Chocolate Bread Pudding

Here's another recipe I turn to when I want to use old bread. It's a Paula Deen recipe that transforms old, dry, crusty bread into a sweet, satisfying dessert. It's quick, easy and uses ingredients that are found in most pantries. When I prepared the recipe tonight, I cut the below recipe in half. I also didn't have any almond extract on hand, so I simply omitted it. If you don't have any cream on hand, simply substitute milk in its place.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1-pound loaf French or Italian bread, cut into cubes (about 15 cups)
• 3 cups milk
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup coffee-flavored liqueur
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons pure almond extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Lightly grease a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Place the bread in the baking dish.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, and liqueur
4. In another bowl, combine the granulated and brown sugars with the cocoa powder and mix well. Add this to the milk mixture and whisk to combine.
5. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and the cinnamon to the beaten eggs. Combine the egg mixture with the milk mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour the mixture evenly over the bread cubes; let stand, stirring occasionally, for at least 20 minutes, or until the bread has absorbed most of the milk mixture.
   
6. Bake the pudding for 1 hour, or until set; a knife inserted into the center of the pudding should come out clean. Serving the pudding warm, or refrigerate it and serve chilled.
7. Serve it warm or cold, with whipped cream or a dessert sauce.

Enjoy,
muddywaters

Crispy Cajun Toasts

This weekend we prepared pasta for a small crowd, so we have a lot of leftover bread. Since I hate to throw anything out, I decided to use this three-day-old bread. Tonight I'll be making a chocolate bread pudding, but this afternoon I fixed a batch of Crispy Cajun Toasts, a recipe from Terri Pischoff Wuerthner’s In a Cajun Kitchen. Preparing these little snacks help me avoid the guilt of wasting food, and they're tasty. I sometimes use these in place of bagel chips in my Chex Party Mix.

I know this recipe doesn't seem like much, but these are quite tasty.

Note: If you wanted to cut the bread into cubes, you would prepare a batch of Cajun Croutons.

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 loaf soft French bread, at least one day old

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Combine all the spices, sugar, and oil in a bowl and blend thoroughly.
3. Using a serrated knife, slice the bread in 1/4-inch slices. Place on baking sheets.
4. Brush bread with oil-seasoning mixture on top of bread.
5. Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the bread is crisp.
6. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy,
muddywaters

My Spruce Goose

Around this time of the year, I set one or two culinary goals and spend the summer striving towards achieving these goals. I can be a bit hardcore and obsessive about these quests (Think Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose obsessive). This can be a bit unsettling for my family. One summer I purchased a smoker and worked on mastering the art of BBQ. By the end of the summer, my wife threatened to become a vegetarian if she faced a plate of BBQ one more time. Coming from a rancher's daughter, I knew this was a serious threat.

I've learned to down size my culinary goals over the last few years, so I no longer drown my family in the monotony of my madness. This year I've set two goals:

1. I'm going to learn new ways to use chile peppers in my cooking. When I say chile peppers, I mean all forms of peppers - dried, ground, and of course, fresh. I'm not setting out to add heat to my cooking; my goal is to add layers of flavor to my dishes.
2. I want to learn to make my own flour and corn tortillas.

Tonight I'll take my first steps in my quest. I'm going to prepare a new rice dish using chile peppers, and I'll be making an enchilada sauce from scratch using a chile puree made from dried peppers. I'll let you know how it goes.

Bless this food,
muddywaters