Bread and Butter Pudding

Bread and Butter Pudding

One of my favourite comfort food is Bread and Butter Pudding. It has that ability to be classified as both a dessert or a snack depending on how you serve or how much you eat.

A lot of bread puddings I have the experience of buying in shops are too stodgy. They resemble more like slightly sweetened thick chewy bread. But not this one. I do love this recipe because is lighter and the ratio of the egg to milk/cream is just right. Plus the sugar is just right - not too sweet. I got this from an old ripped-off page of the BBC Good Food magazine with the recipe coming from the chef Paul Heathcote. Thanks Paul.

Bread and Butter Pudding

I know I burned some of the pudding top but believe me it's not that badly burnt. It's probably just the lighting angle of the picture. Not a problem for me because I'm partial to slightly charred food!


Bread and Butter Pudding


Bread and Butter Pudding

6-7 slices of white bread - crusts removed
65 g  [1/4 cup] butter - softened
100 g  sultanas or raisins
250 ml  [1 cup] full-cream milk
250 ml  [1 cup] double cream (heavy cream)
3 medium eggs (or 2 large eggs)
50 g  [1/4 cup] caster sugar
1 tsp  vanilla extract
25 g  icing sugar
25 g  apricot jam - warmed and sieved (optional)
  1. Preheat oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/375°F. Grease a 1.5 litre ovenproof dish, about 2.5 inch deep.
  2. Butter the bread slices generously and cut each into 4 triangles.
  3. Arrange a layer of the bread in the prepared dish.
  4. Sprinkle the sultanas on top.
  5. Then arrange the remaining bread slices on top of this.
  6. Make the custard - mix the cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and caster sugar in a bowl.
  7. Strain the cream mixture over the bread slices and leave to soak for about 5 minutes.
  8. Put the dish in a larger roasting tin in the oven. While the oven rack (with roasting tin) is about a third out of the oven, carefully pour hot water in the roasting tin to come halfway up the side of the dish.
  9. Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden and the custard is lightly set.
  10. Remove the dish from the roasting tin and leave to cool for about 15 minutes.
  11. Preheat grill to the highest setting.
  12. Generously dust the top of the pudding with sifted icing sugar and glaze under the grill until golden brown. If it starts to puff up remove and leave to cool a little longer before returning to the grill.
    Note: It will be more efficient if you use a cooking torch to glaze the icing sugar.
  13. [Optional] Brush the top with the warmed apricot jam. Serve with clotted cream or warm custard.

Oeufs à la Neige

Ouefs a la Neige
The January Daring Cooks Challenge will ensure that no matter where in the world you are, you will have a bit of snow! Kim from Ask a Foodie challenged us to make Oeufs à la Neige, or “Eggs in Snow”.

Oeufs à la neige or Snow Eggs is a favourite of my husband. Whenever we were in France and it's on the menu he often orders it. My cooking/baking to do list had this for a long time. At last this challenge from the Daring Cooks finally forced me to confront this intimidating recipe.

And challenged indeed I was. I halved the recipe since this was an experiment I didn't want to waste too much if anything goes wrong. The meringue was easy enough to do with the help of my hand mixer. But the poaching was something else. I had to emphasize in the recipe that the poaching liquid should be barely simmering. Mine seemed like it was quite hot because the meringues were getting overcooked into shriveled white things. So the poaching time was done very quickly more like 30-45 seconds instead of 2 minutes per side. Also, when you shape the meringues, make sure to use *big* spoons not like the dessert spoons I used. Because they do shrink in size a little after poaching.

Then the caramelised almond slivers came into play. Well I did it all right (although it was a little on the dark caramel side) and set it out in the dining table to cool. By the time I was to sprinkle it on the snow eggs almost all of it was gone! The husband and kids discovered them! Oh well, there was just enough bits I scraped to put as topping.

What of the dessert? How did it go? I was quite eggy, as my daughter said. Well that is a given! For me and the husband, it was very nice although the custard was a bit too sweet for me. I made the adjustments in the recipe below. Other than that I heartily recommend it. Next time I would make the presentation better such as put it in nicer bowls and opt for caramel syrup as well.

The main recipe was adapted from The Encyclopedia of Classic French Pastries by Susan Whatley and the almond praline fron Rachel Khoo's recipe of Floating Island.

Ouefs a la Neige


Oeufs à la Neige
(Snow Eggs)

*For the praline:

1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp water
1/2 cup slivered almonds
  1. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Put sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil.
  3. Add the slivered almonds to the boiling syrup and keep stirring continuously.
  4. The sugar will being melting again and will take on a golden colour.
  5. Once it turns golden, pour out onto the prepared baking tray and quickly spread as thinly as possible (they set fast). Leave to cool completely.


*For the meringue:

3 large egg whites
5 Tbsp granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 3/4 cup whole milk

  1. Put the egg whites in a mixing bowl with the pinch of salt. Beat with an electric hand or stand mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form.
  2. Increase the speed to high and add the sugar gradually while beating until all the sugar has been added.
  3. Beat until stiff peaks form (you should be able to hold the bowl of beaten egg whites upside down without any spilling out).
  4. While you are beating the egg whites, bring the milk on saucepan to a gentle simmer. Lower heat futher until there are only little bubbles at the edges.
  5. Using 2 big dinner spoons, form the meringue into oval shapes. Carefully drop the oval meringues into the simmering milk and poach for about 1-2 minutes each side or until puffed up and set.
  6. Remove from the milk with a slotted spoon and place on a sheet of tea towels or paper towels. Cool and store in the fridge tightly covered until needed.

*For the creme anglaise:

3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
remaining milk from poaching the meringue
  1. Combine the egg yolks, vanilla and sugar in a heat-resistant bowl with a whisk. Gently pour a little at a time of the still warm poaching milk on to the mixture while constantly stirring.
  2. Return the egg-milk mixture to the poaching saucepan and cook at low heat while constantly stirring. There should be about a little less than 2 cups of the mixture. If not, top up with more milk up to roughly that amount.
  3. Cook gently (do not stop stirring) until the mixture thickens to the consistency of a single cream. It should coat the back of a spoon.
  4. Strain the sauce and cool in the fridge covered until thoroughly chilled.

*For the caramel sauce (optional):
 

1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp water

  1. Prepare a bowl full of tap water (preferably in a sink). The bowl should be bigger than the saucepan to be used for cooking. Set aside.
  2. Put the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to boil.
  3. Continue boiling until it becomes golden coloured. Lower heat and cook until it is of the shade of golden colour desired. Immediately put the bottom of the pan into the bowl full of tap water to stop the caramel from cooking further.
  4. Use the caramel immediately

*To assemble:
  • Put about 1/3 - 1/2 cup of creme anglaise in a small serving cup or bowl. Place two or three meringues on top and decorate with almond praline and/or caramel sauce.



Palutang

Palutang
Palutang - in Tagalog literally means 'about to float'. In our corner of Cavite, this is our version of what others call palitaw. Not only is there a difference in name but palitaws are flat and oval shaped while palutangs are round with a dent or hole in the middle. Actually, I think the palutangs look like belly buttons, no?

This kakanin or snack/dessert is one of the traditional food of Filipino families during the New Year. It signifies rising fortunes and good luck in the new incoming year. I often cooked these with my late grandmother who follows this tradition every year.

It is very simply made with very few ingredients. For the palutang itself, it only has one ingredient, well two actually, if you use the flour form. Then you just serve it with fresh shredded coconut and sugar. And it is this simplicity that I now crave in contrast to the rich and indulgent complicated dishes and Western desserts we had in the Christmas season just gone.

Below are pictures of the stages in making palutang:


shaped Palutang dough
cooking Palutang
Palutang

Palutang

1 cup malagkit (glutinous rice) flour
1/2 cup water

*To serve:
fresh grated coconut
brown or white or muscovado sugar
  1. Mix the rice flour with the water in a bowl to form into a dough. Add more water if needed to make the dough a bit sticky but comes away clean from hands and fingers.
  2. Form into 1 to 1-1/2 inch balls. Poke a finger in the middle but not all the way through, just enough to make a dent that will help it float.
  3. Bring a pot full of water to boil. Once it is in rolling boil, carefully drop the shaped palutangs in the pot. Keep the water on high heat.
  4. Once the palutangs float, they are already cooked. Remove with slotted spoon onto a serving dish.
  5. Serve warm or cold with fresh shredded coconut mixed with brown sugar.

Cathedral Windows

Cathedral Windows
One of the winners in the Christmas new recipe experimentations of my family is this great looking and even better tasting Cathedral Windows. I have to thank wholeheartedly Corinne of the excellent Heart of Mary food blog from where I adapted this recipe. Thank you very much Corinne for sharing your family's best ever recipe. We are indebted to you and your aunts for this wonderful refreshing dessert.

This festive dessert I could imagine more in summer feasts because it's quite refreshing in the palate despite the richness of the white binding jelly. Although, this would not go amiss as a foil to all the richness of Christmas season food.

I thought I could get away with using her exact recipe but I couldn't find any thickened cream (Nestle) that is quite common in the Philippines. Good thing I read the voluminous comments of that blog to find that I can use regular double cream (heavy cream) but had to increase the gelatine in the binder. With the first make under my belt, I could see that two jelly moulds could be used in this recipe because I didn't use up all the coloured jellies. So I'll do that next time.

Cathedral Windows
As you can see, I made a mistake in unmoulding the whole thing. It won't come out readily so I immersed the bottom in a bowl full of warm water for, I thought, a few seconds. But it seems I dipped it too long. The top melted and wasn't the ridged smooth gelatine I was expecting. But, nevermind, the taste more than made up for the botched unmoulding. Corinne was right in claiming that it is delicious - it was so yummy. And when I cut it to reveal the inside - wow! To see those colourful jellies floating in white was really really satisfying.

Happy New Year everyone !!



Cathedral Windows

*For coloured jellies:
5 different flavoured and coloured unset jellies*
1 cup boiling water (x5)
1 cup cold tap water (x5)
1 Tbsp sugar (x5)
1 Tbsp unflavoured gelatine powder (x5)

*For binder jelly:
3 Tbsp unflavoured gelatine powder
2 cups apple juice
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup double cream (heavy cream)


For the coloured jellies:
  1. Mix the coloured jelly with 1 cup of boiling water, 1 Tbsp sugar, and 1 Tbsp unflavoured jelly powder.
  2. Stir from time to time until everything is dissolved.
  3. Add in 1 cup of cold tap water.
  4. Pour into a moulding container (plastic, glass, or ceramic; preferably rectangular or square) and chill in the fridge overnight.
  5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for the rest of the coloured jellies.

For the binder jelly:
  1. Heat the apple juice until very hot but not boiling.
  2. Add the unflavoured gelatine, remove from heat and stir until completely dissolved.
  3. In another saucepan, combine the egg yolks, sugar, and lemon juice.
  4. Cook over low heat while stirring until the mixture is thickened.
  5. Pour in the apple mixture and remove from fire. Stir to mix.
  6. Add the evaporated milk and double cream to the mixture and stir to mix.

To assemble:
  1. Before cooking the binder jelly, cut up the different coloured jellies into about 3/4 - 1 inch cubes. Put in a heat resistant bowl.
  2. Wash the final presentation jelly mould with water. Drain water from the inside but do not wipe dry. This is to make the unmoulding of the jelly easier.
  3. Make the binder jelly and while it is still liquid (it sets quickly!) pour it over and combine with the cut-up jellies.
  4. Carefully pour in the jelly mould. Cover and chill in the fridge overnight or until completely set.

*Notes:
  • I used the locally available Hartley's jelly in lime, lemon, orange, blackcurrant, and strawberry flavours.
  • I actually combined the coloured jellies and binder in the jelly mould itself. I just carefully mixed them with a spoon and distributed the coloured jellies evenly.
  • I didn't have one of those nice Tupperware jelly moulds so I just used my regular bundt pan that I use for baking and it wasn't too bad.

Chocolate Cake with Boiling Water


We never get tired of chocolate cakes and this is another one that I've baked over the years. I was in a quandary over this post's title. How to make it distinctive and descriptive? After all, you can only name so much 'chocolate cakes'. The ingredients are very much like what we can find in other chocolate cakes except for this one surprising addition of boiling water. Intriguing! To be honest this is the first time I've used boiling water in a cake batter. I was bracing myself for a flop of a cake but thankfully was very relieved to find out that it results in a very soft, spongy and moist cake. Really really nice. It was not as chocolatey as other ones I've tried before but the texture was something I was pleasantly surprised and very delighted with that I didn't mind if there was less of a chocolate taste. Lastly, this is quite easy since you just combine everything all at once to mix, then add the boiling water last and you're ready to go.

Originally, this was sourced from the BBC Food website but has since discovered that it was virtually the same as Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake except for the salt and sugar! So I will credit them both since I combined them for this version of mine.



Easy Chocolate Cake

225 g  [1 3/4 cups] plain flour
375 g  [1 3/4 cups] granulated sugar
90 g  [3/4 cup] cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/2 vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

*For icing: use Chocolate Ganache or Chocolate Buttercream Icing (even plain buttercream is good)
  1. Preheat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F.
  2. Grease and flour two 9-inch round (or one 13 x 9-inch) baking pans.
  3. Combine all ingredients except the boiling water in a bowl and beat until well combined.
  4. Add the boiling water a little at a time while beating until the batter is smooth.
  5. Divide the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes (for 13x9 cake tin - 35-40 mins.) or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
  6. Remove from the oven and cool completely while still in the pan.

*To assemble: Remove the cakes carefully from the tin and spread a little of the icing on top of one then put the other cake on top. Spread the rest of the icing on top and all around of the cake stack.