Bourboned-up Eggnog Bread Pudding

'Tis the holiday season.

Although for some people that may mean the joy and fellowship of gift-giving and shared meals, for other people that may mean stress and insanity associated with gift-giving and shared meals. For still others, it is a mixed bag of both joy intertwined with stress, fellowship commingling with insanity.

It's no wonder so many people spike their eggnog during the month of December.

A friend of mine talked about a bourbon-spiked eggnog he made and I read something recently about an eggnog bread pudding based on this White and Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding from Eupicurious, and my ears perked right up. All signs seemed to indicate that I would smash the two together in some sinful way.

As luck would have it, I had just bought a quart of eggnog the other day on impulse, and just yesterday when I was rummaging through the fridge, I came across a bag of the bits and pieces of a few recently purchased, but never finished, baguettes. Leftover bread like that usually gets stuffed into a ziplock bag and stored in the freezer for future use as bread crumbs, but for some reason, these baguettes had escaped to the back of the fridge until Sunday, when I sliced off the crusts and let the baguettes fulfill their life's ambition of being mixed with chopped chocolate, drowned in egg, bourbon and cream, and then baked to golden-brown deliciousness.

I didn't stop there. I made a custardy sauce of eggnog, cream and bourbon as the final touch.

Let me tell you, it makes the stress and insanity of the season just a wee bit more bearable.

Bourboned-up Eggnog Bread Pudding

Serves 2 generously or 4 or even 6 judiciously - don't even attempt to eat the whole thing by yourself 

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

• ½ cup eggnog
• splash of heavy cream - 2 or 3 tablespoons
• generous 2 tablespoons bourbon - it may have been closer to 3 or even 4 tablespoons 
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• splash of vanilla
• touch of nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon water

For the pudding:

• 3½ cups leftover French bread cut into 1 inch cubes, crusts cut off - stale is ok, moldy is not
• 1½ oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped - I used Scharffenberger's 70% cacao bittersweet chocolate
• 1 oz. good quality white chocolate, chopped
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup egg nog
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1/8 cup bourbon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

1. Make the sauce by placing the eggnog, cream, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and bourbon in a saucepan and heat to a gentle boil.
   
   
2. Make a slurry of the cornstarch and water, whisking it well until it is smooth and then add it to the eggnog-cream mixture. Keep it bubbling gently over medium to low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens, about 3 minutes. Take it off the heat, stir in the nutmeg and cool. Refrigerate until needed.
   
   
3. For the bread pudding, I like to go beyond even day-old bread and use stale French bread. Very simply, I cut off the crusts and then cut the bread into 1 inch cubes. Toss that into a large bowl.
   
   
4. I was feeling lazy, so I chopped the chocolates in the food processor. It made a hell of a racket, but it was great - I had chunks of chocolate as well as "chocolate dust." Add the grated/chopped/pulverized chocolate to the bread cubes.
   
   
5. Beat together the egg, sugar and vanilla until frothy, then add the cream, eggnog, milk, nutmeg and bourbon, whisking well. Pour the liquid over the bread and chocolate and stir well. Let it soak for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure that it all soaks evenly.
   
   
6. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Find a smallish casserole dish. I used an oven-safe 5 x 7 inch stoneware dish for this amount of bread pudding. Give it a good spray with cooking spray and dump in the soaked bread pudding mixture. Sprinkle a bit of brown sugar over the top if you like, and then bake for 30 minutes or until the edges of the bread cubes are brown and the custard is set.
   
   
7. Take out and let cool 10 minutes, then serve warm with the eggnog sauce spooned over it.

A closer look...

Tweet

Maple Wheat Dinner Rolls

Since Thanksgiving and Christmas were just upon us, and sometimes that means cooking a dinner (if you're crazy enough to be hosting,) or bringing a dish (if it's pot-luck), I thought I'd share my favorite dinner roll recipe. I found this recipe in a magazine ages ago; I believe it was the now-defunct Veggie Life.

I usually double this recipe and make and herbed popover too because the family gatherings tend to be large and people like their food. :)

Maple Wheat Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 pkg. dry yeast
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Oil for brushing

Directions:

1. Combine the warm water and maple syrup in a large bowl and stir. 
2. Add the yeast and stir the mixture well with a fork to dissolve the clumps.
3. Cover and let sit until the mixture gets foamy, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the oil, whole-wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour, and salt to the yeast mixture in the large bowl. Stir until well mixed.
5. Dust a work surface with some the remaining flour and place the dough on it. Knead the dough for 10-12 minutes, adding extra flour as you go. - This dough will be slightly tacky, but it should not stick to your hands.
6. Cover the dough let rise until doubled, 30 to 60 minutes.
7. Lightly oil an 8 by 8-inch baking pan. Divide the dough into 16 balls. Brush the tops with oil, and place in the prepared pan. Cover and let rise again until until the rolls have doubled, another 30 to 60 minutes.
8. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
9. Serve warm with butter.

Tweet

Cinnamon Rolls

Last month, I posted the recipe to my cinnamon rolls which are a Christmas morning tradition: November 30 - "I Dreamed a Dream."

In years past, I've made them the night before, put them in the fridge for a slow rise overnight and baked them first thing on Christmas morning so they're freshly-made. This year, I was so whipped from my big Christmas Eve dinner, I had planned to make them before turning in, but I fell asleep. I was on the couch watching "It's a Wonderful Life," telling myself, "Just 5 more minutes. I'll get up and make the dough in just 5 ... more ... Zzzzzzzz ...."

Oops.

Fortunately for me, the kids got up at the obscenely early hour of 4:30 am, so I ended up making the dough a little before 5 am and the rolls came fresh and piping-hot out of the oven all set and ready to be devoured at 7.

This year, instead of slathering them in a diabetic-coma-inducing icing, I decided to eat them plain, but hot and slathered with butter.

Still the best thing ever for a special holiday breakfast... or a post-holiday breakfast 4 days later.




Tweet

Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

Another cookie from the Christmas Cookie Arsenal, these are so simple to make and really satisfying. My older daughter tried one yesterday and said, "It's too bad there aren't more." I gave her 'a look' for being critical and she said, "What?! It's a compliment! I could eat these all day!"

Just for her, I am baking another batch.

Hazelnut Thumbprint Cookies

Yield: 20 cookies

Ingredients:

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 large egg, separated, each part lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup toasted skinned hazelnuts, ground
• 2 T confectioner's sugar
• Raspberry jam
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
   


2. Put butter and ½ cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
   


3. Add egg yolk and vanilla, and mix well. Reduce speed to low.
   


4. Add flour and salt, and mix until just combined. Form the dough into a ball, put it in a plastic bag and refrigerate for 2 hours.


5. Stir together toasted hazelnuts and 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar in a small bowl until well-mixed.
   


6. Break off small pieces of the chilled dough and roll into 1-inch balls; dip balls in egg white, then in hazelnut-sugar mixture, coating well.
   


7. Space the cookies 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or a Silpat mat.
   


8. Press down center of each ball with your thumb.
   


9. Bake for 10 minutes.
   


10. Remove from oven; press down centers again with a spoon or your thumb if you have asbestos hands.
    


11. Return to oven. Bake cookies until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes more.
    


12. Let cool slightly on sheets on wire racks.
    


13. Fill each center with jam.


14. Devour.
    

Notes:

• Silpat mats. I used to think that parchment paper was the key to perfect cookies and rolls until I burned a batch of crescent rolls that had been placed on parchment paper covered one of my "well-seasoned" cookie sheets. Even two layers of parchment can't keep things from burning on a dark sheet.
  
  Then I tried those air-insulated sheets, but didn't like the way that they had no lip to speak of.
  
  I finally broke down and bought a Silpat mat and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to bake.
  


• Filling: People always seem to scream for strawberry or raspberry filling, but honestly my favorite is black currant.
  
  I bet if you changed the extract to almond extract, replaced the hazelnuts with ground almonds, and used cherry preserves, you'd have one damn-good cookie.
  
  Wow. That is almost worth a trip to the store for cherry preserves!
  

Tweet

Snowball Cookies

Also known as Pecan Butterballs, Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies, Russian Teacakes. These divine concoctions of ground pecans, confectioner's sugar, butter and flour are irresistible. Fragile and crumbly, yes, but buttery, rich and nutty with that airy coating of 10x pulverized sugar, they beg to be devoured.

Of course, now my kitchen looks as though a hot-air balloon filled with confectioner's sugar collided with a grove of pecan trees, but hey, it's Christmas!

Snowball Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped very fine or ground in a food processor
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar for dusting and rolling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.


2. Toast the pecans first. Place whole or halved pecans on an ungreased sheet pan and toast in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring a few times until the nuts are light brown and fragrant. Don't let them burn.
   


3. Let cool in a bowl and set aside. Grind them in a food processor when they have cooled.


4. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with vegetable shortening spray, or do what I do and place your Silpat baking mat on the sheet.


5. Using a stand mixer or heavy duty hand mixer with the beater attachment, beat butter on medium to high speed about 2 minutes or until fluffy. Make sure that there are no clumps of butter.
   


6. Add the confectioner's sugar and beat again, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently.
   


7. Add the vanilla extract and salt and beat again.


8. Turn the mixer to low. Slowly and carefully, add the flour and ground pecans to the mixing bowl 1 cup at a time, scraping the bowl after every addition. It should go without saying, but remember to turn off the mixer when you scrape the bowl!
   


9. By now, the mixer will have started to slow down. Don't over mix, just mix only until the dry ingredients are blended.


10. Using a cookie scoop, ice cream scoop or teaspoon, measure out a 1-inch piece of cookie batter, and roll them between your palms, shaping them into 1-inch balls.
    


11. Place on prepared pans leaving a little room between cookies to allow for spreading.


12. Bake in 350 degree over for 14 minutes or until cookies are almost firm and the edges are slightly browned. Let them cool just enough to handle.


13. Measure out 1 cup of confectioners' sugar into a large bowl. Sift the sugar if necessary to remove all lumps.


14. Working with about 5 - 6 warm cookies at a time, roll them in the bowl of confectioner's sugar until they're completely coated. Place on a clean parchment covered cookie sheet.


15. When the cookies are all coated, start over again, and roll them in powdered sugar a second time. Shake off excess and place on cookies sheets.


16. Yields about 4 dozen cookies.
    

Notes:

• I like to place these in mini-muffin papers.


• If the butter hasn't all been whipped up, some of the cookies will spread out a bit when cooking. They still taste great.


• I always seem to make an unholy mess with the confectioner's sugar every time I make these. I think I saw one recipe that called for you to fill a brown paper bag with the sugar and putting the cookies in there a few at a time and gently tossing them around in the bag. It might be worth a try.
  

Tweet

Cookie-Palooza is Coming!

I've been busy with other things the past few weeks, though if really pressed, I can't even recall what they were. Scratch that, I remember now: I hosted a big birthday event for my youngest. I made a ton of food and took pictures of none of it. I'm bad. It was tasty though.

I can say that I've spent the past week or so planning Cookie-Palooza. I used to make Christmas goodies to give to people, but fell out of the habit much the same way I fell out of the Christmas card habit. This year I'd like to change all that, and what better way than by baking 3 - 4 dozen of 10 different kinds of cookies?

It's ambitious, I know. Also slightly insane, but that's how I do things.

Today I'm having a mini-birthday to-do for the same birthday kid as last weekend because my sister couldn't make it the first time around. Since we devoured the gigantic ice cream cake days ago, today I'm making a pan of my favorite brownies: the eponymous Crisis Brownies.

I call them Crisis Brownies not because of any exotic addition of vitamin THC or anything, but because sometimes when you're in the throes of a crisis, you just need something super-chocolatey.

These brownies fit the bill.

Babs's Crisis Brownies

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup all purpose flour, sifted
  
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
  
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
  
• 6 T cold, unsalted butter, cut into large, 1-T pieces
  
• 2 T heavy cream
• 12 oz (at least) semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup chocolate chunks (optional)
• ½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 and spray an 11 x 7 inch baking pan with cooking spray.
   


2. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa and baking soda with a whisk to break up any clumps of cocoa.


3. Bring about 1 ½ inches of water to a boil in the bottom of your double boiler; reduce heat and then in the top pan of the double boiler* heat the butter and sugar until the butter starts to melt, add the heavy cream, and then gradually add your chocolate, stirring constantly to be sure that the mixture doesn't burn. Burnt chocolate makes the angels weep.
   
   The chocolate can be morsels, blocks or squares, and in my book, the more the better. I usually use a mixture of various semi-sweet chocolates.
   
   *If you don't have a double boiler, you can make your own by placing a stainless steel, glass or ceramic bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
   


4. Once the chocolate is all melted, add the vanilla extract and then remove from the heat immediately and scrape into a large bowl.
   


5. Set this bowl inside a larger bowl which has some ice on the bottom and let the chocolate mixture cool.
   
   Before adding the eggs, you can test the temperature of the chocolate mixture like I do, by sticking a clean finger into the mix and tasting it. You kill two birds with one stone this way because you can also test how sweet the mixture is. Win-win.
   


6. Add the eggs, mixing well.
   


7. Gradually stir in the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Now you can add extras like chopped nuts or, my favorite, more chocolate.
   
   I usually use about 10-12 of some wonderful Belgian dark chocolate truffles chopped coarsely.
   


8. Pour batter into prepared pan.


9. Bake 25-35 minutes until a toothpick jabbed into the center comes out clean. This recipe makes very dense, moist and fudgy brownies.


10. Transfer pan to a rack to cool before cutting the brownies.
    


11. If you serve them warm with ice cream you will thank me.

Notes:

1. These brownies may be a lot of work, what with the double boiler and all, but they are worth every lick of effort.


2. Even made with generic store brand semi-sweet chocolate morsels, this recipe blows away any boxed mix brownies you could make; when made with more expensive baking chocolate, they will bring tears to your eyes.
   


3. I believe that if you doubled the eggs in the recipe, you'd end up with a lighter, airier, cake-like brownie, if that's your thing. I am firmly in the dense, moist and fudge-like brownie camp, so I stick to just the 2 eggs.
   
   Don't get me wrong, cake has its place, but when I want a brownie, I want it to be somewhere in the territory between cake and fudge.
   

A closer look at the deep, fudgy moistness.

Tweet

I Dreamed a Dream...

...of cinnamon rolls. My very-special, Christmas morning, to-die-for cinnamon rolls, to be exact.

Clearly, my subconscious is telling me something. Time to gear up for the holiday baking!

I generally only eat these rolls once a year on Christmas morning, because they are very sweet; plus sometimes, the wait is as perversely satisfying as the indulgence itself. Also, they are inextricably linked to the holidays and are laden with memory.

The smell of a batch of cinnamon rolls in the oven evokes those wonderful childhood memories of looking at the impossibly tall, sparkling tree sitting atop a ton of presents; our impatience as my sister and I did our best to wait until an appropriate hour, say 5:30 or 6 to dash into our parents' room and pull their covers off in order to get them out of bed so we could get to the cinnamon rolls and stocking gifts. It's a long-standing family tradition, sitting at the table eating fresh cinnamon rolls slathered with cold butter and tearing into our stocking gifts.

They can be labor-intensive to make if you're not really into baking with yeast dough, but they are so worth your time and effort. I have posted this recipe at another forum over the years, and have gained converts each time.

A word of warning, have a vial of insulin handy. You may also want to opt out of the icing or use a lighter hand when drizzling it on if you can't tolerate sweets.

You can make these the morning of, if you're a super-early riser; otherwise, if your Santa duties leave you begging for the chance to sleep in, you can make them the night before and let them rise overnight in the fridge.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

For the Dough:

• 2 ½ to 2 ¾ cups All Purpose flour
• 1/3 cup rolled oats, ground in a food processor
  
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 package dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
  
• ½ t salt
• ½ stick butter, cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ cup water
• 1 egg


For the Filling:


• 2 T butter, melted
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 t ground cinnamon
• ½ cup golden raisins
• ½ cup walnuts


For the Honey Butter Icing (my favorite):


• 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 T butter, softened
• 2 T honey


or

Cream Cheese Icing (for you proles out there):


• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• dash of salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine ¾ cup of flour with the ground oats, granulated sugar, yeast and salt.


2. Heat milk, ½ stick butter and water until warm- NOT hot-about 120° F. Be sure you check the temperature with an accurate thermometer- if the liquid is too hot, it will kill the yeast, then no lovely risen dough!


3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet to dry ingredients and mix 2 minutes at medium speed with a hand mixer or a stand mixer.
   


4. Add the egg and an additional ½ cup of flour; beat another 2 minutes at high speed.


5. With a spoon, add enough remaining flour to form a soft ball of dough. Knead on lightly floured surface for 5 minutes, until smooth.


6. Cover, let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down the dough.


7. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to an 18x8 inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter.


8. Take the raisins, walnuts and brown sugar and grind in a food processor about 5 seconds. Mix in a bowl with cinnamon. Then sprinkle this on top of the buttered dough, to within ½ inch of the sides.


9. Roll up, from the long side, until you’ve got a long snake-like roll. Pinch the seams tightly and then cut into 9 equal pieces.


10. Place, cut side up, in a greased 8x8 inch square baking pan.
    
    If you are making them the night before: At this point, you can place the pan in the fridge and let sit overnight. In the morning, take out the dish and let come to room temperature before proceeding with baking.
    
    If you are not making them in advance: Simply cover with a towel and let them rise in a warm place again, for 45 minutes


11. Bake at 350° F for 30 minutes or until done. Let the pan cool on a wire rack.
    


12. Make the icing by mixing together the ingredients in a small bowl, whisking until smooth. Then drizzle over the rolls.

Notes:

1. Now the times I've made these and let them sit overnight in the fridge, I've never had any trouble getting them to rise by the time they go in the oven, but I found this tip from Alton Brown for getting those rolls cold from the fridge to rise a bit more. I think I'll give it a try this year and see if it makes any difference:
   

   Remove the rolls from the refrigerator and place in an oven that is turned off. Fill a shallow pan 2/3-full of boiling water and set on the rack below the rolls. Close the oven door and let the rolls rise until they look slightly puffy; approximately 30 minutes. Remove the rolls and the shallow pan of water from the oven.
   
   Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
   
   When the oven is ready, place the rolls on the middle rack and bake until golden brown, or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, approximately 30 minutes.



2. This year, I believe I may halve the recipe for the honey-butter icing. It's so lovely, but too much of it drowns the rolls.
   
   
   See? Check the picture. -->
   
   
   They are drowning in the icing. It is oh-so sinfully good, but the part of me that wants to feed us healthy food cringes.
   


3. I am also giving serious thought to perhaps halving the entire recipe and seeking out a smaller pan. This pan is an 8 x 8 inch baking dish. 9 large rolls is an awful lot of wonderful sweet, cinnamony goodness for one Mommy and two girls to eat. We never eat them all on Christmas morning. I haven't tried freezing the leftovers. I think I'd rather attempt a smaller batch. Perhaps a small casserole dish might do the trick.
   

Tweet