Bread pudding

An All-time Favourite Bread Pudding

By / Desserts, Puddings / 1 Comment /

White chocolate, berries, bananas… What is not to like? Each of them lovely on their own. So what if you put them all together? That is what is happening with this wonderful bread pudding, that I had mentioned a while ago. This was to take to a party that I went to, with some of my friends. The party was indeed great, and I wish I could say the bread pudding was the highlight of the party, but alas… that was the crawfish imported from New Orleans. Of course, the pudding was appreciated very much, and I do think the praise was genuine! 🙂
 
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Actually, this is one dish that I have made for many an occasion and some among my friends are all time fans of it.
 
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The berries that you use for this pudding can be any dried berries, like cranberries or blue berries. Or even dried cherries. In the cooking process, they absorb the liquids and swell up to become twice their original size. And the bananas are cooked with butter and brown sugar before being added to the mix so that their flavour really spreads through the whole pudding.
 
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A variation that you can try with the bananas is to add some dark rum to the butter-brown sugar-bananas mix and flambé it, before adding the whole thing into the pudding mix. It adds that extra oomph to the dish. Though the alcohol will be totally evaporated through the flambéing, it is better not to use the rum if children are going to partake of the pudding.
 
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A key factor to the success of this pudding is allowing the bread pieces to thoroughly soak in the liquids. Leaving the mix aside for a minimum of 30 minutes, an hour if possible, will make the texture silky and smooth.
 
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As this was planned for a party, I prepared this pudding in a disposable aluminium foil baking pan. These pans with lids are a blessing when you need to carry stuff around.
 
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Of course, I had also made two little ones in ramekins for taste testing. It is not advisable to take anything to anyone before testing it yourself. Believe me, I’m saying this based on some pretty painful experience… from days long gone by. 😉
 
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And the best part of making this pudding? Boy, your home will be filled with the sweet fragrance of freshly baked bananas and chocolates for a long time! This is one time I would not light candles to eliminate food smells… it is that great!

 

~Ria

 

An All-time Favourite Bread Pudding
 
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Print
Ingredients
  • 6 cups bread cubes
  • 6 oz white chocolate chips
  • 3 bananas
  • 1 cup dried berries (cranberries, blue berries or cherries)
  • 6 tbsp butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 ¼ cup light brown sugar
  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Directions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Butter a 9 x13 inch baking pan.
  3. Cut the bread slices into ½ inch cubes.
  4. Slice the bananas into thin pieces.
  5. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and 1 cup brown sugar (leaving ¼ cup sugar aside).
  6. Add the cream and milk to the eggs and beat well.
  7. Add the vanilla and cinnamon and mix thoroughly.
  8. Slowly add the berries, chocolate chips and bread cubes and stir together.
  9. In a heated pan, add the butter, banana slices and the remaining ¼ cup brown sugar.
  10. Stir and cook till the banana slices start losing their firm shape.
  11. Stir into the pudding mix.
  12. Pour the mix into the buttered baking pan.
  13. Place in the center of the pre-heated oven and bake for 45 minutes.
  14. Insert a skewer in the center of the pudding and if it comes out clean, take the pudding out of the oven. If raw batter is sticking to the skewer, bake for another 10 minutes and check again.
  15. Check the bread pudding cool on a rack for 10 minutes before cutting into squares for serving.

Mediterranean Summer Bread Pudding

By / Entrée, Vegetarian / 2 Comments /

This Sunday, I have a party to go to. And I’m planning to make a bread pudding with lots of lovely stuff – white chocolate, bananas, cranberries – in it to take along. But then, that is only on Sunday… and people have to eat till then, right? I was not in a mood to go food shopping in the middle of the week. Looking in the refrigerator, I realised I had bits of different cheeses that I needed to use up. But how? And remember, I had bread pudding on my brain… voila, the end result is this Mediterranean summer bread pudding!

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Why Mediterranean summer? One thing I wanted in the dish was baby spinach… always have it on hand. So we have assorted cheeses and spinach. What goes with that? Of course, olives and lemon! The combination reminds you of a lovely Mediterranean summer, doesn’t it? 🙂

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This dish would shine with feta cheese as stated in the recipe, but I used an assortment of cheeses, the leftovers from earlier recipes… a bit of gouda, bit of mozzarella, and even a bit of brie. And of course some pecorino on the top. It tasted so yummy!

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Once I arrived at the theme, the rest was easy. Add the standard spices that go with the cuisine… allspice, cumin, red chilli flakes, and oregano.

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You can make this with white bread as well, but of course, whole wheat bread is always better*. Whichever bread, make sure that it gets ample time to soak up the juices, before you pop it into the oven.

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Finally, I like to grease the baking pan with butter. If you prefer, you can use olive oil for this purpose.

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* Hey, doesn’t that sound like a slogan? “Whole Wheat Bread is Always Good!”

 

~Ria

Divider-Trivia

 

 

Mediterranean Summer Bread Pudding
 
Author: 
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Print
Ingredients
  • 6 large slices whole wheat bread
  • 1 cup baby spinach, tightly packed
  • 5 artichoke hearts, thinly sliced
  • 12 black olives
  • ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 4 large eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups milk
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tsp allspice powder
  • ½ tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp red chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tbsp shredded pecorino cheese
  • Unsalted butter to grease the pan
  • Salt and black pepper to taste
Directions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degree fahrenheit and butter a 9 inch baking pan.
  2. Cut the crusts off the bread slices and cut them into ½ inch cubes.
  3. Cut the baby spinach finely.
  4. Slice the artichoke hearts thinly.
  5. Slice the black olives into thin circles.
  6. In a large pan, mix together the bread cubes, spinach, artichoke hearts and olives. Make sure that the vegetables are not wet so that the bread doesn’t get soggy.
  7. Transfer the bread and vegetable mix to the buttered baking pan and spread evenly.
  8. Spread the crumbled cheese evenly over the bread mix.
  9. Beat the eggs well with the milk. Add olive oil, lemon zest and juice, allspice and cumin powders, red chilli flakes, and oregano. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix thoroughly.
  10. Pour this mixture over the bread and cheese.
  11. Keep aside for 30 minutes to allow the bread cubes to soak in the liquid.
  12. After 30 minutes, gently press down the contents of the pan and sprinkle the top with the pecorino cheese.
  13. Loosely cover the pan with aluminium foil and place in the heated oven.
  14. Bake for 30 minutes. Then, remove the foil and continue baking uncovered for another 10 minutes or till the cheese starts to get brown spots.
  15. Slice and serve with a tomato salad on the side. A semi-dry white wine goes well with this Mediterranean summer bread pudding.