Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Food historians trace the history of bread pudding to the early 11th and 12th centuries, as frugal cooks looked for ways to use stale, leftover bread instead of letting it go to waste. In 13th century England, bread pudding was known as “poor man’s pudding,” as it was a popular dish with the lower classes.

While bread pudding is still a way to use up leftover bread, it has gained a reputation as a comfort food and is a featured dessert item in trendy establishments, having shed its humble roots.

I absolutely adore bread pudding. Ever since I was a little girl, my stepmother and grandmother would make bread pudding and it was one of those special desserts reserved for certain occasions, so when it showed up on the dinner table we considered it a treat.

It has been quite a few years since I've made one, but a few weeks ago I gave it a go again and whipped up a Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding.  The recipe, from a vlog I was watching.  I just followed her video and I think she said the recipe is from Nigella Lawson, but I could be mistaken.

Anyway, another very easy dessert and so delicious.

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

4 slices of stale bread, cut into cubes
Chocolate chips, I added in about 1/2 cup of dark and 1/2 cup white chocolate
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 cups milk
3 eggs, whisked
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a casserole dish, add the bread cubes to it.  Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the bread.

In a measuring jug, add the cream and milk.  Whisk the 3 eggs in a small bowl and then add 1/4 cup of brown sugar.  Combine the cream and milk mixture with the egg mixture, give it a good stir.

Pour over the bread then push the bread down to soak it all in.  Let stand for 20 minutes.

After the 20 minutes have gone by, sprinkle on some more brown sugar over the top and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until nice and brown and puffy.

Once it's cool down, I like to sprinkle powdered sugar on top.  

Best part about this bread pudding is that it's not overly sweet.

Bread Machine Ciabbata Bread

Bread....one of my downfalls.  I don't think there's anything on this earth that can quite compare with a slice of fresh bread, straight out of the oven, with a big slather of butter.  YUM!!!

I love my bread, and I love my breadmaker to get the dough going for me.  I'm not a big fan of the bread baked in the machine, the loaves just never come out like I want them to, but for getting the dough going, this is perfect.

So, here I leave you a Bread maker recipe for 2 delicious loaves of Ciabatta Bread.

Bread Machine Ciabbata Bread

Source

1 1/2 cups Water
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 1/4 cups Flour; (4.06 cups of spelt)
1 1/2 teaspoons Yeast

Place ingredients into the pan of the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the Dough cycle, and Start. Dough will be quite sticky and wet once cycle is completed, resist the temptation to add more flour.

Place dough on a lightly floured board, cover with a large bowl, and let rest for 15 minutes. Lightly flour or use parchment lined baking sheets. Divide into 2 pieces, and form each into a 13x14 inch oval. Place loaves on prepared sheets, dimple surface, and lightly flour. Cover, and let rise in a draft free place for approximately 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degres F.

Dimple dough for a second time, and then place loaves in the oven, positioned on the middle rack. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. During baking, spritz loaves with water every 5 to 10 minutes for a crispier crust.

Homemade Olive Garden Bread Sticks

I love a good bread stick but it's not always easy to find one that I enjoy.  Some are either too hard or too soft or just not tasty enough for my liking.

One of the bread sticks I do enjoy are the ones they serve at Olive Garden, they seem to have just the right amount of everything.

Truthfully though, we don't go out to eat at restaurants that often and I can say that the last time I was at Olive Garden was about 6 or 7 years ago.  I know, I know, shocking.

If you search online there are quite a few recipes for bread sticks and some even copy cat recipes for major restaurants and fast food places.

But the one I use which we all just love, is the recipe from The Misadventures of Mrs B.  These are phenomenal!

Quick note though.....I think the salt in the basting sauce is a LITTLE too much for my family's liking...if you don't like a lot of salt, just use 1 teaspoon instead of the 2 recommended.

Olive Garden Bread Sticks 

Credit:  The Misadventures of Mrs B.

1 1/2 cups warm water (between 110 - 120 degrees F)
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt

In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes, covered. Mixture should be frothy.

In separate bowl, combine flour and salt.

Add to yeast mixture. Add melted butter. Mix with paddle attachment of stand mixer or wooden spoon until fully combined.

Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth. Do not overknead!

Grease a cookie sheet. Pull off pieces of dough and roll out into strips.

Now, I tend to make pretty thick breadsticks so I normally end with around 10 or so, but I'm sure that if you rolled yours out more thinly you'd have at least a dozen.

Cover the dough and let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and once heated, pop in the bread sticks. In microwave, combine the following:

1 stick unsalted butter (or 1/2 cup margarine)
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt

After 6 or 7 minutes, brush the bread sticks with half the butter mixture.

Then continue to bake. Honestly, I almost never leave them in there for an entire 15 minutes - normally it's closer to 12 because I like them softer and less crisp on the outside, but to each their own. Either way, immediately upon removal from the oven brush the other half of the butter on the sticks.

Allow them to cool for a minute or two, and enjoy!

Bread Machine Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I am not a big fan of breakfast, aside from my coffee I will either have a piece of toast or if I'm really hungry, a sandwich, but that's it.  One thing I do love is Cinnamon Raisin bread, toasted and slathered with butter.

I don't have it very often, mainly because it's so expensive at the store, and I always forget how easy it is to make a loaf at home.

After my husband got me a new bread maker to replace the one that broke last year, I've been using it almost daily to make fresh bread, so last night I decided to try the Cinnamon Raisin Bread.  It turned out amazing and tastes fantastic.

I just had some toasted with the butter slathered on and it was honestly one of the best breakfasts I've had in a while.

The recipe comes from Betty Crocker and is very easy to make....and cheaper too than buying it.

Bread Machine Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Source:  Betty Crocker

1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
3 cups Gold Medal® Better for Bread™ flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
3/4 cup raisins

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients except raisins in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Add raisins at the Raisin/Nut signal or 5 to 10 minutes before last kneading cycle ends. (usually about 30 minutes into the bread making process)

Select Sweet or Basic/White cycle. Use Medium or Light crust color. Remove baked bread from pan and cool on wire rack.

Makes 1 loaf (1 1/2 lb), 12 slices

Pao com Chourico - Chourico Bread

Now this is one of my favorite portuguese breads to eat. I remember many times sitting in one of the Lisbon Pastelarias (bakeries) and smelling the aroma of the bread baking in the oven, it was intoxicating but in a good way.

I am a bread lover, I could live on bread, I try not to because it's not healthy at all, but if it was possible to do so, believe it, I would have a loaf of bread and a brick of butter every.single.day.

This is an extremely easy recipe to make, it almost reminds me of the other bread that we portuguese make, called a Bola de Carne. A ball of meat....literally, it's like a ball or oval shaped loaf with ham and chourico etc inside. YUM!

Pao com Chourico - Chourico Bread

5 1/2 cups of flour
3 1/2 teaspoons of dry yeast
1 chourico cut into slices and casing removed
Warm water
1 teaspoon salt (table salt)

Dissolve the yeast in 4 tablespoons of warm water. Add about 1/2 tbsp. of flour and mix well. Set aside.

In a big bowl, mix the flour, salt and the yeast mixture, add warm water a bit at a time

until you have a smooth dough that doesn't stick to your hands. Let rise for 3o minutes.

Divide into 4 portions. Using a rolling pin roll out the dough into a rectangle, not too big, you want to have a sort of thick dough....you can see by my picture how it should look.

Layer the chourico on the dough....roll the dough up, pinch the seams to close and set seam side down on a baking sheet.

Let rise again until you can see that it won't rise anymore. Bake in a 375 oven for about 20 minutes.

One thing you'll notice about these loaves is that they don't turn really brown, matter of fact most of them stay a nice white pale. Enjoy!

No Knead Artisan Bread

I remember a time when Artisan bread and No Knead bread was a huge thing in blogland, matter of fact you couldn’t visit a single blog without either a recipe being posted or some mention of the bread being made.

I will tell you right now that I’m not a baker and matter of fact I’m sure you’ve noticed that unlike most food blogs, mine has 90 % actual food and only a very few sweet/dessert recipes.

I do love to bake bread, I think there’s nothing like a slice of fresh bread out of the oven with some butter slathered on, it’s enough to make me weak at the knees.

I saved a bunch of these No Knead bread recipes but this is the one I turn to the most, mainly because it’s always turned out well no matter how many times I’ve made it and it’s well above 50 loaves of bread or so.

Recipe is from Steamy Kitchen who adapted it from Mark Bittman of NY Times who got it from Sullivan Street Bakery.

No Knead Bread

3 cups bread flour (I like Harvest King bread flour)
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon fine table salt (or 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt)
1 1/2 cups warm water
Covered pot (five-quart or larger cast iron, something that can go into a 450F oven.)






1. Mix dough: The night before, combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together. It will be a shaggy, doughy mess.

 

Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on countertop.

 

2. Shape & preheat: The dough will now be wet, sticky and bubbly. With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. Fold ends of dough over a few times with the spatula and nudge it into a ball shape. You can use your hands if you like, just keep your hands wet so that the dough does not stick. Generously dust a cotton towel (not terrycloth) with flour.
Set dough seam side down on top of towel. Fold towel over the dough. Let it nap for 2 hours. When you’ve got about a half hour left, slip your covered pot into the oven and preheat to 450F.

3. Bake: Your dough should have doubled in size. Remove pot from oven.
Holding towel, turn over and dump wobbly dough into pot, using your hands to get the dough off the towel. Doesn’t matter which way it lands. Shake to even dough out. Cover. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover, bake another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden and middle of loaf is 210F.

 

Remove and let cool on wired rack. If not eating right away, you can re-crisp crust in 350F oven for 10 minutes.

© 2006 - 2012 Full Bellies, Happy Kids - All Rights Reserved

Homemade White Bread

Fresh, hot bread out of the oven, slathered in butter and then bit into while the melted butter drips down your hands.  I do believe that has to be one of Earth's wonders, right??

So tonight, I wanted to make a big pot of potato and onion soup, it's been pretty chilly here and downright Fallish, and the perfect meal for a day like that is a bowl of steaming soup with a slice of hot fresh bread.

If you're looking for the soup recipe, it will be up right after this one :)

Anyway, back to the bread.  I do have quite a few bread recipes on the blog and I enjoy every single one of them.  This one however is one I tried from the blog Jamie Cooks it Up and it's truly a simple, easy and delicious bread to make.   The fact that I get 5 loaves out of it makes me extremely giddy too, because you see, fresh better never lasts longer than an hour in this house.

WHITE BREAD

Yield: 5 loaves

 Source:  Jamie Cooks it Up

4 C hot water
1/2 C sugar
2/3 C oil
2 T salt
3 T yeast
10-12 C white flour


1. In a Bosch or Kitchen Aid mixer place the hot water, sugar, oil, salt, and 4 C of the flour. Mix for 1 minute.

2. Add the yeast, and the rest of the flour 1 C at a time while mixing. You will know you have enough flour when the sides of your mixer get scraped clean.

3. Once you have enough flour mix for 8 minutes on high.

4. Let the dough rest in the bowl for 5 minutes.

5. Divide the dough into 5 pieces and place in sprayed bread pans.

6. Take each piece and “spank” it to get any bubbles out.

7. Round the dough into a ball and place back in the pans.

8. Place the pans in your oven at 170 degrees, and let rise for 25 minutes, or until the bread has risen about 1 inch above the edge of the pan.

9. Turn the oven up to 350 and bake for 25 minutes. Don’t take the pans out while the oven heats up.Just let the bread keep rising while it heats. Enjoy!

Cinnamon-Swirl Bread

Mmmmm, toasted with some butter slathered on.  *drool*

One of my favorite breakfast treats, right along with a big cup of hot coffee.  But truth be told, it's expensive, I cringe everytime I pay close to and sometimes over $3 for a small loaf.  Ridiculous, when I can make it at home.

This is the recipe I use the most.  Granted I don't make it too often, not because I don't like it but because I forget about it and then go months without it and then suddenly get a craving for some Cinnamon Bread and have to make it again.

Go on over and check out Chickens in the Road, love that blog :)

Cinnamon-Swirl Bread

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, sugar, and salt. Let sit five minutes. Stir in the first cup and a half of flour with a heavy spoon. Add the next cup of flour a little at a time as needed, stirring until dough becomes too stiff to continue stirring easily. Add a little more flour and begin kneading. The amount of flour is approximate–your mileage may vary! Continue adding flour and kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let dough rise in a greased, covered bowl until doubled. (Usually, about an hour.)

Uncover bowl; sprinkle in a little more flour and knead again.

Now it’s time to play with dough!

Roll dough out on a floured surface into an approx. 12-inch by 7-inch rectangle. Brush lightly with melted butter.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle sugar-cinnamon mixture over dough.

Roll up, pinching seams at bottom and ends. Place seam-side down in loaf pan. Let rise until tall and beautiful! (I actually wanted small loaves, so I rolled it all up as it's directed, then cut the big loaf in half, pinched the seams nicely and placed it in two small loaf pans)



Bake Cinnamon-Swirl Bread at 350-degrees for 25 minutes. Makes one loaf.


Powdered Sugar Icing:
Combine 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and enough milk (one to two teaspoons) for drizzling consistency.

Watch it disappear as fast as you can take it out of the oven and slice it!

Irish Soda Bread

So many variations on this bread, some with raisins, some without.

Irish Soda Bread is a staple at my house, on St. Patrick's Day, though I've been known to fix it throughout the year just because we enjoy it.

Again, the recipes are varied, you can find numerous online, in cookbooks and even handed down from generation to generation.

The one I use is for a very basic Irish Soda Bread and it was given to me by a friend many years ago, she jotted down the ingredients and a very basic how to on the back of an envelope, and to this day I have it in my drawer with the rest of my recipes.

She never told me what size pan to use, and the first time I made it I used a baking sheet but the bread flattened out a bit too much for my liking....since then I have made it in my 8 inch round cake pan and it works just fine.

Irish Soda Bread

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/3 cups buttermilk
Raisins - optional

Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl.  Add in the buttermilk and the raisins and stir together until well combined.

Dump the mixture onto a floured board and knead for a few seconds until smooth.  (Do not overknead).  Shape into a ball.

Line the bottom of an 8 inch pan with parchment paper.  Place the ball of dough in the middle of the pan, using a serrated knife make an X on the top, about 1/4 inch deep.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.