old to new.

I'm a bread junkie. I love me some bread. In fact, when I was young, my snack wouldn't be chips and dips, it would be pandesal and a huuge dollop of Cheez Whiz or a honkin' chunk of Ques-O. Mmmm... bread and cheese. Best combo ever.

Nowadays, I tend to eat my bread with "fancier" accoutrements like fruits, cured sausages, and primo smoked gouda. Or make copy-cat sandwiches inspired from my previous job at Boudin Bakery. Sourdough, seemingly, goes on my top favorite list of carby snacks I have in the house.

This time around, the loaf I had bought to just snack on was taking longer than usual to disappear. It's probably because grocery day is coming up and all the stuff I usually eat with it needs to get replenished. So my little loaf was getting sadder (and staler) by each passing day. I needed to do something... fast.

Solution? Why not a bread pudding? I was kind of wary about it at first. I wasn't sure if the sourness of the bread was going to go with the usual sweetness that I associated with bread pudding. But I had all the ingredients on hand and the rum cream was calling my name.

It didn't turn out too bad, actually. The sauce pretty much covered up any weirdness that the sourdough might have imparted. I added cinnamon to the pudding and used regular raisins since that was what I had on hand. Also, instead of heavy cream, subbed coconut cream instead. Not a bad experiment, but I think I'd stick with a sweeter bread next time...

Sourdough Bread Pudding with Rum Cream
(from ICSCBooks.com)

For Bread Pudding:
8 cups cubed day old sourdough bread
1 cup golden raisins
4 cups milk or half and half
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp melted butter

For Rum Cream:
6 tbsp butter
2/3 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp dark rum
1 cup brown sugar

 
Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl, combine bread, raisins and milk. Let stand 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Stir into bread mixture.

Pour melted butter into the bottom of a 13x9” baking pan. Spoon in bread mixture. Bake about 55 minutes or until pudding is set and lightly browned. Let stand 15 minutes.

While pudding bakes, start cream. Combine butter, cream, rum and sugar in a small saucepan on medium heat. Heat to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer sauce a couple minutes until thickened. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Serve pudding drizzled with sauce.

persimmon schtick...

i'm in a persimmon schtick. having tried pudding last week, i thought i'd try my hand at making a quick bread this time around. this one was recently bookmarked on my pinterest board, despite it being two years old. i looked over the ingredients list this morning and decided to give it a shot.

man, i'm so glad i tried this recipe! it's nice and sweet and even though the whole thing is spiced with nutmeg (a spice i don't normally like), i found that it's used brilliantly in this bread! actually, the taste reminds me of eating pumpkin bread or christmas fruitcake. either way, this was fantastic and is a nice addition to the collection of seasonal recipes in my repertoire.

for this recipe, i did end up making a few changes (namely halving the recipe and swapping the liquor). i used overly ripe fuyu since i only had that on hand. i also changed out the whiskey for dark spiced rum...more my preference than necessity. didn't bother toasting the pecans too, i figured "recipe ready" was alright. also, did an almost 1:1 ratio of whole wheat and all-purpose flour. the result? it's got a nice nutty flavor, thanks to the pecans and whole wheat flour. the raisins and chopped dates stayed nice and evenly dispersed with the help of a flour coating. and the rum? well, rum makes everything all the more festive for this time of year! ;)

Persimmon Rum Bread
(adapted from Putney Farm)

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter, cooled
2 extra large or large eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup spiced dark rum
1 cup persimmon puree (i used 2 very ripe large fuyu persimmons)
1 cup pecans (i used the ones labeled "recipe ready")
1 cup or so dried fruit (i used a mix of chopped whole dates, golden raisins, and regular raisins)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour or line loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup of the flour mixture in a separate small bowl. Toss in the dried fruit in the reserved mixture, making sure to coat each piece well.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and then stir in the butter, eggs, liquor, persimmon puree, pecans and floured dried fruit (note: you want to add any leftover flour that the fruit was tossed in as well...waste not, want not!). Mix the batter just until combined (having little streaks of flour is okay...don't over mix).

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and then place the pan in the oven. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the pan before serving.