Apple Bacon Bread Pudding

Happy Holiday Season, my friends!

We have made it past Thanksgiving, so I can officially be as annoying as possible with my over-the-top Christmas spirit! Yay! Woo! Candy Canes! Gingerbread!

As I write up this blog post, I may or may not be snuggled up on the couch with Mr. Raleigh, wearing a shirt covered in gingerbread men, listening to some Christmas tunes while drinking coffee with a candy cane swirling around in my big mug…

If you don’t recall from last holiday season, this time of year just speaks to me—it’s truly the time when everyone’s love just comes out, no questions asked, and that makes me even more warm and fuzzy than usual! And if you’re at my house for Christmas, it’s going to be gingerbread house making, Bad Santa watching, spiked eggnog and Cognac drinking, and I-spy Christmas ornament playing. Things get pretty wild up there.

ANYWAYS! Let me stop rambling about the upcoming excitement in Maine, but instead about this even bigger thrill of the recipe below! Bacon. Apples. Spices. Bread. Crumb Topping.

I think I should have had you at bacon, but had to add in the crumb topping incase you’re nuts and your mouth doesn’t water at the thought of bacon.

Alright, so I have a small confession…the idea of bread pudding hasn’t always appealed to me. I see it on a brunch menu, a dessert menu, I’m kind of like well…pancakes, waffles, chocolate cake…they’re all higher up to me. But then after the past few weeks at work of making savory bread pudding almost everyday, I decided to put aside all of my past feelings and give it another shot. See, at work, we use day old savory pastries—croissants, gougeres, ham puffs—and that’s when I realized it can’t be that bad if there’s flaky, buttery pastry in it.

What bread is in my sweet variation? Cinnamon bread and challah, thank you very much. Luckily, homemade OR store bought is just fine, and day old is even better. And then I just added almost every favorite ingredient of mine: bacon for some savory-salty action, apples for a tart crunch, cinnamon and nutmeg—I mean, it’s Christmas, brown sugar for that wonderful sweetness, and a buttery, big crumb topping for even more little flavor bursts.

After making my own bread pudding and seeing how fun it is to experiment with flavor combinations, there’s absolutely no reason why this incredible custard shouldn’t move up in your ranking, too! One of the best parts? You can make this and let it sit overnight in the fridge, and then bake it fresh in the morning—hello simple brunch!

Oh, and I heard Christmas is on a Sunday this year, the day of brunching…so here is one less thing you need to plan!

crumb ingredients

Brown Sugar—1 oz, or 2 TBL

Flour—0.75 oz, or 2 TBL

Cinnamon—¼ tsp

Nutmeg—pinch

Butter, cold+cubed—1.5 oz, or 3 TBL

process

In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients.

Either using a fork, a pastry cutter, or, my favorite, your hands (!!), work the butter into the dry ingredients.

You want to have large and small crumbs of the topping, this will give you little buttery, spicy pockets once the bread pudding is baked!

When you are ready to bake your bread pudding, sprinkle this all over the top before putting into the oven.

ingredients

Bacon, cooked—8-10 pieces

Apple, diced—1

Bread—10 oz, or 4 C (packed!)

Milk—8 oz, or 1 C

Eggs—4

Vanilla—1 tsp

Brown Sugar—2.5 oz, or 1/3 C

Salt—¾ tsp

Cinnamon—2 tsp

process

In a large bowl, combine the bacon, diced apple, and bread.

*For bread, using day old is great, really soaks up the liquid. You may also use whatever type you’d like—but a sweet challah or cinnamon raison are the perfect flavor combinations!*

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.

Pour your liquid mixture over the bread and mix well.

Once thoroughly mixed, pour all into a baking dish—I used a pie dish, makes it look pretty!

Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit in the refrigerator to soak for at least 2 hours to overnight!

When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350˚F.

Sprinkle the crumb topping (recipe below) over the bread pudding.

Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until you can see that the custard has set and there are no more runny eggs.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Citrus Olive Oil Cake

Want to know what is so wonderful about winter?

The beautiful snow? Well, yes.

The big cable knit sweaters and skiing (or lodging)? Absolutely.

BUT! What I live for in the winter is the abundance of citrus that is all around during this chilly, windy and slippery season.

While I can’t just go to my backyard and pick a grapefruit off of my tree, I can go to the great market downtown where there is an abundance of quality citrus—from oranges to lemons, grapefruits to limes—I love this about the wintertime!

This past weekend I was inspired so much by the incredible weather in Charleston—Saturday was 70˚ and sunny, Roberto and I finally got to enjoy living downtown and took full advantage of how walkable this city can be! Sunday was almost as warm and rainy, my favorite! Something about the smell of “summer rain,” but in February, it was the perfect weekend.

And here comes my craving again for citrus, for summer, for light and simple! I had made an olive oil cake for a 4th of July get together that we had this past summer and clearly needed to have some in my life again. PLUS! Can I say winter citrus one more time?!

Yep. It happened.

And here we have it, the most moist, citrusy, lightly sweet cake. I used almond flour along with AP flour in this recipe, giving it just a slightly unique flavor—I can’t imagine this cake without it! If you want to use another nut flower, some coconut flour, that will add that little something fun to such a simple cake! What else is versatile? The citrus that is added. I used both oranges and grapefruits, two of my favorites, but any others can be subbed of course!

Finally, this is the perfect cake to make individualized! Roberto got me the cutest cocottes from Le Creuset and I don’t use them enough, so naturally I did for these wonderfully adorable cakes! So, whether you had a blizzard this weekend or were getting sunburned on your walk around town, we are in the deep winter months and there’s no better way to celebrate than with this Citrus Olive Oil Cake!

cake ingredients

Flour—9.8 oz, or 1 ¾ C

Almond Flour—2 oz, or ½ C

Baking Soda—½ tsp

Baking Powder—½ tsp

Salt—1 ¼ tsp

Sugar (I use coarse turbinado sugar)—12 oz, or 1 ½ C

Milk—7.5 oz, or 1 C

Olive Oil—12 oz, or 1 ½ C

Freshly Squeezed OJ—6 oz, or ¾ C

Eggs—3

Orange Zest—1 large

Grapefruit Zest—1 large

Orange, for baking—1 large

cake process

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add in the turbinado sugar and whisk.

In a separate bowl, combine the milk, olive oil, OJ, and eggs.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together.

Mix in the zest.

I used individual sized cocottes for this cake, but using a larger 8”cake pan will work as well!

Spray your desired pan with nonstick spray, and sprinkle a little but of almond flour on the bottom.

Slice your orange into ¼“ thick slices and put on the bottom of your pan(s).

Pour your batter into your desired baking dishes until they are about ¾ of the way full.

Place in your oven and bake until the top springs back when touched.

If you are using the smaller cocottes, baking time is 25-30 minutes; if you are using one large pan, baking time is about 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Invert your cake and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Whole Wheat Spice Bread

Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

…Or should I call it Leftover Friday? Was everyone’s Thanksgiving absolutely magical? Was it full of mashed potatoes and love, wine and gossip, five slices of this semifreddo and the parade?! I sure hope so!

Is it just me or does everyone stuff themselves even more with leftovers the day after Thanksgiving? Basically being like oh shoot! There’s 10 more pounds of stuffing and gravy and turkey and brussels sprouts and beans and I need to eat them all RIGHT NOW. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?!

While everyone has their day of Thanksgiving traditions, I feel like the day after is just as special—yes, I am referring to fueling up with a leftover brunch and listening to Christmas music… So, rather than throwing every single food that was so beautifully displayed on the table yesterday—decorated with cute little pumpkins, candles, the nicest dishes—into one massive bowl and mixing it into just a pile of amazing, I was like oh. Man. I. Must. Make. A. Sandwich.

Game changer! A Thanksgiving sandwich?! Hey, I think Ross kind of had the idea going, even throw in a gravy-soaked piece of bread in the middle, “the moist maker” if you will.

Bring in the whole wheat bread.

Yes! Whole wheat! Spices! Molasses! This breads flavor is so full of warm cinnamon and allspice, it is just slightly sweet with natural honey, and so hearty from the whole wheat flour. Who doesn’t love freshly baked bread first of all, but the smell of it baking in the oven is better than any candle I own! It’s also great friends with turkey and gravy, or better yet, a nontraditional leftovers brunch of eggs and some fried prosciutto! Like, what?!

What doesn’t go well on this whole-wheat spice bread? I couldn’t tell you!

So whether you went out at midnight for some shopping, or decided to stay in your PJs all day and eat plate after plate of potatoes, this bread makes for the perfect brunch, lunch, or anytime leftover companion!

ingredients

Dry Active Yeast—0.25 oz, or 1½ tsp

Water—8 oz, or 1 C + 2 TBL (separated)

Honey—1.25 oz, or 2 TBL

Whole Wheat Flour—15 oz, or 2½ C

AP Flour—2.75 oz, or ½ C

Cinnamon—0.1 oz, or 1 tsp

Allspice—0.05 oz, or ½ tsp

Canola Oil—0.25 oz, or 1½ tsp

Molasses—0.5 oz, or 1½ tsp

Salt—0.25 oz, or 1¼ tsp

process

In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together the yeast, honey and ¼ C/1.75 oz water—making sure that the water is between 105˚-115˚ F.

Let sit for 5 minutes, so that the yeast can begin to activate; you’ll notice that it will start to foam a bit.

In a separate bowl, combine the flours, cinnamon and allspice.

Once the yeast has begun to bubble, add in the remaining water (at the correct, warm temperature), oil, molasses and half of the flour/spice mixture.

Mix.

Add the rest of the flour and salt to the mixture.

Mix at medium speed, with the dough hook, for 10-12 minutes, until the dough forms into a ball and is kneading/slapping the sides of your mixer.

If the dough isn’t coming together after a few minutes, add a couple of tablespoons of water to the mixer.

After the 10 minutes, transfer the dough to an oiled bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and a towel.

Allow to rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.

After the first rise, put the dough on your floured work surface.

Roll the dough into a rectangle that’s about 9” x 12”, the length of your loaf pans.

Fold the dough into a business letter—taking the top third, folding it down, and then the bottom third and folding it up.

Pinch to seal the seam; pinch in the ends so that it will fit into the pan.

Cover again with plastic wrap and a towel.

Allow to rise, again, until it has doubled in size—anywhere from 1-2 hours, all depending how warm the room is.

When you are ready to bake the bread, preheat your oven to 375˚ F.

Bake the bread for 30 minutes. The bread will become slightly brown when finished.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool a bit before taking out of the loaf pan.

Slice and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!