The Sunday Recipe: Pumpkin and Maple Bread Pudding
December 19, 2021 at 6:00 am (Recipes)
This has become a family tradition. It’s adapted from Flavor Mosaic at https://flavormosaic.com/pumpkin-praline-bread-pudding/. I changed the type of bread, spice blend, substituted maple syrup for sugar, used unsalted butter, and halved the sauce. (Also using maple syrup in the sauce.) Our local grocery sells 1 ½ pound sourdough loafs so we always get to enjoy sourdough toast that weekend as well.
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 pound of sourdough bread
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup half & half
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
- 1and 1/3 cups maple syrup
- 4 large Eggs
- 2 tablespoons extra light tasting olive oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/16 teaspoon (or a large pinch) of ground cloves
Sauce
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 4 ounces pecan halves, toasted THEN chopped
Instructions
- Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish with the one tablespoon of unsalted butter.
- Dice the bread into approximately 1 inch cubes.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs.
- Add the maple syrup, heavy cream, half& half, and pumpkin, stirring between each addition.
- Now add the melted butter in a thin stream, whisking all the while.
- Stir in the vanilla and spices.
- Slowly pour the batter over the bread pieces in the baking dish.
- Press bread down with a spoon to cover all the bread pieces.
- Refrigerate at least one hour but preferably several hours, even overnight.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for about 1 hour.
- While the bread pudding is baking, toast the pecans gently and chop.
- Then make the praline sauce.
- In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stir together the butter, heavy cream, and maple syrup; bring to a low boil.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle pecans over bread pudding then drizzle with sauce.
- Serve warm or cold.
- Whipping cream is a nice addition.
The Sunday Recipe: Great-Grandma’s Soft Buttermilk Molasses Cookies
December 12, 2021 at 6:00 am (Recipes)
Tags: big soft cookies, Christmas cookies, ginger, gingerbread men, molasses
This is an old recipe handed down from my great-great grandmother and adjusted many times over the years. The version I was originally given by my mother had the cloves and allspice crossed out and the baking soda reduced. I stick to ginger and cinnamon, but I did try using the full amount of baking soda recently and regretted it. I think it tastes better with a little less. It’s a very friendly dough that can be scooped and dropped or add a little more flour, roll out, and cut beautiful cookies for decorating.
I highly recommend letting a stand mixer do the work for these cookies, but don’t double the batch. Your mixer can’t handle it, trust me. 😉 My daughter likes to use a basting brush to sweep away any excess flour before baking to make the cookies picture perfect.
Great-Grandma’s Soft Buttermilk Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup molasses
- 1 cup of buttermilk (full fat preferred)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- 3 teaspoons ginger
- 5 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Directions
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
- Mix in the molasses.
- Blend in the buttermilk.
- Mix together the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.
- Stir into the liquid ingredients.
- Chill for a half hour or longer.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Prepare a pan with parchment paper or non-stick cooking spray.
- Scoop out with a cookie scoop and drop onto a dish of granulated sugar then pick up with the back of a spoon.
- Drop off onto the tin then flip over so the sugar is right side up.
- Alternatively – roll out on a floured surface and cut out with floured cookie cutters.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.
- Cool and enjoy or decorate with icing.
The Sunday Recipe: Quiche
December 5, 2021 at 6:00 am (Recipes)
Tags: brunch, eggs, ham and eggs, quiche, sunday brunch
Sorry, this recipe is decidedly traditional – gluten and all. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to the gluten free soon. I tried a quiche last weekend but I wasn’t satisfied with how it turned out so I did a little research, talked to my mom, and tried again this weekend. The first time I used fried uncured pancetta, and it was tasty but it sank to the bottom, along with the cheese, leaving a fluffy egg top mostly devoid of the bits that make it better. My mother suggested sprinkling the meat on the top. I thought maybe if I grated the cheese finer and mixed it into the egg and cream before pouring it into the crust that would help. I also ended up using Canadian bacon, which is lighter than the little cubes of pancetta. Both tasted delicious but I think I’d like a little bit more egg and less cream. I might try an egg bake soon that does that.
Meat and Cheese Quiche
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup Unbleached All-purpose Flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon Spectrum Palm Oil Shortening (Or shortening of your choice.)
- 3 tablespoons cold water
Filling
- 4 ounces baby Swiss cheese
- 4 ounces fried pancetta (second quiche I diced up 3 ounces Canadian bacon)
- 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Directions
- Measure 120 grams or 1 cup of flour into a bowl.
- Add the ¼ teaspoon salt and stir together.
- Cut in the shortening. (If you don’t have a pastry blender, get one, but two knives will work. You can also pulse in a food processor.)
- Pour in the water and mix then press together into a disc of dough.
- Place between two squares of parchment paper, flouring below and on top of the dough.
- Roll the dough out into a large circle.
- Cut and tack pieces onto any place that cracked, using a little water and flour after.
- Gently peel the top parchment off.
- Put pie plate onto dough face down and slide hand under the parchment then flip the whole thing over.
- Peel off the parchment.
- Ease dough into pie plate.
- Turn edges back and flute the crust.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes in fridge.
- While chilling dough, preheat oven to 425.
- Dice onion and Canadian bacon, if using.
- Grate cheese.
- Whisk eggs, cream, and seasonings thoroughly.
- Stir cheese in.
- Pour egg mix into par-baked crust.
- Sprinkle with ham and onion.
- Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.
- Turn oven down to 300 and bake 30 minutes.
- Cool at least 10 minutes before cutting.
- Enjoy!
The Friday Poem: Preferred Formatting
December 3, 2021 at 6:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Poetry)
Tags: editing, NaNoWriMo, postnano
Melora Johnson's Muse 