Warm and Fuzzies

Well, I figure that having eaten and having had a glass of wine, I should tell you about what I had for dessert, because blogs are all about oversharing and then apologizing for not updating enough. And having apologized in the last post, I figure it's overshare time.

Anyway, it's almost Mardi Gras! Yaaay! (Also I'm going to Nice for Carnaval this weekend. Mmmm Nice.) But the point of me saying it's almost Mardi Gras boils down to the fact that I wanted to make something at least mildly seasonal. I didn't want to deal with king cake or anything like that, so I went with...

BREAAAAD PUDDING!

Yeah, I should have a cleverer name for this. Did my other foods have cleverer names? Let's find out.

Nope! Hurrah. But that DOES mean I need some clever captions. Also, as forewarning, remember how for the cheesecake I did a terrible job recording what I was doing in my recipe notebook? Well, this time I did a terrible job of taking pictures. Yeah. This may be a bit... texty.

Anyway, off we go!

OH WHEN THE BREAD/GOES MARCHING IN

No recipe would be complete without ingredients! Well, except... Wait, no. Can't think of any exceptions this time. Clearly I'm tired if I can't be contrarian properly.

Anyway, you need:

1 (500 g) loaf white bread
3ish cups hot milk
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
100 g brown sugar
100 g white sugar
70ish g butter
1ish tsp Salt
1 green apple

Basically, this is about the simplest thing I've made. I worked across about 4 recipes to figure out proportions and ingredients and tips, and I still underestimated some stuff. If you're making this stateside, go with a pound loaf and you'll be fine. I should have gone with one more egg to properly drench the bread, but it still tastes delicious. But I digress!

LAISSEZ LES BONS TEMPS COUPER

So first things first, you're going to grease a baking pan. Surprisingly enough, mine was big enough this time. I was quite worried, but it held up like a champ.

Next, you're going to take that loaf of bread and cut it into small pieces. I used a loaf of white "pain de mie" (AKA sammich bread) and cut each slice into 16 to 20 cube-like things. Then, you dice yourself that green apple. Smaller slices were better for me, but as I've said before (look at Rob getting all fancy and self-referential), chopping things more finely makes me feel like more of a man. Plus, you want it to mix well with the bread. Which is, coincidentally enough (or is it? Maybe I did learn something from all those 31b's in Ms. Pullen's class. Note: 31b was Ms. Pullen's code for "Insufficient transition." It was the bane of our class.), is what you'll do next. Then you add a bit of cinnamon (around 1 tbsp), and mix that a bit maybe. Now, you take that butter and you melt it. Melt it all thorough-like, and then pour it over the bread and mix that around a bit. And then you'll put all that bread into the baking pan.

I'D MAKE A BOURBON ST. REFERENCE, BUT BOURBON WOULD HAVE PROBABLY BEEN REALLY GOOD IN THIS

Next, you're going to take that bowl you were using to hold the bread. What, you weren't using a bowl to hold the bread?

Siiiigh.

Okay, get a nice sized bowl. Now crack open those eggs... and BEAT THEM sparkle sparkle sparkle. Throw in the white sugar, the brown sugar, the vanilla, and the salt, and sure a bit of cinnamon for good measure. Now mix that around until the sugar dissolves. Slowly mix in the hot milk.

And sure, add in some more cinnamon if you feel like it.

WHEN THE LEVEE BAKES



Also, top it with some nutmeg and cinnamon.

 Now, pour that milky eggy mix over the bread. I spooned it over because I figured there was no way I'd get it all covered otherwise (again, should have used another egg and maybe a bit more milk). And now, this (I think?) is important, do NOT put it in the oven. Let it sit for about 10 or 15 minutes. I used this time to pre-heat the oven to T5 (around 160 F or 300 F or so?).

Did you wait? Good. NOW stick it in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Really, just do the knife test. It's more reliable, especially since ovens are tricky creatures. Jackals of the kitchen, they.





Fresh out of the oven...

 Once it's out of the oven, I strongly recommend eating it. It seemed to not really need much in terms of time to set (of course, I finished making and eating dinner before I ate any, so I may be wrong). It's amazing hot. It's amazing cold. It's generally amazing, but moreso if you pour milk on top of it.

...but it didn't last long.

All in all, I think that this is the recipe I'm most excited about having learned. It's quick, it's easy, it's versatile, and it's delicious. Seriously. I knocked out about a quarter of this thing within 24 hours. I've exercised some SERIOUS restraint and have it down to a bit less than half. And of course, it's too heavy for Bev's taste (or so she says), so more for me.








And as a parting shot, be jealous.

Pure dagnasty goodness.