A Bread Pudding By Any Other Name

What had been missing in our lives these past nine years was a nice hearty casserole. Besides the rare appearance of a pan of enchiladas on our dining table, I can't remember ever having a casserole since Rosalind was born.

Consequently, a feeling of inadequacy overcame me when Steve came home from school and Rosalind screamed: "Daddy, we're having a casserole!" She was jumping-up-and-down excited about it. All I could think of was that I had deprived this kid of her Midwestern roots and I sincerely hoped that the breakfast casserole I had thrown in the oven would not disappoint.

Maybe it was the exotic nature of a one-dish-meal (carbs, protein and veggies all in one pan?) that created such a stir. In any case, Rosalind devoured her first serving and then asked for a second and then a third helping. She ate everything, even the usual suspects that all too often got shoved in a corner of her plate: spinach and bell peppers. So of course I have made the "casserole" a few more times since then. Now when she talks about "casserole," she means a breakfast casserole.

My old chef would call it savory bread pudding. Similar to Rosalind's casserole, dear old Chef's savory bread pudding consisted of day old bread and a custard base to tie the whole thing together.  But I must say that Chef's version always involved sauteed red onions with white wine, fresh thyme and Gorgonzola. Rosalind's casserole has never been the same dish twice because I just use whatever type of cheese, veggies, and/or meat I scrounge up from the fridge.


Breakfast Casserole

6 cups bread (cut up into small pieces, about 1 inch cube)
5 eggs
2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups grated cheese or thereabouts

Suggested ingredients to mix and match:
chopped spinach
chopped bell peppers
chopped cooked sausage, ham or bacon
artichoke hearts
broccoli
sauteed onions and garlic
olives
pepperoncini
chopped tomatoes
chopped basil
feta cheese
sauteed mushrooms
green onions
Or whatever you fancy in your omelet (probably not avocado)

Whisk together  milk, eggs, nutmeg and salt and pepper. In another bowl, mix together cheese and bread. Pour the milk mixture over the bread. If time permits, refrigerate mixture for an hour or more to allow the bread to soak in the custard.

Mix in additional ingredients. Dump everything in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet or greased casserole pan. Bake at 375F for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.

Let sit for about 10 minutes.

Just in case there's not enough carbs in the casserole, we serve ours with roasted potatoes.

Apple Cinnamon Bread Pudding

We were left with seven egg yolks after making buche de noel. The first thing that came to mind was flan, until I saw: 1.) half a loaf of french bread that would only be good for panini or french toast and 2.) a couple of apples that were almost past their prime. That's how I decided to make bread pudding.

I'm a great advocate of bread pudding because this very simple dessert opens up all sorts of possibilities. We just ran out of regular milk so I decided to use evaporated milk. Any type of dairy is a possibility, sometimes even nondairy. (Turkey stuffing is a kind of bread pudding, using stock/broth as the liquid base.) Any type of fruit would do as well: fresh, dried, or frozen. In any case, bread pudding is amenable to personal taste and resources.



Apple Cinnamon Bread pudding

about 3 cups cut up french bread
2 apples, peeled and chopped
7 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

In large bowl, whisk together, yolks, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add bread and apples. Mix until combined.



Put the mixture in a greased baking pan (springform, round/square cake pan, or loaf pan) and pat down. Lining the pan with parchment or wax paper is not really necessary, though it makes it easier to remove the bread pudding from the pan and it prevents leakage if you are using a springform pan.



Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top (2 tablespoon sugar + 1 teaspoon cinnamon).



Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes.



And if you are a sad case like me and always have caramel sauce stored in the fridge, brush some on top to make the bread pudding gleam!



This can be made ahead of time. Cool and refrigerate at this point. To reheat, pop it in a 350F oven for 15 minutes or so.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding With Orange Cranberry Compote

A couple of months ago, I took on a second job working for a pastry chef who started training for her career at the age of eleven. Needless to say, she knows her craft. She's very particular and meticulous. She also has a sharp tongue. Many times, I had to hold back a retort or my tears; and every time, I was glad I did. Her criticism, no matter how harshly worded, caused me to stop and reevaluate how I do things. What makes everything bearable is that she is very willing to pass on her knowledge as well as help me with the issues I face at my pastry chef job at the restaurant. So I latch on to her like a leech and pick her brain.

"Waste not, want not" is our motto. In her pastry shop, everything is well thought out so that nothing gets wasted. Her mastery of baking techniques and theories is all well and good, but there is something to be said for being able to transform a dreaded ingredient such as prunes into a confection that everyone raves about (by soaking them in cognac then pureeing and using this puree as filling for a flaky cookie dough).

This pumpkin bread pudding was her idea. After Thanksgiving, I got stuck with ten leftover pumpkin tarts at the restaurant. She told me to stop fretting and just make bread pudding out of them. With that idea, I came up with pumpkin walnut bread pudding with orange cranberry compote. The dessert was quite a success that I continued making it weeks after I got rid of those ten tarts. Initially, I just used a custard batter (cream, eggs, and sugar) and added cut up pumpkin tarts (including the crust) and cut up bread. When all the tarts were gone, I made pumpkin pie filling and added pieces of buttery bread (croissant, brioche, even pie crust) for the bread pudding.

Turkey and Cheese Calzone

I don't like waste. With modern technology (i.e. freezer/refrigerator) widely available, it seems unpardonable to have to throw out food because of spoilage. Forethought and a little ingenuity help me reduce what goes in our garbage can. That's why I love recipes that allow me to clear out the fridge in one meal. There's a restaurant we used to go to that offered "Garbage Disposal Omelet" in their menu: an omelet that has a mishmash of whatever ingredients available at that given moment. This is our Garbage Disposal Calzone.

Any pizza dough recipe can be used to enclose whatever ingredients you choose. I would suggest having some kind of cheese to add gooeyness. Here I used pretty bland cheese (ricotta and jack) so I was a little liberal on the spices.

1 Batch of pizza dough

Filling (what's in our fridge)
12 oz ricotta cheese
2 cups jack cheese
2 cups shredded cooked turkey
2 garlic and gruyere turkey sausages chopped up
1 cup fresh spinach
bell peppers sliced
a couple of sprigs of thyme
sprinkle of smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Shape the pizza dough into a ball and let rest for 10 minutes.

Press down into an oblong-ish shape.

Spread out filling on half of the dough, leaving an inch margin.

Fold over the dough and twist edge together.

Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with a little bit of cheese.


Bake at 375F for about 35 minutes.