Traditional New Orleans Bread Pudding

I have been lucky enough to experience two different types of authentic bread pudding - traditional New Orleans bread pudding and traditional English bread pudding.

During my sophomore year in college, I had the opportunity to travel to London over spring break to study Shakespeare.  The course I took that semester was called the London Shakespearience, and during the spring semester we studied plays and folios, and when we went to London we visited The Globe, Stratford-Upon-Avon, did some scene studies with Globe actors, and saw a production of Much Ado About Nothing.  And now you all know I am a Shakespeare nerd.  Besides seeing the sites, we also visited many pubs and I made sure to order a couple orders of bread pudding while there.

The following year, I went to New Orleans twice, once for an ultimate frisbee tournament (and Mardi Gras) and then went back a few weeks later for Alternative Spring Break, where we worked on building houses with Habitat for Humanity. Both experiences, while very different, were incredible. That was when I fell in love with the city and its food, and I made sure to stop at Cafe Du Monde for beignets and other restaurants in the French Quarter bread pudding.

The major difference between traditional English and New Orleans bread pudding is that with your English bread pudding, the milk and cream mixture are heated to create a custard, while the New Orleans bread pudding is usually served or infused with a whiskey sauce. Because I was making this bread pudding for a breakfast at school, I decided to forgo the whiskey sauce, but would certainly use Emeril's recipe for his whiskey sauce should I make this recipe again for a non-school function.

This recipe is beyond easy to make since most of your time is spent waiting for the bread to soak and then waiting again for the pudding to bake and set. You can use ANY type of bread for this recipe, from slices of white bread or a loaf of Italian or French bread. This is the perfect thing to make if you happen to buy loaves of bread at Costco, left them in the freezer for way too long, and then didn't know what to do with them. No bread is too stale for this recipe, just leave to soak until all cubes are completely saturated with this delicious cream.  The bread pudding was wonderful for breakfast warm, and I took some extras home to heat up with ice cream for dessert.  I love a recipe that can be used for breakfast or dessert :)

Bread Pudding

Serves 10

Prep Time: 1 hour

Bake Time: 30 min

Ingredients

-                1 loaf white bread (Italian, French, or classic loaf bread), about 6 cups, cubed*

-                4 tbsp unsalted butter

-                1 c heavy cream

-                3 c milk

-                3 eggs

-                1 c brown sugar, packed

-                2 tsp vanilla extract

-                1 tsp ground cinnamon

-                ¼ tsp ground nutmeg

-                pinch of salt

-                ½ c raisins

Directions

Pour the bread crumbs in a large bowl and melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Pour the butter over the bread and toss to make sure they’re coated evenly.

In a separate bowl, mix together the heavy cream, milk, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and raisins.  Thoroughly mix and pour the cream mixture over the bread, tossing evenly to coat.  Allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 30 – 40 minutes, or until the bread becomes very soft.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 in. pan.  Pour the bread mixture into the pan and bake in the oven for 30 – 35 minutes, or until the bread is slightly browned and set.  Serve warm and store in the refrigerator.

*Note: use the whole loaf, even if it isn't 6 cups.  You can fill the pan up since the bread won't bake up.  

Adapted from: Emeril 

1 comment(s)

Posted by Ali B at 11:13 AM

Garlic Bread

This is a recipe that was handed down to me by my Italian roommate.  The first time she made it for us in college was the moment when I fell in love with garlic.  Never again would I use garlic powder or garlic salt.  I love chunks of garlic in my sauces and spreads, yet I'm not quite on my friend's level - she used to roast heads of garlic and eat the cloves!  I don't think I could handle that much garlic, and I'm not sure if people would be able to handle talking to me after eating that much garlic.

For this bread, there's a key way to prepare the butter spread.  Put the garlic in your food processor to mince the garlic finely, then add in the butter to infuse the garlic flavor into your spread.  Plus, creaming the butter makes it much easier to slather all over your bread!

There are two ways you can bake your garlic bread: the low and slow way, and the "Can we have garlic bread with dinner even though we're serving dinner now?" way.

The former will be outlined below, since that is the best way to release all of the flavors of the garlic and cook it so it's nice and tender.  The other way to do it is to stick it under the broiler for about 2 minutes, but this way won't give you the best results, just the quickest.  Make sure that if you do it this way, you leave the door open a crack so the oven doesn't get too hot under the broiler setting.

This lavish loaf of garlic bread would be perfect alongside a dish of chicken parmesan.  Be sure to make it with your next Italian dinner!

Garlic Bread

Yield: 1 loaf

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Ingredients

- 3 – 5 cloves garlic

- 1 stick butter, room temperature 

- 1 loaf thick, Italian bread

- Parmesan cheese and Italian herb seasoning if desired

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F

Place the garlic cloves and butter in your food processor and pulse until the garlic is minced and the butter is creamy. 

Cut the loaf in half and spread the garlic butter on both sides of the loaf.  Close the bread up again and wrap the bread in tinfoil.  Place the bread in the oven for about 10 minutes so the garlic becomes tender.  Remove from oven, unwrap from tinfoil, and open up the garlic bread so it lies flat.  Sprinkle cheese and herb seasoning on inside of bread and allow to toast for about 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve immediately. 

0 comment(s)

Posted by Ali B at 9:03 PM

Banana Bread

I am constantly bookmarking new recipes to try, saving them to my Pinterest board to pull on them whenever I need (or just want) to make something.  Because I'm always searching for something new and exciting to bake or cook, I often forget that my family has many delicious recipes that we have been making since I was a little girl.  My mom makes phenomenal macaroni and potato salad, and I have had my recipe for pancakes/waffles memorized since I was old enough to use a skillet (one Christmas, I got 2 waffle irons).  During the winter, and during the summer too because it's so good, my mom makes a chili that doesn't taste like paste and my dad has this delicious marinade that goes well on fish, chicken, or steak.  We make these recipes about once a week and I've never thought of sharing them here, until I made banana bread last night.

"Ew Ali that was in your fridge?" - Disgusted reader

When I have 1 or 2 bananas that look like they're going bad, I usually throw them in a smoothie to salvage whatever is left of the fruit.  If I happen to let a whole bunch of bananas go overripe (whoops), I choose to make banana bread.  The bananas took a turn for the worse very quickly when Hurricane Irene knocked out our power on Sunday, but believe me all was not lost.  This is the absolutely ideal thing to do with overripe bananas.  The bread is moist and not too sweet, and I recommend not completely liquifying the bananas when you mash them, some little chunks of banana will certainly come through in the bread.  This bread is delicious for breakfast or as a dessert, especially with some of that Nutella toasted almond butter. 

The bread can be cooked in a larger pan, but we have found that the bread seems to burn on the top and stay uncooked in the middle when the pan is too big.  Plus, with two smaller pans, you can always freeze one loaf to save for a later date.  I, however, do not like to freeze anything because I always forget it's there and before I know it my brother is leaving for Virginia with one of my loaves of banana bread.  I mean come on can't my 20-year-old brother bake for himself at college?  No?  Oh fine.

The bread is also very dense, so one of these small loaves will probably last you through the week.  Maybe instead of freezing one you can give the other to a friend?  Like someone who was recently affected by the hurricane and is still left without power?  Some of the streets here are flowing like rivers and I know people who still do not have power, it's pretty unreal. 

Oh and yes I am definitely that person that cuts the end off of the loaf, then takes a second slice from the middle.  Did you know that leaving the end on and just eating from the middle keeps the inside of the bread from getting stale when you have the loaf wrapped up in plastic wrap?  I am clearly doing everyone else a favor by leaving them the crusts.


Banana Bread

Ingredients

- 1 egg

- 4 bananas, overripe

- 3 tbsp butter

- ½ c brown sugar

- ½ c sugar

- 2 c flour

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp baking powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F and grease the bottom and sides of 2 7 ½ x 3 ½ in bread pans.

Scramble the egg in a large mixing bowl.  Add the bananas and mash together.   Melt the butter and add to the banana mix and combine.  Sift together the rest of the dry ingredients and combine.

Pour into bread pans and bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pans for about 5 minutes and then transfer to wire racks. 

3 comment(s)

Posted by Ali B at 12:17 PM