Karla has produced some of her art for her birthday today.
Karla is very fond of something that (unfortunately for me grows way up in the mountains)
Happy Birthday Karla!
remembering memorial day and Karla’s brithday
finding a new life for stale scraps of cake, muffin, croissants and bread!
My journey to find stale goodies was quite a success and oddly enough it has nothing to do with saving money, although it certainly works out that way. People often don’t see that value that is right in front of them.
For example, many years ago, I offered to clear a friend’s undeveloped property of a variety of boulders, mostly Serpentine, Shale and a few rather large rocks of many hundred pounds full of zinc ( we used to have a lot of active zinc mines in this area ). He accepted and I know he felt a bit like Tom Sawyer conning his friends into painting his fence for ‘fun’, until he saw the boulders utilized in my yard.
I feel the same way about so many products that still have culinary viability in a new production. Incorporating prior culinary treasures into new wonders is not only fun, but it is practical and economical. This was the key to the early chef’s success!
Fortunately for bread pudding makers, there are always bakeries that have something they can’t sell… funny how that works. Now, I have enough to make my bread pudding dessert on Sunday. In case you are wondering, those are banana muffins and I am surprised they didn’t sell. I find having many different textures adds a lot to the pudding.
Bon apetitte!
bread pudding is marvelous
I have written about the beauty of bread pudding many times because it is certainly one of my favorite desserts! The beauty is that it is different every time you make it, or at least, it should be! The concept of the chefs of old was that you threw everything left over into a bowl which might contain: scraps of cake, muffin, croissants and bread! Personally, I think it is the unintended variety that makes all the difference.
Certainly, adding some dried fruit ( sultanas and blueberries) soaked in Armagnac or brandy for the raisins and rye whiskey for the blueberries is a treat and extracting the natural vanilla flavorings from vanilla beans takes time. By Sunday, my search for all the ingredients will be over and it will be time to bake!
You may ask why I don’t have any leftovers?… well, we are not a big kitchen any more! Now, I have to scour the day old sections of various bakeries.
So what are you making today?
Roger
(click on the picture above for my basic bread pudding recipe)
lobsters invade Boston
When my daughters first emailed me this picture, I thought they had joined some sort of group, complete with silly hats, secret passwords and blood oaths. I knew they were at the Association for Psychological Science’s Conference in Boston, so I rest assured that the conference hadn’t changed that much!
The purpose of the hats, I assume, is a desire to partake of Boston’s very famous seafood. Unfortunately, the seafood restaurant famous for decades on the waterfront , “Jimmy’s”, is gone to demolition. However, there are several alternatives that they might enjoy and here’s one:
Have fun, ladies!
dad
the cracker bread I remember
The ingredients and process for making ‘Cracker Bread’ is a very simple one; however it is finding the right moisture level in the dough product that many find challenging. I found cracker bread common place living in the east, but only a spot or two on the west coast made anything memorable.
The basic recipe:
3 cups flour ( I prefer Bread Flour )
3 tablespoons gluten
1 tablespoon or package yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup ‘special’ flour (whole wheat, dark rye, or your choice)
Process:
1) Mix the following: 1 cup water, 1 cup ‘special’ flour, 3 tablespoons gluten, 1 tablespoon ( or package) yeast
2) Add: 1 cup flour and mix (dough hook on my machine)
3) Add: the rest of the flour gradually
4) Cover dough and place into a greased bowl ( I use olive oil) for 1 hour to rise
5) roll dough into a long cylinder and slice 15 pieces (and flatten slightly) and cover and place in a warm area for 30 minutes or so
6) roll out each section as thin as possible or reasonable
7) Heat over to 500 degrees with cookie sheets inside
8) place rolled out dough on cookie sheets and back 3-5 minutes or until parts of the bubbles begin to darken
I personally love Cracker bread with a variety of spreadable cheeses or just simply with softened butter! A little wine goes well ,too! ( I enjoy a South African Pinotage)
enjoy!
Roger