Bread Pudding

Bread pudding. It was created to use leftover and stale bread.

Now, if I have leftover stale supermarket bread, without hesitation, I feed it to the ducks or put it in the compost pile.

I can't do that with good homemade bread. Sorry, ducks. Sorry, worms and microorganisms.

If you Google "bread pudding," you will see countless variations.

My recipe is simple. You could vary it endlessly. But if you are looking for a good place to start, here it is.

Bread Pudding

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Beat 6 eggs until smooth.

Mix in:
2/3 C granulated sugar
2/3 C brown sugar
5 C milk, scalded
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
dash of salt
1 C raisins (optional)

Stir in 8-10 slices stale bread, cubed (about 8 ounces).

I used Oatmeal Bread today.

Pour the mixture into a 9x13 inch pan or 12 custard cups. Place the pan or custard cups into another pan. After setting it all into the oven, pour hot water into the outer pan.

Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until set.

I bake a lot of bread and so I always have plenty of bread on hand. While whole-grain freshly-made bread is healthful, it's only part of a healthy diet. So I try not to eat too much of it.

So, while I have plenty of bread to use for bread pudding, I only make it when there are others around to eat it, too. Otherwise, I eat too much of it.

Today I had others here to eat bread pudding! Here is one of my granddaughters:

Notes:

If you want to lighten it up, you can--

• substitute 3 whole eggs and 6 egg whites for the eggs.
• use 1/3 C less brown sugar. You can also substitute Splenda for the granulated sugar--it doesn't affect the texture or flavor--but I'm trying to stay away from artificial sweeteners, so I can't endorse that.
• use fat free milk. I use reconstituted dry milk because I don't keep fresh milk on hand since I never use it. If you are used to making custards with whole milk or cream, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how well fat free milk works.

Speaking of milk, there is a controversy about whether or not you need to scald the milk for a custard-based recipe such as this or whether it just speeds up the baking time. If, perchance, you are using raw milk, scald it for sure! If you use reconstituted dry milk like I do, there is no need. Otherwise, go here and here to make a more informed decision.

I think I'm going to start adding a little nutmeg.

I love bread pudding with raisins. I didn't put them in today because I wasn't sure if my grandchildren would like the pudding with them.

The bread: Whole wheat bread works great. I'd love to try it with whole-wheat maple oatmeal bread, but I never have any leftover. Any bread or rolls that you could make into cinnamon toast would work. (So, just like I wouldn't use pumpernickel bread to make cinnamon toast, I wouldn't use it in bread pudding either.) Cut up some day-old cinnamon rolls? Oh, that would be good bread pudding!

Another bread note: I personally prefer bread that has some substance and some character and, most of all, good flavor. That's the kind of bread I like in my bread pudding, too. So, if you use some other bread and your bread pudding doesn't turn out so well, I am not responsible.

Gingerbread (Updated)

Update at the end of post!

It's gingerbread time! I don't know how gingerbread, gingerbread men, and gingerbread houses got tied with Christmas, but they are a Christmas tradition in our family.

Part 1: The Dough

Gingerbread

Blend together:

½ C butter, softened

½ C sugar

¼ C molasses

¼ C corn syrup

Add and beat well:

1 egg

Stir together and add:

2½ C all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cloves

You mix the dough and then refrigerate it at least 2 hours. I tripled the recipe because we're going to make 3 gingerbread houses.

You may have noticed that there isn't a trace of whole-grain flour in this recipe. Since this dough is going to be used to make gingerbread houses, I am opting for the strength of the starch in the white all-purpose flour rather than trying to work in any nutrients with whole-grain flour.

Part 2: Rolling Out the Dough

After refrigerating, I divided the dough into 3 parts for easier handling, wrapping each part with plastic wrap. I took each part of the dough out of the refrigerator for about 10 minutes before rolling it out.

First I pushed the dough together to make a ball; then flattened it out somewhat. I floured both sides and then rolled it out on floured wax paper and covered with plastic wrap. I rolled it out to about 1/8th of an inch thickness.

I made a template years ago that I keep in an envelope. There are many online. Here are the dimensions that I used for the gingerbread houses:

2 sides: 4" X 6" rectangles
2 ends: 4" squares, each topped by a triangle that peaks 2" above the center
2 roof pieces: 3-1/2" X 7"  rectangles
chimney:
2 rectangles 3/4" X 1-3/4"
2 rectangles 1-1/2" X 1-3/4", with a triangle cut out of each that peaks in the center 3/4" above the bottoms

Hooray for geometry!

I use my pizza cutter to cut out the pieces. An exacto knife would be helpful, but you can use what you have.

For spaces between the house pieces, and for re-rolled dough, use cookie cutters to cut out little men (and women if you have them), snowmen, angels, Christmas trees, etc., etc. I squish together and re-roll the dough a few times, until I can't stand it any more!

Part 3: Baking the Pieces

Parchment paper is your friend here. So are baking pans that don't warp in the oven. I don't normally use cooking spray for baking, but here I do. I lightly spray the pans so the parchment paper lays flat, and I lightly spray the parchment paper because I don't want the gingerbread to stick.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Let the pieces cool in the pan for at least a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. First, this helps the pieces to be crisp. Second, if they don't feel crisp enough, you can put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes (since they are cool, they have to heat up again before baking more). This will work. Remember--for gingerbread houses, sturdiness trumps taste. But don't worry, this gingerbread is very tasty, regardless!

Fresh out of the oven.

Lots of gingerbread baked; more to come!

Part 4: Building and Decorating Gingerbread Houses

Baking the gingerbread is my main contribution to the project. At this point, others take over. But first, the Decorator Icing, a.k.a. Royal Icing. This is the glue--quite literally--that holds the house together and sticks the decorations on.

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Decorator Icing

Beat together:

2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

2½ C powdered sugar

½ tsp. cream of tartar

⅛ tsp. salt

How much you need depends on a number of factors, such as how skilled you are at piping the icing and how much decorating you are doing. By the way, you can use a knife to spread the icing on the pieces to glue them together--that's how we started--but it is much easier to use cake decorating equipment. Even if this is your first time, you can learn on a gingerbread house. It's okay if it isn't perfect. It will still look good. For our three gingerbread houses I quadrupled the recipe.
Tip: It's best to use fresh AA eggs for meringue-type stuff like this.
As I turned to baking pizzas for the hungry masses, Karlyn and Will glued together the houses:

Here's Will. Between my baking pizzas and Karlyn also taking care of her 15 month old, I didn't get a picture of her here. But Karlyn and Will are the experts for this step. They are happy to have others join in, but most of us are happy to let them do this part!

The houses will be ready for decorating after the icing hardens up.

While waiting, children and adults decorated--and ate--gingerbread cookies.

Here are the completed houses!
While it will be fun for the (Joe M.) Downings, the Flansburghs, and the Nguyens to have these gingerbread houses decorate their homes this Christmas season, and it will be fun to eat them (they even taste good stale!), all 21 of us gathered here tonight had a great time! It was worth making gingerbread houses just for that.

Update 1/7/2013: Go here for more photos.

FRESH Bread

One of the reasons I bake bread is because I love fresh bread. I mean really fresh bread. Warm out of the oven fresh bread. First day it's baked fresh bread. I eat it plain--no butter or anything else on it.

There are no added preservatives in the bread I bake, so it only stays fresh for two or three days. If I am not going to use it all during that time, I can put it (or part of the loaf) in the freezer. It will taste fresh when it thaws. If I only want to use a few slices at a time, I slice the bread before I put it in the freezer and then just take out the slices as I need them. More often than not, though, I just put the extra loaves of bread from the batch in the freezer and leave out the loaf I've started.

That's because I happen to like slightly-stale bread for lots of things. I put bread that I haven't used within a few days in the refrigerator. Refrigeration does not slow the staling process--in fact, it speeds it up--but it delays the growth of mold, which I aim never to have on my bread, because then I have to put it in the compost.

Some foods that I think are actually better with stale bread: French toast, toast, bread pudding, and sandwiches in the Foreman grill. Other great uses for stale bread, depending on the type: croutons, bread crumbs, French onion soup, and fondue. Okay, I've never actually served fondue, but I have eaten it. I think it was in the '60s when it was really popular. Remember--I'm old.

Fresh out of the oven