16 May 2010

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln . . .

So, the idea for this week’s SMS was to make pumpkin bread pudding, selected by the lovely Carmen of Baking is my Zen. It sounded like a really lovely, lightly spicy and creamy dessert. There was a delicious-looking sauce. The pictures people put up early looked lovely. I got ready to bake today and realized: You know what’s hard to find in May?

Pumpkin.

So hard, in fact, that I looked through the fruit, vegetable, and baking aisles at WM three times before I gave up and regrouped. After some hemming and hawing and looking through both pantry and cookbooks, I decided on chocolate bread pudding with chocolate chips and dried cherries.

It all got off to an inauspicious start at WF, where they did not have brioche at all. (This is central Virginia, after all, not Paris.) I settled for a big loaf of challah, which I reckoned would be a nice substitute, what with the egginess and butteriness.

(Yes, the wise woman would have bought the pumpkin while she was at WF. I am clearly not that woman.)

Also, the cinnamon sticks were a bit spendy, especially considering I have enough ground cinnamon to last until I’m fifty. Ditto whole cloves. And vanilla beans. So when the canned pumpkin just did not show up, I took it as a sign.

What I ended up doing was following the approximate portions provided in How to Cook Everything (Bittman) with some of the techniques in the Sweet Melissa Baking Book. I toasted about 8 ounces of challah cubes.

Then I cooked together a mixture of milk and cream totaling three cups with a bit of butter the size of a walnut and two ounces of bittersweet chocolate. After the chocolate melted I set it aside to cool for a bit before whisking it into three beaten eggs.

I layered the bread cubes in a dish with a handful of chocolate chips and a handful of dried cherries. (I put a layer of bread on top of this too.)

Then I strained the chocolate custard into the dish and left it to soak while I did the dishes.

It went into a water bath, then the oven for about 45 minutes.
It was good! I think the dried cherries really made it. Bread pudding is never going to look like much (as John helpfully observed), which is probably why it's usually served with a sauce of some kind. Oh yeah, I didn't do the sauce either.

SO! Basically I just made whatever I darn well pleased and called it a SMS entry. I probably wouldn't have made bread pudding unprompted, though, so that's got to count for something, right?

9 comments:

Baking is my Zen...sweet nibbles for the soul said...

Thanks for baking with me this week.

Vanilla bean paste is a LIFESAVER...not to mention a better value for your money.

Carmen

Leslie said...

This sounds like a much better recipe to me so I think you made a great call! Chocolate is always a winner here.

rebecca @ beurrista said...

Your dessert sounds delicious! And I was reminded after reading your post that I forgot the water bath!

As for pumpkin- mine was leftover from Thanksgiving...

Candy said...

I almost went with chocolate too and have just recently discovered dried cherries so I love your riff on this week's recipe! Baking groups are all about inspiration, right?

I had trouble finding pumpkin too, and WF is where I ultimately found it but paid dearly for it. Great job!

Candy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Flourchild said...

I couldn't find any darn pumpkin either. I left it out.
Your pudding looks so good! Im glad you enjoyed it!

Anonymous said...

chocolate + bread pudding = deliciousness in my book. Good call!

Tiff said...

This sounds like an awesome bread pudding! I have never made a chocolate bread pudding so I will have to give this one a go! Plus my husband loves the combination of chocolate and cherries.

Unknown said...

Haha well I give you credit for persevering and making some type of bread pudding! Chocolate is always a welcome addition :) I did a rewind this week but I may try the recipe in the fall when pumpkin is plentiful!