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Sabroso - Winter2008
JUST DESSERTS
By Jane Steele
Photography by Marty Snortum Studio
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For me, there are few less-pleasurable tasks than baking and even the simplest cake is a challenge. My chocolate chip cookies might taste good, but they are as flat as pancakes and seem to go stale in seconds. Even my kids aren’t that thrilled with them. But there is something about bread pudding that seems easy to me. The measurements need to be correct, but if you feel like adding more nuts, fruit or cream, the recipe isn’t ruined. There always seems to be spare bread on hand and it’s a great way to use that 18 pack of eggs that takes up all the room in your fridge. Both of these recipes are tried and true. If you want more pudding, add one more egg and a little more cream. Experiment, invent, but best of all, know that no matter what you change, it’s still going to taste good.
Chocolate Bread Pudding with Whiskey Cream
Serves 6
• 5 cups day-old Italian bread
• 1⁄2 stick butter
• 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (use the best quality you can afford) plus 1 cup unmelted
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 11⁄2 cups heavy cream
• 3 large eggs
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch salt
1. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Add butter and place in microwave and heat in 10-second intervals, stirring each time until just melted. (Do not microwave for longer than 20 seconds at each interval or you will burn the chocolate.)
2. Bring half-and-half and cream to a simmer in a heavy saucepan and pour over chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute then whisk until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together with vanilla and salt, then pour into chocolate mixture. Pour the custard over the bread and use your hands to combine. Make sure every piece is well soaked and let sit for at least 30 minutes, up to an hour.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter six 8-ounce ramekins and fill almost halfway with pudding. Divide remaining chocolate chips amongst the ramekins and top with remaining pudding, so the chocolate chips are in between the two layers.
4. Put the rack in the middle of the oven and bake puddings until just set, but still jiggly, about 15 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Make a hole in the center of the pudding and pour in the whiskey cream.
Whiskey Cream
• 11⁄2 cups heavy cream
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1⁄4 cup Jack Daniels
1. Heat cream in a sauce pan just until it simmers. Remove from heat. Whisk egg and sugar together and pour hot cream in a slow stream until egg is tempered. Place Jack Daniels in the pot that the cream was in, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low and slowly pour the cream in, whisking constantly. Continue to cook until the cream thickens slightly. Pour into pitcher and serve with puddings. |
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