Sunday, May 31, 2009

Bread n' Butter

This is my recipe submission for Rach's Monthly Baking Challenge. This month's theme was horses. Horses? huh? That's what I said. But it makes sense because Rachel is from Kentucky and earlier this month was the Kentucky Derby!

I tried to get original with this one, but I wasn't totally excited about any of my ideas and I didn't want to carve out a horse cake--not my idea of fun. So I thought about it....what do horses eat- hay? apples? I didn't like where I was going with that thought so I went back to the Derby idea. I immediately thought of Derby Pie, but I made that last year.

So I started to think about hats. Then my mind wandered toward the Red Hat ladies. They have a cookbook you know. No, not hats. How about bourbon!?! Duh. Then I started thinking of bread pudding with a bourbon sauce. But I don't really like bread pudding, though it seemed to be the only solid idea I had. My hubby likes bread pudding, so I stuck with it.

It was simple, came together quickly, was lightly sweetened, moist and addictive. Rather than serving this with a bourbon sauce, the caramel is cooked, the bourbon is added and it's all mixed in with the custard. This recipe says it serves "2 greedy people" but we got 3 servings out of it. Except we ate all 3 servings in one night. LOL.

I topped mine with a few mini chocolate chips while it was still warm.

Caramel Croissant Pudding from Nigella Lawson
serves 2-3
  • 2 stale croissants
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream (see note)
  • 2 tablespoons bourbon
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 2 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Tear the croissants into pieces and put in a small gratin dish; I use a cast iron oval with a capacity of about 500ml/ 2 cups for this.

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan, and swirl around to help dissolve the sugar before putting the saucepan on the hob over medium to high heat. Caramelize the sugar and water mixture by letting it bubble away until it all turns a deep amber colour; this will take 3 to 5 minutes. Keep looking but don't be too timid.

Take the pan off the heat and add the cream - ignoring all spluttering - followed by the bourbon and milk. Whisk to mix, then still whisking add the beaten eggs. Pour this quickly over the croissants and leave to steep for 10 minutes.

Place in the preheated oven for 20 minutes and prepare to swoon.

NOTE: I baked my puddings in 3 individual ramekins, rather than one larger pan. They baked for 16 minutes and were perfect.

Also, make sure your cream is room temp before adding it to the caramel. This will keep your caramel from seizing up as much. You can do this by microwaving it for a few seconds.

Click here to see Nigella make her own croissant pudding!

Click here to see what Rachel made for this month's challenge!

20 comments:

Elyse said...

This bread and butter pudding looks amazing. I love that the caramel and bourbon go into the custard. Delish! And talk about a super-inspired recipe; what a great submission!

Selba said...

I hardly eat bread pudding, looks so nice the color of the caramel :)

Donna-FFW said...

Gorgeous bread pudding Monica. Love the caramel bourbon sauce. I can easily see the relation to horses:)

Ina Gartens bread pudding, made with croissants is my favorite, so so good!

The Nanny said...

Ohhhhhhh this looks SO GOOD!

vanillasugarblog said...

the most awesome combo my dear.
croissants and caramel AND bourbon...OY!

Lissaloo said...

Wonderful! I like bread pudding & this one looks like a keeper! :)

Shari said...

This looks like a great bread pudding! Beautifully done!

Maria said...

Looks like a winner! Great way to enjoy bread pudding!

Coleens Recipes said...

Have I ever told you how BEAUTIFUL your whole recipe page is? Every photo looks like it should be in a magazine. Your caramel bread pudding sounds delicious!! I love to make bread puddings, they are the perfect ending to a meal and so quick. Thanks for this post, I've never even THOUGHT of a caramel bread pudding.

Monica H said...

Coleen- thank you so very much! I truly appreciate your comment. It made my day!

Anonymous said...

I'm not a huge fan of bread pudding, but this sounds delicious.

Horses was a difficult theme, but you did it. Thanks for participating!

Debbie said...

Beautfil bread pudding. Love that you added the chocolate chips!

LC said...

AHHH... Monica, you sure do inspire me. I'm not really a fan of bread pudding either, but This looks like it may change my mind... ( I love croissants!) I was going to join that challenge, but couldnt think of anything, other than trying to make a horseshoe cake. (So much for going out of my comfort zone, LOL) Great job!!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

This won't shock you to hear that this is something we'd love as I've posted several bread pudding recipes. Guess what? I have aging bread on the counter....maybe a little bread pudding tonight? Thanks for sharing and where's Aaron's cake? :) Hee-hee!
~ingrid

Kristen said...

ooohhh - I don't know if I should show this to my husband or not, he may start thinking he married the wrong woman ;o) Looks delish!

Julie said...

I love the individual bread puddings! Looks so yummy :)

Sara said...

This looks amazing, I love regular bread pudding, and I can only imagine how delicious it would be with croissants!

Kerstin said...

It looks so incredible and indulgent! I like bread pudding, but would love it with croissants!

Foodiewife said...

Ha! I have two day old croissants from Costco. I am so going to make this, calories and all.

Thank you!

Deb

Anonymous said...

Looks delicious. This must be Nigella Lawson's recipe. Have made it myself and it is delicious. Thanks. :)

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