beat sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla to blend in large bowl.  Mix in zucchini and sweet potato.  Add dry ingredients and walnuts and stir well. 

Transfer batter to prepared pan(s).  Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes-1 hour for a large loaf or 30-40 minutes for smaller loaves.  Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes.  Cut around bread to loosen.  Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

I promise, yours will be gone this fast too!  It's a little piece of heaven this pudding.  Just please, please don't do what I did.  I swear you'll regret it, and you'll be mad that I didn't warn you.  I mean, you may not even be considering it, but if you are, then I must try and stop you, because, well, it would be such a shame, and I'd feel so bad, and, I'm just not good with that kind of guilt.  Plus, not warning you about the biggest mistake you can make with this recipe would be just plain mean, and I'm not a mean person.  But, even if I was, I'd never be that mean.  Because that would be really mean.  We're talking really really mean.  Sorry, am I getting off track here?  There I go, already apologizing.  I should just get on with it, you know, so I don't have to apologize.  But truth be told, I bet you'd never dream of making this mistake anyway.  So why am I worrying about it?  Now I'm worrying about worrying!  Things are really getting out of hand here.  Just don't do it, okay?  Promise?  Pinkie swear?  Good, thanks.  Oh yeah, I haven't even told you yet.  You ready?  Fine, I'll just say it.  Here goes.  On the count of three.  Did I mention that you really really shouldn't do this?  Good, because I want to make sure you know that.  Right, okay, so, here it is, big mistake:  I only made half a recipe.    

From Gourmet, October 2007
Serves 6

Notes: I made a number of substitutions to this recipe with great success.  I didn't have cream so I used 2% milk.  I didn't miss the extra fat.  I was also all out of ground cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, so I used a good amount of pumpkin pie spice.  This didn't appear to make any difference.  I also sprinkled some on top after it was done, which added a little extra yummyness!  Finally, I used salted butter but left out the added salt.  This worked just fine.  And, as I found out from reading the comments about this recipe, lots of people add chocolate chips and/or raisins.  That didn't appeal to me, but then other people add bourbon, which I definitely would have added if I would have had it! 

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Whisk together cream, pumpkin, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, and spices in a bowl.

Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

  

Quick Bread

Andrew and I have made many attempts at bread.  Some have turned out wonderfully, while others became heavy bricks only valuable to folks involved in organized crime.  The good ones often took a lot of time and would consume much of a weekend day with two sets of kneading and rising.  I was lamenting this to my mother one day and she suggested (gasp) that I buy a bread machine.  Really?  A bread machine?  I put bread machines on a level with rice cookers and microwaves, handy, no question about that, but not real cooking.  I wanted to find a bread recipe that was from scratch, homemade, easy, tasty, and quick (relatively speaking).  I have a huge cookbook of breads from around the world, and not a single one of those recipes was quick or easy.  I searched the web for recipes and managed to make a few mediocre loaves that were a small step above dense.  Justifiably, I was starting to think that bread just wasn't my thing.  I clearly didn't have the patience for it.  But then, I starting collecting recipes for a little cookbook my daughter's school is creating, and low and behold, a quick bread recipe was submitted.  I was skeptical, but I gave it a try.  Delicious!  Easy!  Quick!  Soft!  Fresh!  This bread was the real deal.  So, look no further, homemade bread is now in your future too.  

Recipe from Fuzzy Rogers
Makes 1 round loaf

3 Cups bread flour
1 1/4 Cups warm water
1 pkg. quick yeast (I used regular and it came out great.)
2 teaspoons salt
1-2 Tablespoons sugar (depending on how sweet you like your bread)
1/4-1/2 teaspoons onion powder (optional)
Rosemary and other herbs to taste
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Combine 2 cups of flour, salt, sugar, herbs, and onion powder.  Dissolve yeast in the warm water.  Add yeast/water mixture and olive oil to the flour mixture.  Mix well with a mixer.  Once uniform, add final cup of flour and mix well.  Cover and let rise 30-45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix the dough into a ball, toss onto a piece of cornmeal covered foil.  Rub outside of dough with extra olive oil and dust with herbs as desired.  Place on a baking tray and bake for 45 minutes.  Enjoy!             

Zucchini Snack Cake

We were gone for a week and came back to two 2-foot long zucchinis!  It's a good thing our two-year-old doesn't grow that fast.  We'd need a much bigger house.  It has been tough to figure out what to do with these beasts.  We could keep them next to our bed in case of intruders.  We could organize a neighborhood softball game.  Or, we could start cooking!  Let's start with dessert (and call it a snack).  

I saw this recipe around the time we were first planting our zucchini plants.  I tucked it away, sure that I'd have some home grown zucchini soon.  The cake comes out super moist and not too sweet.  I might add walnuts next time just to give it one more dimension, but it was great as is.  Also, the recipe said to bake it for 20-25 minutes, but my cake took about 35-40 minutes to get done.  

From Edible Santa Barbara, Fall 2009
Makes 9 servings

1 1/2 Cups baking mix (I used Bisquick)

1 1/2 Cups instant oats

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/3 Cup brown sugar

1/3 Cup maple syrup, agave nectar or honey

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 Cup grape seed, olive or walnut oil

2 medium zucchini, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat an 8-inch baking dish with olive oil spray.  In a bowl, combine baking mix, instant oats and cinnamon.  In a separate bowl mix together brown sugar, maple syrup, egg, oil, vanilla, and shredded zucchini.  Stir wet ingredients into dry and spread evenly into prepared baking dish.  Bake for 20-25 minutes (or longer if needed, mine took 35-40 minutes), or until center is firm and top is golden brown.  

**Shredded carrot or apple could be substituted for the zucchini.          

Raspberry Banana Bread

We planted four raspberry plants this year along our south facing fence. The plants were all short stubby bare sticks when we bought them. We treated them all with loving kindness, water, compost, some fertilizer. It was warm and sunny along the whole fence. We tried really hard to treat them equally and not play favorites. The result? Two of the four are now as tall as me. The other two have grown barely a leaf. Maybe someday after years of gardening I will know why. For now I can only speculate. Maybe the two small ones were expecting a Montecito address and our 1950's tract home just disappointed them? Who knows? We have faith that another year and they will grow to love their new home. Just between us, the tall ones weren't anything to write home about either. They produced a meager crop of pretty tart berries. But we figure we'll excuse all of the poor behavior this year and set our sights on next year. I struggled with what to do with this tiny crop, but here's what I came up with. The tartness of the raspberries is actually a nice compliment to the sweetness of the bananas.

1/3 Cup Agave nectar
1/3 Cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 Cup butter, melted or very soft
2 ripe bananas
2 well beaten eggs
1/2 Cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup all purpose flour
1 Cup whole wheat flour
a few pinches of salt
1/2 Cup crushed raspberries, sweetened with a little agave or sugar, if necessary)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together except for the raspberries. Fold half the raspberries into the batter. Pour batter into medium sized loaf pan. Pour remaining raspberries onto the top and cut through with a knife to make a zig-zag design. Bake for 45 minutes-1 hour, being careful not to over bake. Loaf is done when knife comes out clean.

If you don't have buttermilk, just put a little lemon juice into regular milk and let it sit for five minutes. Agave is a natural sweetener. You can use white sugar in place of the agave if you don't have any on hand. No whole wheat flour? Just use all purpose. I don't recommend all whole wheat though. The bread comes out a little dry if you do that.