Bread Pudding Comes in All Sizes
Written by Scotia48 on May 7, 2008 – 6:59 pm -I’ve been trying to get this diary out for some time, but WordPress and I are on the outs. 
I finally got the layout to work, but pics are beyond me. Enjoy!
Bread puddings are staples in my kitchen to use up stale and leftover breads and BLPs (Bread Like Products) and I look forward to making them every year. I have used all of these for parties and small gatherings and they are always welcomed. Bread is just one of those things that most people enjoy-you could almost say it’s an “umami” flavor. I really think that yeast or sourdough is one of those flavors. I use fresh organic half&half instead of milk, I also usually make my own bread. The bagels for the strata were from Trader Joe’s. I also use canning salt or sea salt without the anti-caking chemical or iodine that comes with the girl with the umbrella salt.
The first one is a tried and true-use-up-everything-in-the-spring dish. Make it now when the asparagus and oyster mushrooms are coming in or when the morels are fresh and tender. Yum!
Savory Asparagus/Mushroom Bread Pudding
About 3-4 cups stale bread in 1/2″ cubes (sourdough, whole wheat/wheat bran, beer bread, plain bagel, brown bread,biscuits, etc.) In other words, use a variety of breads to make this interesting.
1 1/2-2 C half & half
1/2-3/4 C buttermilk or yogurt or sour cream
1 C chicken or vegetable broth
3 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. fresh dill
1-2 tsp butter or olive oil
4 oz. oyster mushrooms, chopped (or morels in season)
1 pound asparagus cut in 3/4″ pieces
1/4 C thinly sliced shallots
1 C really good Swiss cheese, shredded.
PreHeat Oven to 375 degrees. Leave the bread cubes out in a single layer on a large cookie sheet for a couple of days until fairly dry. Toss occasionally. Keep covered with a linen towel until ready to use. Combine (you want about 3 cups liquid to about 4 cups bread) 1/2 & 1/2, buttermilk, chicken broth, eggs, salt, pepper and dill, and whisk together. Pour over bread cubes in a large bowl. Simmer asparagus in a skillet in hot water for about 10-15 minutes until bright green. Drain. Saute mushrooms in a little butter for about 10 minutes. Set aside. Saute shallots in butter for about 10 minutes. Combine asparagus, mushrooms and shallots. Fold into bread cube and milk mixture and pour into a buttered 9X13 glass pan. Pat down and drizzle with olive oil. Bake about 30 minutes and sprinkle the shredded Swiss cheese on top. Bake another 15 minutes until melted. Let sit for about 10 minutes for the liquid to be absorbed before cutting into portions.
The second recipe is a Smoked Salmon Strata, which is the same basic thing as a bread pudding, I use fresh, puffy egg bagels. They really make this dish outstanding. I usually buy a package of four, use two in the dish and freeze two for next time or toast them for breakfast.
Smoked Salmon, Bagel & Dill Strata
6 large eggs
1 C milk/half and half
3/4 C sour creme
8 oz smoked salmon, cut into matchstick pieces (use the best and freshest you can find)
1/4 C fresh dill (no substitutions!)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2-2 fresh, soft, large, plain bagel, cut or torn into 1/2″ pieces
sprigs of fresh dill for garnish
olive oil for drizzling
slivers of red onion, capers, sour creme and/or lemon wedges for serving.
PreHeat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 8″X8″ glass pan. Cover bottom of pan with bagel pieces. Mix eggs, milk and sour creme. Add salmon, dill and lemon zest. Pour over bagel pieces and press pieces down into egg mixture. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour, or enough time for the bagel pieces to soak up some of the egg mixture but not become mushy. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for about 40-50 minutes until golden and puffy on top. Cool for 15 minutes and serve with sides. 4-6 servings. NOTE: You might want to experiment with different liquids. Buttermilk or creme come to mind. For the sour creme maybe creme fraiche, cream cheese or Greek yogurt would work. Remember - have all ingredients at room temperature! The eggs especially, they puff up much better.
For a lovely dessert when you are not having a savory bread pudding, here’s a really satisfying dish.
Sweet French Bread Pudding
French bread (stale is good) or sourdough bread and/or other left over bread mostly whole wheat, (Not any strong flavors) in 1″ torn cubes to half fill a buttered 9X13 pyrex dish
Custard: 2 large eggs
2 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
5 1/2 C milk
Mix and pour over bread and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
Next day:1 stick butter melted
1/2 to 1 C toasted pecans
1/2 to 3/4 C golden raisins
Mix and sprinkle over bread milk mixture. Bake 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees. Let sit for about 30 minutes until settled before cutting.
Whiskey Sauce:
2 sticks butter melt over low heat, whisk in 2 C powdered sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 oz whiskey (Crown Royal is nice). Whisk over low heat until almost boils. Do not scorch! Serve sauce warm over pudding.
Again, just save your bread leavings, freeze until you have enough to make these dishes. You will begin to judge how much you need when you make them a few times. In any of the dishes, please, please have everything at room temperature for assembly. The eggs react so much better that way! Oh, all eggs used in these dishes are from happy and contented yard chickens. I got chased by some last week! Enjoy!
Tags: Food, Frugality, Recipes
Posted in Diaries, Food, Frugality, Recipes |
Mmmm! I feel a bit foolish, but savory bread puddings never even occurred to me. What a feast!
Thank you so much. In my family, we used up everything. The asparagus and mushroom was an adaptation of a recipe from Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that she wrote upon moving from Arizona to Virginia to farm the land. It’s a great read.
Yes, I know this one.
I grew up with the unidentifiable petrified food substances in tightly closed glass jars in the refrigerator syndrome. Tiny things — one bite of cauliflower lovingly saved for another meal! Etc.
I’ve been meaning to read Kingsolver’s book for months now. This is even more motivation to do so.
Oh, read Prodigal Summer to get in the mood for AVM! It is a magical book.
Dude! Thanks! ::scurries off to Amazon::
Oh how I wish that I had an oven. Ovens are usually not found in homes here. It must be the heat.
My dear, and I thought I’d move down to your territory. I really couldn’t live without an oven. I enjoy baking too much. Don’t you have an oven outside? Solar oven? One of those lovely brick ovens? Have they all gone out of style? Maybe a camp stove with a reflective oven or, yes, yes, a cast iron dutch oven over a camp stove, campfire, or stove(gas heat). You’d have to cook it really slow and low and probably add more liquid, but it might be fun to experiment!
I do have an electric roaster which works ok for meat and casseroles. I could never bake bread or anything that needed a crust. I found that if I sear a piece of meat it will be brown. The first time I roasted a chicken it was steamed. I did pick up a nice turkey breast yesterday and will try that tomorrow.
We share our food here and my friend is a baker, so she makes bread and cakes while I do top of stove cooking.
Sound like a great arraignment. These dishes are really not baked crisp, just the custard is heated to jelled and done. Maybe a cast iron dutch oven or your electric roaster would work. I love baking everything, salads and soups, my hubby makes seafood, buffalo chili and gumbo. It works well.
Any possibility of an earth oven?
My baker friend bought a nice gas stove with an oven. I could buy one but my cooktop is built in and I rent. I have thought about buying one. It gets so hot here that we try not to create any extra heat inside. This may only be the case here in the jungle. When I lived in the mountains, I had ovens in the homes that I rented.
Mango,
If you don’t mind me asking, what part are you in-just generally? When I lived in Texas, our next door neighbors were from east of Culican. They were fabulous cooks. I really didn’t know that the heat was added later. They had a Quinceañera for their daughter and the posole was mild, the bar-be-que pork was to die for and the heat was in bowls on the table. Oh my! It was fabulous. I really envy you and your place.
Cheers,
Scotia
Mango - What about a toaster oven? many of them are big enough now to cook something as large as a 12″ pizza.
They’re very cheap to buy online.
I do have a small toaster oven that I use to heat rolls and small things. We cannot order online and expect to receive what we’ve ordered. A lot of things never arrive or you pay a huge duty. We depend on friends to bring us the items when they come from the states or Canada. Sounds like paradise huh?
That’s the downside of living in a corrupt environment, but you can’t blame them, they’ve been screwed by the Yankees for so long!
[…] SpiceLines wrote an interesting post today on Bread Pudding Comes in All SizesHere’s a quick excerptThe second recipe is a Smoked Salmon Strata, which is the same basic thing as a bread pudding, I use fresh, puffy egg bagels. […]
Savory bread puddings are a new idea to me…but, what yummy recipes those are!
They seem to be akin to frittatas, but using bread as a binder for all the ingredients instead of eggs.
Another way to save $, and not waste slightly old bread!
Yes, yes, yes. It’s a good thing! You got it.
Sweet bread puddings are making a huge comeback here as well. I think it’s a good sign, people are becoming conscious of food prices and waste less (though the lead article in the UK Independent here today says that in England alone people manage to throw away over 2 billion dollars worth of food every single year.)
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