French Toast Bread Pudding

I love bread pudding! I love french toast!

OMG

Warm, gooey, sweet... it smells like a fun family breakfast.

I made this recipe for Easter morning. Bread pudding recipes are great for busy families because they can be made ahead of time and popped into the oven when needed.

Another thing I like about this recipe is that the ingredients are a little more wholesome than other recipes I saw online. Most called for either tube cinnamon rolls or frozen french toast sticks. This recipe called for challah bread, which I picked up fresh from my grocery store bakery. This recipe can also be modified by using lower fat milk, light cream cheese, and low fat or sugar free maple syrup.

French Toast Bread Pudding
1 large Challah loaf, about 12oz, cut into 3/4 inch cubes, dried for several hours
7 large eggs
2 1/2 cup milk (I used 2 cups skim milk, 1/2 half and half)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp nutmeg or cinnamon (I used a little of both)

Butter or spray with cooking spray a 13x9 (or similar) size baking pan. Place the bread in the pan. Whisk eggs and the rest of the ingredients together; pour over bread. Using a spatula (or hands if you're like me) lightly press the bread into the egg mixture. Cover with foil and let it rest for at least an hour or overnight (keep refrigerated).

Place the foiled covered pan in the cold oven. Set oven to 350 and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for about 35 minutes until golden and puffy.

Cool for a few minutes before serving. I suggest serving it with a maple cream cheese frosting (see below)

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese (I used 1/3 fat), room temp
1/2 maple syrup
4-6 cups powered sugar

Optional: Chopped walnuts or pecans

In a mixer, beat the cream cheese and maple syrup together. Slowly add powered sugar cup by cup until it makes a thin frosting. Drizzle the frosting over the bread pudding. You can also add chopped pecans or walnuts if desired.

Warm from the oven, before the frosting was added

With the frosting, it soaked in more as it sat

Rum Balls

Oh rum balls. So easy. So yummy. Such a great use of baking leftovers.

Rum balls are super simple to make. First off, they're made with leftover cake. Or, if you're like me and never have this thing called "leftover cake" you can just whip up a box cake. Doesn't matter what type. Just use whatever has been sitting in the back of the pantry for the last year or two. I used a yellow cake, but enriched the favor with a few tablespoons of cocoa powder, a tablespoon or so of coffee grounds (yep, straight out of the bag. They add richness) and a few tablespoons of rum. Bake as directed on box and then let cool.

After the cake is cool, cut a piece or two, frost (leftover frosting is suggested) and eat. Now you have "leftover cake". With this leftover cake, put it into a mixing bowl, add about a cup or two of frosting (I had some white frosting from some cupcakes I made a two weeks ago and some cream cheese frosting from awhile ago). Add a little rum (I used bacardi gold) and gently mix until it forms a thick paste. Don't mix for too long. Chill the cake-paste for about an hour.

When the cake paste is cold, roll into small balls. Roll the small balls in whatever you have lying around. I used coconut, red sprinkles, and cocoa powered. You could also used diced nuts, melted chocolate, nonpareils, etc. When done, freeze overnight.

Now, eat them. 

Yummm

Happy New Year! Holiday Roundup (highs and lows)

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a happy and safe new year. 

I just want to thank everyone for making my blog a success (at least in my mind). I've had over 1000 hits since I began and its all because of you guys. I hope to continue posting new, fun, recipes for many years. As always, send me your ideas or questions... I love getting comments and suggestions.


As for my Christmas baking, I was a fairly unsuccessful this year. While my cookies and banana bread turned out great, I tried a few new things this year. Namely making eggnog and making eggnog creme brulee. While the eggnog turned out alright, I added to much rum and it was overwhelming. In hindsight, I shouldn't have added the  rum all at once, but glass by glass. It would have make it easier to control. Oh well.





Also, my eggnog creme brulee was disappointing. I found a recipe online that I thought looked good, but the spice blend was overpowering. I have a relatively low tolerance for nutmeg (it has a strange flavor to me) and this recipe had way too much for my taste. Also, my new creme brulee torch did not want to work, so after a few tense moments between myself, Chris, and the torch, we gave up and I broiled them instead. The sugar never really got the nice crispy top and it warmed the custard too much. Of course, I dumped the rest of the creme brulee and just for the hell of it I tried the torch again and it worked. Oh well. I'm going to try again with a simple vanilla creme brulee in the near future.


One thing that I made for Christmas that did work out was my Red Velvet Bread Pudding. I got the recipe from Paula Dean. I mean, anything with creme, butter, cream cheese, and cake must be good. Now, I'm attaching the original cake recipe from Paula Dean's/FoodNetwork's site, but I used a box cake. It had a great flavor and a nice rich color. Its a great time savor, especially because red velvet has a few odd ingredients (buttermilk, a ton of red food coloring).


Another thing I changed was instead of creaming the cream cheese with the sugar, I just mixed it into the sugar with a whisk. This left a few large chunks of cream cheese which was great to taste in the final product.

Red Velvet Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 ounces red food coloring
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon vinegar

Bread Pudding Mix:

• 3 cups half-and-half
• 3 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• Pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Greased 9 by 13 by 2-inch sheet pan.

In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla.

In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Pour batter into the prepared sheet pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely. When the cake is cooled, cut into 1-inch cubes.

Place cubes onto 11 by 17-inch cookie sheet. Place in oven for 10 minutes to toast (this keeps the cake from absorbing too much of the cream mixture).

Bread Pudding Mix:

Combine the half-and-half, eggs, egg yolk, salt, and vanilla in a medium bowl. With an electric hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the half-and-half mixture.

Place the red velvet cubes in a large baking dish or 8 individual ramekins. Add the pudding mixture to the dish. Make sure the cake cubes are completely covered. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the pudding is set. Serve warm with ice cream. 

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies for Karin

Tomorrow is one of my best friend's, Karin, birthday. As is tradition (two years and counting) I asked her what she wanted for her birthday. Her request: Red Velvet Whoopie Pies! Yum...

So these whoopie pies are dedicated to Karin, a great friend and confidant. She's been there for me quite a lot the last few years, helping me with personal and school related crises. She's always around for a laugh or a quick therapy session, sometimes both (she always knows what to say to keep me sane!). So here's to Karin!

Whoopie Pies: The new cupcake

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies:
recipe adapted from: www.browneyedbaker.com

Yield: About 2 dozen assembled whoopie pies

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Bake Time: 40 to 50 minutes total

For the whoopies:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder (sifted)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3+ teaspoons red food coloring (depends on how red you wanted them, the batter will darken a bit when baked)
1 cup buttermilk (or buttermilk powder, which I highly recommend, because who needs a whole carton of buttermilk that they have to use up)

For the cream cheese filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
7 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter, shortening and both sugars on low speed until just combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat until fluffy and smooth, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and the red food coloring and beat until just blended.

4. Add half of the flour mixture and half of the buttermilk to the batter and beat on low until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining flour mixture and remaining ½ cup buttermilk and beat until completely combined.

5. Using a spoon (or a medium cookie scoop, which is what I used), drop a ball of batter onto one of the prepared baking sheets and repeat, spacing them at least 2 inches apart (they really spread). Bake one sheet at a time for about 15 minutes each, or until the cakes spring back when pressed gently (check, don't just assume). Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cakes cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

6. While the cakes are cooling, prepare the filling… In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter on medium speed. Add the sugar and beat on low speed until combined. Add the vanilla and increase the speed to medium-high; beat until creamy and smooth, about 4 minutes.

7. To assemble: Spread the filling onto the flat side of one cake using a knife of spoon. Alternatively, you can use a pastry bag with a round tip (I used a large star tip) to pipe the filling onto the cake. Top it with another cake, flat-side down. Repeat with the rest of the cakes and filling.

Storing: Assembled whoopie pies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. If you need to stack layers, place a piece of wax paper/clingwrap between layers.

Finished Product: Sweet, creamy frosting, moist cake. Amazing.

Red Velvet Cupcakes for Trudy

So today my future Mother-in-Law, Trudy, is coming to town to visit, help me find a wedding dress, and do other wedding-related planning. She requested that I make the red velvet cupcakes that I had made for Karin's birthday for her visit.


Only one problem... when I made the cupcakes the first time, I forgot to save the recipe that I used. So I searched around a bit and found something that seemed fairly close to what I used before. You'd be amazed at all the variations in Red Velvet there are out there. I eventually found I used a recipe from Food Network (usually a good source). Here it is...

Fabulous Red Velvet Cake

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand

Ingredients

·         1 cup vegetable shortening

·         2 eggs

·         1 1/2 cups sugar

·         1 teaspoon cocoa powder

·         2 ounces red food coloring

·         2 1/2 cups cake flour

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1 cup buttermilk

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1 teaspoon vinegar

·         White frosting, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the shortening, eggs and sugar. In a separate small bowl, mix together the cocoa and food coloring. Add the paste to the shortening mixture. Sift the flour and salt together over parchment. Add to the batter alternately with the buttermilk in 3 additions. Add the vanilla extract. Fold in the baking soda and vinegar. Pour the batter into 2 greased 9-inch cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until an inserted cake tester comes out clean. Let cool on a cooling rack. Invert the cakes from the pans.

 So, this is the cake recipe I used (it talks about making a layered cake, I made cupcakes - same temp, ~23 minutes for normal sized cups, makes about 18 full cupcakes), but as I was finishing up, I found the recipe I used for Karin's cupcakes... which is here (also from Food Network):

Ingredients

·         Vegetable oil for the pans

·         2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

·         1 1/2 cups sugar

·         1 teaspoon baking soda

·         1 teaspoon fine salt

·         1 teaspoon cocoa powder

·         1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

·         1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

·         2 large eggs, at room temperature

·         2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 ounce)

·         1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

·         Crushed pecans, for garnish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2-inch round) cake pans.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.

Frost the cake. Place 1 layer, rounded-side down, in the middle of a rotating cake stand. Using a palette knife or offset spatula spread some of the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake. (Spread enough frosting to make a 1/4 to 1/2-inch layer.) Carefully set another layer on top, rounded-side down, and repeat. Top with the remaining layer and cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting. Sprinkle the top with the pecans.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

·         1 pound cream cheese, softened

·         4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

·         2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.)

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using. May be stored in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Yield: enough to frost a 3 layer (9-inch) cake

This is the frosting recipe I used, but I halved it (had plenty for all 18 cupcakes, but I don't go frosting crazy like some people) and I used 1/3 fat cream cheese (I have my limits). The frosting was nice, light, and sweet, but not too sweet. 

Enjoy!

 

Yeah, a little Christmas-y with the green wrappers, but whatever. It does make a stark contrast with the red cake and white frosting though.