From the Test Kitchen: Chocolate Pecan Bread Pudding

On occasion my parents go away to a meeting or on a short vacation leaving my sisters and me to hold down the fort. We girls relish these times to make dishes our parents aren't fond of, try out new ones clipped from magazines, and even come up with creations of our own. Sometimes these recipes are filed away in the trash can, but usually we find another good and fun food to add to our repertoire. The latter is what happened to my own version of bread pudding.

Looking in the freezer on one of these parentless days, I found an overabundance of chocolate bread. Experimenting to create the perfect bread made for a yummy finalized product and a freezer full of rejects. What was to be done with it all? Then the idea dawned on my. Why not make bread pudding? Knowing that Mom uses our well loved "old Rothsay cook book" when making this old fashioned dessert, I flipped through its pages until I found the yellow edged page with a well marked bread pudding recipe at the bottom. This must be it!

When Mom makes bread pudding she uses all the left over ends of bread collected in the freezer over time. Slices that have been out too long to be very tasty, left over hot dog buns from grilling at the lake, and unused bread samples from the farmer's market make their way into the freezer to be pulled out for home made salad croutons and an occasional casserole full of not too mushy, slightly sweet bread pudding. The recipe has been much altered to make a lighter dessert, one that we can go away from feeling as if we've had a good dessert but not pay for it later. A satisfying dessert all around.

For my chocolate version of bread pudding, I realized a few alterations would have to be made to the already tweaked recipe. Raisins and cinnamon had to go. This is what resulted.

Chocolate Pecan Bread Pudding - Skinny Version
8 c. Chocolate Pecan Bread, cut in small cubes
2-1/4 c. milk, scalded (more if you like a wetter pudding)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 c. sugar
Spread the bread cubes in a large, flat casserole or in a 9"x13" pan. Pour scalded milk over the bread and cool. Pour eggs over the bread and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes until the bread becomes pudding-like at the bottom (use a knife to probe into the center and check it out). Viole - a successful dessert!

Realizing that not everyone goes for skinny desserts, I experimented with the original recipe to make a deluxe bread pudding. This will not last long on your table!

Chocolate Pecan Bread Pudding - All the Way
4 c. Chocolate Pecan Bread, cut in small cubes
2 c. milk, scalded
1/4 c. butter, melted
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 T. sugar
Spread the bread cubes in a 9"x9" baking pan. Pour scalded milk over the bread and cool. Pour butter and eggs over the bread (Do not mix these two together! The warm butter will cook the egg.) and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees until the bread becomes pudding like (I baked mine 1hr. - for a wetter pudding bake less).

The traditional way for our family to eat bread pudding is with milk poured over the top, but I have been dreaming of other toppings. These are some of the ideas that have been floating around in my mind: A scoop of soft ice cream melting over the top, a dollop of whipped cream, a drizzling of caramel, fresh raspberries. Hmmm - I should open a bread pudding shop!

Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking - it seems like this is the blight of modern day man. Talking on the phone while folding the laundry as one waits for cookies to bake, brushing teeth while pulling things together for a day away from home, painting fingernails while wading through stop-and-go, rush hour traffic... I know I am guilty of this hurry flurry, scattered puzzle piece life (well, maybe not the fingernail part :]).

While some multi-tasking serves only to waste time and produce headaches, there are forms that have better results. Take my time at the farmer's market last Tuesday for example...

For me the farmer's market doesn't mean just selling bread. It is also the perfect time to catch up on ever pressing paper work that comes with the baking job.

Those slower times also give me an opportunity to keep a hand in my favorite hobbies, like crocheting. This would be doily #3 made mostly at the farmer's market. One per year - not bad!

This day I had a helper. Maren, my oldest sister, took the opportunity of a canceled tutoring session to come with me for the morning. Her multi-tasking job was one that I frequently do - letter writing. What a perfect time to dabble in this "ancient hobby". (Joey, I quoted you!)

The only thing I can't do at the market is blog. I'll just have to move across the street to the coffee shop and bask in their hot spot.

And with all that multi-tasking, I still got my main job done. Look at that beautifully empty box! So you see, there are some happy endings in the multi-tasking saga.

Back in Business

I'm back in business in Pelican Rapids! Getting up to the sound of rain on the windows at 5:45 yesterday (Tuesday) I didn't know what the day would hold. Would the clouds that looked down on Hannah and me as we set up my tables in front of the Chamber of Commerce/Historic City Hall hold their rain? Rain or shine it was going to be good to catch up with the people I haven't seen since last fall.


Hooray for my new sign! While I was packaging up brownies Monday night, Dad was in the garage putting hardware on the sign. Isn't it pretty? :)

Well, it did sprinkle. Feeling a bit soggy and bedraggled Hannah and I hauled the tables down to the end of the block where there was an awning overhead. The awning may have protected us from the precipitation but not from the cold breeze. Good thing we stuck in our winter jackets!

Despite the less than pleasant weather, people were out on the streets of Pelican - new faces as well as familiar ones. Waves and honks from people driving by, visits with friends as they stopped by the tables - what an enjoyable (and chilly) way to spend my morning.

By noon 26 loaves of bread had sold as well as several caramel rolls, scones, and bags of granola. I only had to bring home one loaf of bread for the freezer. Score!

(Sorry for my lack of paragraphs. Anyone figured out how to format posts on Blogger?)

A New Trade

Last year I realized I needed a little more visibility at the farmer's markets, but my busy baking and selling schedule never allowed time to make the desired sign. Now with the help of Dad and my sister, Hannah, I have a sandwich board sign. Maybe I should ditch bread baking for a new business - sign making.

Shop Until You Drop

Dad's meeting in Moorhead last week created the perfect opportunity to save some gas while getting the last ingredient and supply shopping done before farmer's market season hits. My sister, Hannah, kindly gave her day to run around Fargo with me. But it was a fair trade - she ran with me to buy supplies, and I gave her thumbs up or down in the dressing rooms at our favorite department stores.
Our first stop - the restaurant supply store. Love those containers!

We had a coffee break mid-afternoon. Turtle mochas from Caribou and my home made Cherry Chocolate Scones, another one of the new additions to my product list this year. A yummy way to celebrate Hannah's birthday (a few days late).



At Lowe's buying hardware for my new sandwich board sign: Hmm... Which chain should I get - the pretty, little one in my one hand or the hefty one in the other? ;)

At the end of our long day in Fargo was a Sam's Club run. Good thing Dad noticed the cherry sign said "seasonal," or I would have been up a creek without a paddle come August. Stock up!

Aromatherapy Revisited

As you read the title of this post you probably are thinking of the sweet and tempting smell of caramel wafting through the air, but the aroma in our house today as I baked a test batch of caramel rolls was far from sweet and definitely not tempting. This day will go down in the records as the first day Elsa has set off a smoke alarm.

This is how it happened. As the rolls baked, caramel bubbled inside each cup of the jumbo muffin tins I use to make evenly shaped rolls. Soon the caramel didn't just bubble inside the tins but overflowed onto the bottom of my oven. This has happened before leaving a puddle of charred butter and sugar, but today the puddle turned into a lake. I think I'll name it Smoke Lake for smoke it did! First my face was engulfed in a cloud as I opened the oven door to take the baked rolls out, then the whole main floor of our house was in a haze. Soon the smoke alarm was sending off its shrill alert. Windows were opened. The furnace kicked on as the chilly outside air hit the thermostat. A piece of clothing waiting to be ironed that happened to be sitting directly below the boisterous alarm was flapped around violently to clear the air in front of the asthmatic contraption.

This evening eleven sweet and tempting caramel rolls lay in our freezer ready for a special Sunday morning breakfast. The twelfth is in our kitchen inside a little baggy waiting for the overnight freshness test to be completed. All's well that ends well.

Aromatherapy

Yesterday as I grated orange peel, probably for the last time this season, our house was once again filled with the pungent smell of orange zest. Citrus sales are coming to an end and so are my zesting days. Throughout the winter months we have been eating "bald" oranges. Our joke is that shaved heads are the "in thing" in the world of oranges. All the "shavings" went into zip-lock bags which are tucked away in metal containers (a great use for those Christmas tins) and then put in the freezer. We learned the hard way that orange zest has to be stored tightly, or everything in the freezer will taste peculiarly like an orange. Now I have three tins full of orange zest. Soon it all will find its way into Cran-Orange Whole Wheat Bread... and then into the mouths of customers.

By the way, Cran-Orange Whole Wheat Bread was on the noon menu for my sister and me today. It was a day to use up odds and ends of different breads with chicken salad. Of all the bits of bread we tried for these sandwiches, Cran-Orange rated highest. There's just something about those cranberries with chicken. Mmmm...