Bread Pudding

I love love love dessert! One of my favorite desserts while working at Golden Island was bread pudding. During my lunch break I would relax and enjoy a good serving of bread pudding with some vanilla ice cream. I tried a slightly modified recipe today. Normally I would use milk, but today I used half and half instead. Making and eating this bread pudding reminds me of the good old days waitressing at Golden Island :) This dessert is very inexpensive and easy to make. Good luck and enjoy!

Ingredients

• 8 slices day-old bread (I left my bread out on a plate to stale before work and used it at night)
  
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup white sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). While your oven is preheating, break bread into small pieces into an 8 inch square baking pan (I used a rectangular 8 by 11 in. pan, so I added a couple more slices of bread). If desired, sprinkle with raisins (which I did ^.^).


Step 2
In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before going in the oven to ensure that all that liquid gets soaked up into your bread.


Step 3
Depending on the strength of your oven, bake (in preheated oven) for approximately 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped. Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Serve warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream if desired. This is optional, but you could also drizzle a little bit of chocolate sauce on top of the bread pudding and ice cream. And there you have it in 3 easy steps!

I'm finally blogging xD (Plus Creme Brulee Recipe)

I decided to create this blog to share my passion for food with everyone. Since I've been posting my food pictures --- "adventures in the kitchen" --- on facebook many friends want me to share recipes and techniques with them. So I thought why not start yet another food blog ;) I know there are many other food blogs out there, and that there are many ways to cook a certain food, but here's my way of cooking... hope you all enjoy!

To start off, I'll show you guys how to make my favorite dessert... creme brulee! This dessert is perfect to top an elegant dinner or just to snack on. I love how the caramelized sugar crunches while the soft and creamy custard just melts in your mouth. If you have never tried creme brulee, you are missing out!


Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4-5 ramekins depending on the size (mine are 10 oz, bought a set of 4 from Ross for $3.99, but you can get four 6 oz ramekins from Bed Bath & Beyond for $7.99)
• whisk or hand mixer
• baking tray
• boiling water
• strainer
• fruit to garnish(optional)

*This recipe yields 4-5 servings, but in my pictures you will notice that I doubled the recipe.

Step 1:
Warm the 2 cups of cream on medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes. You just want the cream to be hot without bringing it to a boil. Also preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Step 2:
In a large bowl, whisk or use a hand mixer t o mix the 4 egg yolks with the 1/3 cup of sugar and the 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Make sure you mix it well.

Step 3:
When the cream develops a film, you know it's hot enough. Using a ladle, spoon the hot cream into the egg mixture slowly. You want to temper the egg yolk mixture, not cook it.

Step 4:
After 2-3 spoons, you can pour the rest of the cream into the egg yolk mixture and slowly mix together.

Step 5:
Using a metal strainer, pour the mixture into another bowl. You want to filter out the bits that didn't mix too well or eggs shells.

Step 6:
If there's a frothy foam layer, skim off the foam. If you don't skim it off, the top will not be smooth.

Step 7:

Place your ramekins in a baking tray. Fill your ramekins up to about 1 inch (see pic).

Step 8:

Fill the baking tray so that the water reaches up to about half of the ramekins. Bake in your preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. The creme brulee is ready when you tap the ramekin and it jiggles, kind of like jello.

*You can also place the tray in the oven before filling the tray with the boiling water.

After you have taken the tray out of the oven, using oven mitts take ramekins out of the water bath. Let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Step 9:
Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours. I left mine over night :)
After you have refrigerated the creme brulee, take them out and put about 1 tablespoon of sugar in each ramekin.

Step 10:

With a cooking torch or blow torch, burn the sugar so it caramelizes (see pic). You want to have a few burn spots. If you don't have a cooking torch, I suggest you get a torch.

Final step:
Garnish your creme brulee with fruits like strawberries, raspberries, kiwi... you name it :D

And ta da, you have your delicious creme brulee! ♥