dessert

Doughnut Bread Pudding!

by Stephanie on March 21, 2012

in Bread Pudding, In the Kitchen

Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday! It’s officially Spring now (okay, well, yesterday was the first day!), but it really feels like Summer! Did we skip Winter and Spring this year? It’s also my dad’s birthday today! Happy Birthday, Dad!

Anyway, after 10 weeks of bread pudding you’d think I’d be sick of the stuff, but here I am, talking about it yet again. I’m still gathering my thoughts and narrowing down my choices for the top 3. The recap, along with my choices, will be on the blog next week. Watch this space!

In the meanwhile, I thought I’d try my hand at making my favorite dessert of all time.

I stumbled upon this recipe for Doughnut Bread Pudding, and I felt like it would be a winner.

I gathered my ingredients:

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Powdered sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, milk (I used vanilla soymilk), rum, cinnamon, vanilla extract, heavy whipping cream, cooking spray (for the pan),

And doughnuts, of course!

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Krispy Kreme doughnuts. My favorite!

 

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There’s something about the airy lightness of these doughnuts that puts a huge smile on my face. They literally melt in your mouth! I’ve been known to eat half a dozen in one sitting. Oink.

Of course, I try to eat local whenever I can, but when it comes to doughnuts, I must give in to the corporate machine. Give me my Krispy Kreme!

Anyway, the recipe is pretty straightforward. After preheating my oven to 350 degrees, I tore the doughnuts into 1-inch pieces and put them in a greased 9×5 inch pan.

 

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Then I whisked my eggs, rum, cinnamon, granulated sugar, vanilla, milk, and cream in a bowl.

 

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There’s really no way to take an attractive picture of ingredients in a bowl. Trust me, I tried.

After everything was combined, I poured the mixture over the doughnuts, making sure all of the pieces were soaked in the liquid.

 

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Soak baby, soak!

This is where I started to wonder if this recipe was going to turn out. Look at all of that liquid! I started to wonder if this bread pudding was going to be of the custard-y variety. You all know that I hate custard-like bread pudding. But I pressed on anyway.

I threw this in the oven for about an hour. The recipe said to leave it in for 45 to 50 minutes, but after 50 minutes, it was still a bit jiggly.

This is what it looked like after an hour.

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Bad photo quality aside, it really didn’t look too terrible. It was still a little bit jiggly, but I figured that once it cooled, it would solidify a bit.

While my bread pudding cooled, I worked on making the icing. This part was super easy! I mixed powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and a bit of hot water in a bowl, and it made a sweet glaze. I drizzled this over the top.

Here’s the part of the post where you imagine a slice of this on a plate. My camera ate my picture, so just use your imagination.

The verdict? No bueno. Just as I suspected, the bread pudding was too custard-y for my tastes. The flavor was great, but it was super soggy.

I followed the recipe to a T, so I’m just going to assume that some people like jiggly bread pudding and leave it at that. I’m very picky when it comes to this dessert!

I think I’ll just leave bread pudding to the pros from now on. Remember the last time I made bread pudding? It was almost two years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

 

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It was good hot out of the oven, but the next day? Bad! With a capital B.

I hope you enjoyed my embarrassing foray into the kitchen! Next week, I’ll do a rundown of the 10 spots I hit for the Bread Pudding Challenge, and I’ll narrow it down to the top 3! See you then.

{ 4 comments }

Bread Pudding Challenge, Week 3: Harvest!

by Stephanie on January 25, 2012

in American, Bread Pudding, Dessert, Dinner

Good morning, friends! Another Wednesday, another edition of the Bread Pudding Challenge! Who’s ready to talk about dessert?

This week, I went to Harvest. This fancy-pants restaurant is located in the heart of Richmond Heights, and is well known for their bread pudding. So well known, in fact, that when I asked for your feedback on which bread pudding is your favorite, many of you responded with Harvest! The crowd speaks, and I listen. Smile

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I was very impressed with the interior of Harvest. So gorgeous! Warm lighting, gorgeous décor – this place has it all.

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Enough of the scenery; I was here for one thing and one thing only: bread pudding! Harvest’s Warm Brioche Bread Pudding starts with a thick hunk of rich bread. Add a few currants, bourbon sauce, and whipped cream, and you get…well, you get this:

 

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Looks pretty, right? Well, as we all know from last week’s disaster – looks aren’t everything.

Thankfully, this bread pudding was fantastic. Fantastic! Texture-wise, it was perfect. It had the consistency of french toast. Not as firm as the bread pudding at Remy’s, but not custard-like like the stuff at Café Eau. This was right in the middle, and I loved it.

The bourbon sauce was delicious as well! I would have preferred it a bit thicker, but now I’m just being nit-picky. Truth be told, it was quite delicious.

My only gripe? I’m not a big fan of currants. Thankfully, they weren’t in the bread pudding itself; just the sauce. So they were easy enough to pick around. But next time I’ll ask them to leave the currants out.

All in all, this bread pudding was delicious. It’s some of the best I’ve had so far! This competition is going to be tough, I tell you!

See you next week with more bread pudding madness. Smile

{ 8 comments }

Bread Pudding Challenge, Week 2: Café Eau!

by Stephanie on January 18, 2012

in American, Bread Pudding, Dessert, Dinner

Happy Wednesday! How are you doing on this lovely (and freezing) morning? I’m doing really well, and a lot of it has to do with this:

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I’m one of the Riverfront Times’ nominees for Best Food Blog! I found out the news yesterday; the winners will be announced on January 24th. Am I excited? You better believe it! I’m also nervous/scared/intimidated/etc. The competition is stiff! My fingers (and toes) are crossed.

On to bread pudding! As you know, Jess and I are doing a challenge; we’re setting out to find the best bread pudding in St. Louis! Two girls on a dessert-eating mission. Who wouldn’t love that? Winking smile

This week’s adventure brought me to Café Eau. This cozy café is nestled in the Chase Park Plaza in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis. I had dinner here as well (I’ll review that another day, I promise!), but the focus of today’s review is their bread pudding.

Café Eau has gooey butter bread pudding on their menu. I was really excited to try it, since I’m a huge fan of gooey butter cake.

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It looks pretty gorgeous, right? It was served with a generous scoop of french vanilla ice cream, and rested in a pool of chocolate syrup, a bit of caramel, and a side of strawberries. Picture perfect.

Too bad it was pretty awful. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of this bread pudding at all. While it was piping hot (a plus), it was totally wrong, texture-wise. The outside was crispy, and the inside was, well…gooey. It was almost custard-like. Bread pudding this was not.

Aside from the horrendous texture, the flavor of this bread pudding was almost bitter. I almost had to pair each bite of the bread pudding with sweet ice cream and chocolate sauce to mask the bitter flavor of the dessert. It was bad. I could only manage to down a few bites before I decided I had had enough.

I’ll address the other aspects of Café Eau (my entrée, the service, the prices, etc.) during another review. However, based on bread pudding alone, Café Eau will now be named Café No in my book. No bueno.

Can’t win em all, right? Hopefully the next bread pudding spot will be better!

{ 16 comments }

Peach Cobbler–for one!

by Stephanie on July 15, 2011

in In the Kitchen

Good morning and happy Friday! We made it through another week.

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m part of a CSA at Sappington Farmer’s Market. What’s a CSA, you ask? Well, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it’s a program where you pay a certain amount each week to get a ‘share’ of what the farmers are growing.

In other words, it’s a way to get super fresh and in season produce! This summer is my first year being a part of the CSA, and so far, I love it. It’s like Christmas every week! I’ve received everything from farm fresh eggs to bison, and a little bit of everything in between. Lots and lots of fresh produce makes this girl happy. Smile

Anyway, last week, along with lots of other goodies, I received this:

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A half peck of peaches! Wowza. I think I squealed a little when I saw these. I adore peaches.

I immediately thought of all of the yummy creations I could make with these peaches. During the week, I enjoyed plenty of peach smoothies, grilled peaches with greek yogurt, and of course, I just ate them plain!

But one night I had a really sweet tooth, and only one thing would do.

Peach Cobbler.

I love peach cobbler. Love it! But as a single girl living on her own, making an entire batch of peach cobbler could be downright dangerous. Leave it up to me, and I’ll eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! No bueno.

However, every recipe I found online only offered recipes for a full batch of peach cobbler. What’s a girl to do?

I put my Chemistry degree to work! I’m not going to let all of those hours of Calc II go to waste! Winking smile

I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com. Not only did I scale it down, I made it vegan! I also tweaked it a little: I subbed vegan butter for the real thing and used vanilla soy milk instead of cow’s milk. I also used brown sugar instead of white sugar, since that’s all I had on hand.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon earth balance vegan butter

1 peach

3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon brown sugar, divided.

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons vanilla soymilk

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

 

I started off by placing my “butter” in a cute little ramekin.

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Not familiar with smart balance vegan butter?

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I discovered this back when I did my vegan challenge in March. It tastes, spreads, and even melts just like the real thing! So melt that butter, baby! 20 seconds in the microwave did the trick.

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Next, I chopped up my peach. A lot of peach cobbler recipes call for canned peaches, but I’m not a fan. Give me fresh peaches anyday!

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Some peach cobbler recipes also call for peeled peaches. I didn’t do that because I’m lazy. Smile I’m all about quick and easy recipes, okay?

Add your peaches to a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for about 20 seconds, just to soften them up a tiny bit.

Next, combine your sugar, flour, soy milk, baking powder, and salt.

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Mix well.

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Optional: Taste the batter. It’s yummy!

Now pour your batter over the butter that’s already in your ramekin.

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I can’t get over how cute my ramekin is! You can find these at Target for less than 2 bucks each.

Spoon your peaches over the batter.

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Sprinkle the remaining teaspoon of brown sugar on top.

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Pop this baby in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes! That’s it! If everything goes well, you’ll end up with this:

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Peach cobbler nirvana. Feel free to eat the whole thing without feeling guilty! I did Winking smile

I love single-serving recipes because I can eat the whole thing, and there’s no way for me to devour an entire pan of peach cobbler. Because if I made a full batch, I totally would.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! See you next week!

{ 2 comments }

Cyrano’s Cafe

by Stephanie on March 28, 2010

in American, Bread Pudding, Breakfast, brunch, Dessert, Dinner, Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt, Lunch

I went to a cute little place called Cyrano’s today.

It’s a cafe and wine bar, but it’s most well-known for their extravagant desserts. Think gigantic ice cream sundaes, pies, and bread pudding.

One thing you’ll get to know about me as you read more and more of my blog is that I absolutely adore bread pudding. It’s one of my favorite desserts…next to tiramisu and peach cobbler. I just love it.

So I ordered their caramel brioche bread pudding. At $7.50, it was sort of expensive, but I’m willing to fork out some money for good food!

The bread pudding was very good. The brioche was very light and fluffy, and the caramel sauce was sweet, but not so sweet that it was overpowering. And the whipped cream was airy, light, and creamy. It was perfection.

yummy whipped cream!

Although dessert was fantastic, service at Cyrano’s left a lot to be desired. When I walked in, it took a while before I was greeted and seated. And then it took a while for the waiter to acknowledge us and take our order. It was just surprising, considering how empty the place was. But I guess the fabulous food made up for it.

In summary:

Food: 5 stars (out of 5)

Ambiance: 4 stars

Service: 2 stars

Value: 2 stars

I’ll definitely be back to try some other desserts.

Oh, and lovely readers, do you think you could answer this poll (and elaborate in the comments, if necessary)? I don’t know how often to update this blog. Right now I’m trying to do it every three days, but would every other day be better? Let me know.

[polldaddy poll=2940346]

{ 4 comments }