Rhubarb Bread Pudding

My husband loves bread pudding so much that he orders it at restaurants. With bread that is starting to go stale, sweet or savory bread pudding is a great solution. Bread pudding is basically an egg and milk custard that wraps around cubes of bread and other ingredients, whether vegetables (leeks and asparagus were an option this week) or fruit (such as seasonal rhubarb). The bread can be present, as in this version, or can be rendered mushy to combine with the milk and eggs and create a batter.  

One of my favorite pairings with rhubarb is orange, zest for sure and juice when it makes sense. To get the most from zest, I crush it with sugar – using a mini-food processor or a mortar and pestle – which releases the aromatic oils in the peel. I also like a little whiff of cinnamon with rhubarb so I added a pinch of that too. Believe it or not, cinnamon complements the mixture and provides an alluring “back flavor.” Although I made this up on the fly, it turned out to be one of the most delicious bread puddings I’ve ever done.  Who knew?  

Rhubarb Bread Pudding

2 stalks rhubarb

½ c white granulated sugar (or raw cane sugar)

Zest of 1 orange (2-3 tsp)

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Dab of butter

4 c cubed stale bread (3/4-inch pieces, without crust)

Optional: ¼ c chopped pecans

3 eggs

1½ c milk (nonfat is fine)

Optional: sugar crystals such as raw cane sugar to sprinkle on top

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Clean the rhubarb and cut it into ½-inch pieces. Whiz the sugar and orange zest in a mini-processor or combine them using a mortar and pestle. Add the cinnamon and stir the mixture into the rhubarb. Set it aside for 5 minutes of so and stir to dissolve the sugar. (Do not let it exude a lot of juice since that will dilute the custard.) Butter a 2-quart ovenproof baking dish and add the rhubarb, the cubed bread, and nuts, if using. Lightly beat the eggs and add the milk. Pour over the bread and fruit mixture, pressing down lightly to make sure the top bread cubes are moistened.  Bake the pudding for 45-50 minutes, or until the custard is set. Halfway through, sprinkle on the sugar crystals, if using. Serve warm.

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Cherry Bread Pudding Never Goes A-Beggin’

Don’t put that cherry pitter away just yet. Or throw out that stale loaf of bread. Here is a top find for what I call an amiable summer cake. I’ve been on the hunt for a simple cake made with cherries and was ready to pounce on a Hungarian Sour Cherry Cake featured in Saveur a few years ago, when New York Times columnist Martha Rose Shulman (“Recipes for Health”) came to the rescue. She adapted the recipe from a richer version devised by the famed French pastry chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, who runs the French Pastry School in Chicago. It is brilliant and delicious.

You can tell that Chef Pfeiffer is steeped in the tradition of using everything up, down to the last breadcrumb. This, however, is not your standard bread pudding. It hails from Alsace and is known as a “bettelmann,” which means “beggar” in German. I guess because beggars in Alsace ask for and are given yesterday’s spare bread (as opposed to today’s spare change). This is a charming allusion to remember in my waste-not-want-not view of the world of the kitchen and pantry.

This recipe is similar to a chocolate bread pudding that I made last year in that the bread is literally dissolved and you would never perceive it as an ingredient. I wasn’t sure about that at the time but now I’m convinced. The bread soaks in milk for hours, or overnight, and is beaten to a mush along with honey, almond flour, cinnamon, egg yolks and, Shulman suggests, a little kirsch. I had none but I did add a teaspoon of Amaretto left over from an aborted jam experiment. The second brilliant move in the recipe was to make a meringue from the egg whites, and fold it into the bread mixture. The entire batter is then poured over pitted cherries placed in the bottom of a baking dish and topped with toasted almond pieces. I used slivered, Shulman used sliced.  This looks like a light batter compared to my standard bread pudding where the cubes of bread remain visible. I am really impressed with the excellent new methods this recipe has taught me. 

Cherry “Bettelmann” Bread Pudding adapted from Martha Rose Shulman, NYT Recipes for Health

4 oz stale white or whole wheat bread, crusts removed (measure after removing crusts)

1 c low-fat milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 pt (about ¾ lb) sweet cherries

Butter

3 eggs, separated (room temperature)

½ c almond flour

½ tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp light-flavored honey

1 tsp kirsch or Amaretto (optional)

¼ c granulated white sugar

2 tbsp toasted slivered or sliced almonds

Cut the bread into ¾-inch cubes. Combine the milk and vanilla extract and pour over the bread, mixing well. Set aside in the refrigerator several hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Wash and pit the cherries and place them in the bottom of a buttered 2-quart baking dish (I used a 7×11-inch glass pan.)

Remove the milk and bread mixture from the refrigerator.  (It would be helpful to let is swarm to room temperature before proceeding.) With a hand mixer, immersion blender or a whisk, beat the bread and milk mixture until smooth. Add the egg yolks, almond flour, cinnamon, honey and kirsch or Amaretto if using. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites (using clean beaters) at low speed until frothy. Increase the speed to high and gradually add the sugar, beating until a soft meringue (soft peaks) forms.

Fold a small amount of the meringue into the bread mixture to lighten it, and then fold in the rest. The mixture will resemble a light batter. Pour gently over the cherries and smooth the surface. Sprinkle with the toasted almonds.

Bake 35-40 minutes or until light brown. You can test it with cake tester or trussing needle.

Serve warm or at room temperature.  Serves 6-8.

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Dark Days 20 Breakfast Challenge: Indian Pudding

A continuing series on weekly meals that use sustainable, organic, local and ethical food during the challenging winter months. For more information, go here to the DDC section of Not Dabbling in Normal’s website: Dark Days Challenge.

In which I start the day and end the season with an all-local breakfast of Indian pudding and cranberries…

Breakfast in our household falls into two camps: His and Hers. His is sweet and Hers is savory. Hers (mine) is easy to make from local ingredients at any time of year, including the Dark Days, since its ingredients of choice are vegetables, fruit, cheese, and eggs. My personal favorite is a poached egg over the previous evening’s leftover vegetables, but I would settle for local apples and cheese any day of the week. My favorite beverage is herb tea from leaves that I dried last summer, especially lemon verbena and mint. 

But this is a challenge, right? His breakfast is not just a challenge: it defies local, except for milk, yogurt, honey, and maple syrup. There’s no way my homemade granola is based on local grains and seeds. There’s no way that hot oatmeal, cold cereal, wheat bread, muffins, and flour-based pancakes are fully local since our area simply does not support marketable grain production.  (We are going to experiment during the upcoming growing season, so we’ll see if we can conquer small-scale production.) And while our coffee is locally roasted from fair trade beans, that’s outside my definition of local.  

Never one to take the easy route, and challenged by Not Dabbling in Normal’s question about seeking alternatives to eggs and meat, I really thought about this problem. The pumpkin polenta that I made for the Vegetarian Challenge a few weeks ago could have worked. Then ah ha, what about Indian pudding? I recall this thrifty dish from my schoolgirl days in New England and figured I could proceed with local ingredients, other than cinnamon and salt. I consulted the ultimate Boston source, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

The recipe didn’t appear to have the right proportion of cornmeal to milk and after cooking it halfway, I changed course and doubled the cornmeal to reach perfection (which is now reflected in my recipe). I’m sure this is because cornmeal comes in all kinds of grinds and absorption rates.  I also changed the amount (less) and type of sugar, opting for local maple syrup and molasses. I topped the finished pudding with a little heavy cream and the last of the candied cranberries that I made for the Dark Days Dessert Challenge, though poached or baked apples would have been good too.

Ta da! I managed to complete the full course of Dark Days meals and learned a whole bunch in the process. Bravo and thanks to the organizers and those who stuck it out.

Indian Pudding adapted from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

2 c milk

½ c yellow cornmeal, fine-medium grind

1/3 c maple syrup

½ c molasses

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp butter

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger (or 1 tsp grated fresh ginger)

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Bring water to a simmer in the bottom of a double boiler. Heat 1 1/2 cup of milk in the top of the double boiler and when very hot, whisk in the cornmeal. Cook over the simmering water, covered, for 10-15 minutes until creamy and thick. Add the salt, butter and spices and mix well. Turn into a buttered 1-quart baking dish. Heat the remaining milk and pour it on top.  Place the baking dish into a shallow metal pan and pour the water from the bottom of the double boiler into the pan to reach halfway up the dish of the baking dish. Bake for approximately 2½ hours until set.

Serve with cream (or if using as dessert, ice cream).

Makes at least 4 servings.

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Pear and Walnut Bread Pudding

I’m happy when I convert humble scraps into gut-lovin’ glory.  And happier when it pleases someone else. A perfect balance of frugality and craving. That’s bread pudding in our household. I’ve cleaned out the pantry and my mate thinks I have made a genius dessert. Way cool, as the kids say.

I’ve already posted a bunch of sweet and savory versions of bread pudding, but here’s another, made of a de-crusted baguette combined with local Asian pears (with the consistency of apples, which helps) and walnuts.  I would have preferred pecans but that’s what the pantry offered. I used turbinado sugar but you could combine conventional white and brown sugar.  Ground mace added a complementary spice. Lately I’ve been favoring a more custard-like texture over the bread but since I wing it every time (within range), it always seems to work.

Pear and Walnut Bread Pudding

4 c cubed stale bread (3/4-inch pieces, without crust)

2 large or 3 small Asian pears, cubed

¼ c walnuts or pecans

Dab of butter

3 eggs

1½ c milk

½ c brown turbinado sugar (or a combination of white and brown sugar)

¼ tsp ground mace (or substitute cinnamon or nutmeg)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the bread, fruit and nuts and place them in a buttered baking dish. Lightly beat the eggs and add the milk and sugar and spice, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour over the bread mixture, pressing down lightly to make sure the top bread cubes are moistened.  Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the custard is set. Serve warm.

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Summer Bread Pudding with Berries

I found a bowlful of cubed bread on the kitchen counter this morning, a not-so-subtle hint about Sunday breakfast. So I whipped up a summer bread pudding with the first apples of the season and organic blackberries that I picked at our CSA farm. As I’ve said before, I make bread pudding based on proportions of ingredients: 1 egg per half a cup of milk and one and a quarter cup of cubed bread. I usually add one-quarter to one-half the volume of bread of other ingredients, sweet or savory. I like this approach because we have varying volumes of stale bread at any time.

Summer Bread Pudding with Berries

3¾ – 4 c cubed stale bread (3/4-inch pieces)

1 large apple, peeled and cubed

Handful of berries (I used blackberries)

Dab of butter

3 eggs

1½ c milk

½ c sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the bread and fruit and place it in a buttered baking dish. Lightly beat the eggs and add the milk and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour over the bread mixture, pressing down lightly to make sure the top bread cubes are moistened.  Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the custard is set. Best eaten warm or at room temperature.

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Bread Pudding with Alliums: Leek, Green Garlic, Garlic Scapes and Chives

Ah, another bread pudding to satisfy my other half’s culinary cravings. A reminder that there’s a chunk of stale bread in the drawer… what can you make of it? Sometimes just crumbs but this week a savory bread pudding, eggy and creamy in texture and chock full of the season’s fresh local alliums, members of the onion family.  I had long slender leeks, a long stalk of green garlic, garlic scapes and chives. Green garlic is the leek-like shoot, which in this case was harvested before the bulb began to form, thinning out the patch. Scapes are the stalks that carry the flower and once they start to bud and loop around, they’re typically snipped so that the plant directs its energy to producing the bulb that we associate with garlic. Here I sautéed the leeks, green garlic and scapes in a little butter and added the raw chives. I could instead have added the scapes raw, minced like scallions. Served with a green salad from our garden, this made a simple, homey meatless dinner.

Bread pudding is pretty flexible. I adjust the egg and mil mixture depending on the volume of bread and the wetness of the ingredients. Here I wanted more custard than in other similar recipes, so I increased the liquid and eggs. I could also have added cheese but I wanted the delicate flavor of the allliums to shine through. Note that bread pudding can be made the day before you’re serving it, and then popped in the oven for a little extra time since it will start out cold.

Bread Pudding with a Mixture of Alliums

4 c cubed stale bread in ¾-inch pieces

2 leeks

1 stalk green garlic

2-3 garlic scapes

2 tsp butter

1 tbsp water

Salt

2 tbsp chopped chives

1-2 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed

3 extra large or 4 large eggs

2 c milk

Optional: ¼ c heavy cream

If your bread is soft and not thoroughly stale, place it in a 250-degree oven for about 10 minutes. Place the bread in a large bowl.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a shallow ovenproof dish (I use a 6×8 inch shallow glass pan) and find a wide shallow pan (such as a sheet cake pan) that can accommodate the dish.

Thoroughly clean the leeks and green garlic, slice them in half lengthwise and then crosswise into small pieces. Cut the garlic scapes into ½-inch lengths. Saute the allium mix in a little butter over medium-low heat for a minute or two, add the water and cover the pan, allowing the vegetables to braise without browning. Add a little salt and set aside to cool.

Combine the allium mixture with the bread cubes, add the thyme and chives, and place in the baking dish.

Lightly beat the eggs and add the milk and cream, if using, and pour over the bread mixture, pressing down on the bread to help it absorb the liquid.  Let it sit for 15 minutes. Place a kettle of water on the stove to boil.

Place the baking dish in the larger pan and pour boiling water around it to come up the sides about an inch. Bake for 45 minutes or until the custard is set. Remove the baking dish from the water and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.

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Chocolate Bread Pudding with Lime Custard and Strawberries

Paper Chef is back!  I’ve been following and sometimes participating in Paper Chef for years. It has been the longest running monthly blog challenge, but recently took a break to re-group. The challenge takes place over the first weekend of each month. Four randomly chosen ingredients are posted on Wednesday and due a week later. This month’s ingredients are chocolate, bread, lime and berries. These are a lot friendlier than some of the previous picks. In the past, we might have had duck or anchovies in there with the chocolate. Hmmm.

I was planning a bread pudding this weekend, since I’d bought a loaf that my husband described as “bunny bread,” meaning that it was too soft. I had been considering a savory mix of leeks and spinach or asparagus, but when Paper Chef arose, I thought I would try a sweet pudding.  This was a complete experiment and I’m lucky that it worked out the first time since I’ve been racing around on deadline for a week out of the country. Once I had the idea for my submission, I had to get into “go mode,” and hope for the best.

 

When I make bread puddings, I typically use a substantial “country loaf” or sourdough cut into large chunks and this allows the bread to be noticeable in the final version. Given that I was using bunny bread and no substantial added ingredients, I let the bread dissolve in heated milk, which I also used to dissolve the semisweet chocolate. This created a mush to which I added vanilla (to spark the chocolate) and egg yolks. The other big deviation from my typical method is that I beat the egg whites until stiff and folded them in. Another lightener. The texture of the chocolate bread pudding was good, but I think that the stouter bread would have been interesting… maybe even toasted?

 

I cooked the puddings in 8 ramekins filled ¾ full, but you could use 6 since the mixture did not rise, or if it did, it sank again. I decided to make a lime crème anglaise, which was probably the most delicious part of this dessert. Simple, elegant, served cold over the tepid pudding, and topped with strawberries that I picked this morning at our CSA.

I’m happy. This was a successful dessert, and Paper Chef is back. Now I get to pack to leave town.  Yikes, am I ever late!

 

Chocolate Bread Pudding with Lime Custard and Strawberries

Make the bread pudding. While it is baking, make the lime cream. To serve, top with sliced strawberries and dribble the lime cream on top.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

1 c milk

2 c finely torn fresh bread

¾ c semisweet chocolate bits

½ tsp vanilla

2 eggs, separated

Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put a kettle of water on to boil. Butter 6-8 one-cup ramekins. Locate a roasting pan or other shallow pan to hold the ramekins while baking.

Bring the milk to a scalding point (just before it boils). Remove from the heat. Add the bread and stir to dissolve it.  Add the chocolate bits, a few at a time, stirring to melt. Let cool somewhat and add the vanilla and egg yolks.

Beat the egg whites and a pinch of salt with an electric hand mixer at high speed until stiff but not dry. Add some of egg white to the chocolate mixture to lighten it up and then fold in the rest.

Spoon the chocolate mixture into the prepared ramekins. Place them into a roasting pan, pour in boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins and bake for about 25-30 minutes until set. Remove from the water and let cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Lime Crème Anglaise

¼ c milk

¼ c heavy cream

Zest of 1 lime

2 tbsp sugar

2 egg yolks

Place a metal bowl inside a larger bowl or pot full of ice.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk, cream and lime zest just to the scalding point. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together, and add a little of the hot liquid to the yolks, taking care not to cook them. Continue to add the milk to the eggs until at least half is combined. Then mix all remaining ingredients together into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes, or until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Pour into the bowl set inside the pot of ice, stirring it until cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Savory Bread Pudding with Spinach and Mushrooms

Bread pudding is a good dish to have in your repertoire since it works for any meal, including breakfast, and uses up stray ingredients. I had a small hunk of rustic sourdough bread, some leftover cooked spinach and a paper bag full of mushrooms from a local mushroom farmer. Since he’ll be back at the farmers’ market this week, I wanted to make sure my cupboard was clear for a new batch. This has many variations, especially when using spinach, a favorite around here. For example, if I hadn’t had the mushrooms, I probably would have added kalamata olives and feta instead of the mixture of hard cheeses (local versions of cheddar and gruyere) that I used.

My bread was pretty dense and my local eggs were small so I added an extra egg to this. Normally I use 2 eggs per cup of milk, but you just have to judge based on the ingredients. 

Savory Bread Pudding with Spinach and Mushrooms

3 c bread cubes (about 4 oz)

¾ c cooked spinach, squeezed dry (1 bunch)

½ c cooked sliced mushrooms

Nutmeg

Salt and pepper

3 eggs

1 c milk (nonfat is fine)

¼ cup grated cheese

Prepare the main ingredients. If the bread is very moist, dry it out in the oven at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes. Cut it into ½ or 3/4-inch cubes and place in a baking dish (6×8-inch glass or ceramic baking dish or something equivalent). Toss in pre-cooked vegetables.. Toss everything in the baking dish and season with a few gratings of nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly beat the eggs, combine with the milk and cheese, and pour over the bread, pushing down on the ingredients to absorb the liquid. Let sit for 15-20 minutes or longer. (This can be refrigerated at this point and cooked later.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, sprinkle with additional cheese if desired, and bake for about 30 minutes or until the custard is set and the top is browned. Let it stand for a few minutes before serving.

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Rice Custard

On popular demand… of all of the ways to make rice ”pudding,” the one my family likes best is an egg custard with a handful of rice and raisins at the bottom. It’s more like custard with rice than the other way around.  Smooth, creamy, aromatic, warm comfort food meant for the days when the winds howl and the temperatures drop. Great for breakfast. This one is made with white rice, but brown rice and a combination of brown and white sugar create another experience. This is adapted from an old recipe, copied down from one of my mother’s cookbooks when I was a kid, but I don’t know which one.

Rice Custard

5 eggs

¾ c sugar

3 c milk (lactose free is fine, so is fat-free)

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp salt

1 ½ c cooked rice

1/3 c raisins

Nutmeg and a grater

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 4-inch+ deep baking dish (like a souflee dish). Put a pot of water on to boil and find a pan that can hold the baking dish and 1+ inch of water.

Beat the eggs lightly, add sugar and stir to blend. Add the milk, vanilla and salt and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Place the rice and raisins into the prepared baking dish and strain the egg mixture over them. Place the baking dish into the larger pan and pour boiling water into the pan to reach about 1 to 1½ inches up the side.   Carefully place in the preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes.  Stir the mixture. Grate nutmeg over the top and let bake for another hour or more, until a thin bladed knife inserted into the custard comes out clean.

Serves 6-8 or just my husband.

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Asparagus and Leek Bread Pudding

I had lots of asparagus stems left over from canning pickled asparagus, a couple of fat leeks from the farmers’ market and a hunk of stale bread, so on a ridiculously cold and blustery day in May, bread pudding was not only expedient but comforting. I used my typical formula for bread pudding but decreased the bread since I was adding grated fontina cheese and thought the mixture should be custardy.

Asparagus and Leek Bread Pudding

4 cups stale bread cubes

1 bunch asparagus, trimmed

1 large or 2 small leeks, cleaned and cut into rings

Dab of butter

Chopped herbs (optional… but try tarragon, parsley or lovage)

4 eggs

2 cups milk (nonfat is fine)

1 cup grated fontina cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the main ingredients. If the bread is very moist, dry it out in the oven at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes. Cut it into 1-inch cubes and place in a lightly buttered baking dish (9-inch glass pie plate, 10-inch square glass pan, ceramic baking dish or something equivalent). Parboil the asparagus until just tender, drain it, and cut into 1-inch pieces. Braise the leeks slowly in a little water with a dab of butter and a pinch of salt, covered, until tender. There should be no liquid left, but if there is, substitute it for some of the milk. Toss the vegetables with the bread and add the herbs if using.

Lightly beat the eggs, combine with the milk and cheese, and pour over the bread mixture, pushing down on the ingredients to absorb the liquid. Let sit for 15-20 minutes or longer. (This can be refrigerated at this point and cooked later.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, sprinkle with additional cheese if desired, and bake for about 45 minutes or until the custard is set and the top is browned. Let it stand for a few minutes before serving.

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