The Best Bread Pudding

2 eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups milk
2 cups sugar
3 1/2 to 5 cups sourdough bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 cup pecans, chopped finely

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat together eggs, butter, vanilla, and milk. Add sugar and mix until sugar is dissoved. Arrange bread cubes tightly in a nine-inch baking dish, keeping the crust facing up around the edges in scattered within the dish. Pour liquid over the bread. Sprinkle pecans all over and bake for 55 to 70 minutes, or until crust is golden brown all over the top.

While the bread pudding is baking, make the Whiskey Cream Sauce:

1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup Jack Daniels

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Stir constantly over low heat until mixture reaches a low boil. Pour a small amount over the individual servings of bread pudding.

Store leftovers in fridge. Walk by every hour and pop a cube of bread in your mouth. Smile contently.

The wonderful thing about this bread pudding is the use of sourdough bread cubes instead of white bread. It gives the dish structure and integrity, and once it’s finished baking, there’s a wonderfully crispy crust around the edges and on the top, which is a great balance for the softness of the soaked bread. And if that weren’t enough, the whiskey cream sauce gives it even more of a sinful quality…I could go on all day. Instead, let’s get started!

The Cast of Characters: Sourdough bread, eggs, butter, vanilla, milk, sugar, and pecans. How much simpler can this get, I ask you?

Start by cutting the sourdough bread into 1-inch cubes.

To do this, cut 1-inch slices…

Then stack three or four slices together.

First cut long, 1-inch slices, then rotate 90 degrees and cut the other way to form cubes.

Keep going until you have anywhere from 3 1/2 to 5 cups of sourdough cubes. (You can save and freeze whatever you have left for next time!)

Start laying sourdough cubes in the bottom of a 9-inch baking dish.

Don’t cram them in, but you want them to fit pretty snugly. Around the perimeter of the dish, arrange the cubes of bread with the crust facing up.

Do the same thing to some of the pieces in the middle. Now, some people who are much more artistic and creative than I might get a little snazzy and OCD with the pattern of the cubes, keeping them in concentric circles or something equally complicated, which would be great. Me? I tend to like the rustic (lazy) look. Notice that you don’t see any large gaps between the cubes.

Next, crack two eggs into a bowl.

Whisk them together.

Add 2 tablespoons melted (and slightly cooled) butter.

Next add 2 1/2 cups milk…

2 cups sugar…

And two TABLESPOONS of vanilla. Boy, that’s a lot of vanilla, but you’ll praise the heavens later.

Whisk everything together thoroughly until sugar is dissolved.

Now pour the mixture evenly over the sourdough cubes, making sure it’s all nicely saturated.

It’ll feel as though you’re absolutely drowning the bread…

But don’t worry—it’ll turn out great!

Now chop 1/3 cup pecans…

Here’s a good way to chop nuts: rest the palm of your hand on the narrow end (and dull side) of the knife, then move the knife in an up-and-down, rocking motion.

Continue until pretty finely chopped.

Now sprinkle the chopped pecans over the bread.

The pecans do add wonderful crispness and flavor, but if you’re like my dear sister and swell up like a bullfrog and start itching wildly and wheeze violently if you consume even the smallest piece of a tree nut, you could certainly omit them.

Now it’s time to pop it into a 325-degree oven and bake for 55 to 70 minutes, or until the bread is nice and golden brown all over the top.

While the bread pudding is cooking, it’s time to make the Whiskey Sauce.

The Cast of Characters: sugar, butter, cream, and Jack Daniels. The stuff that dreams are made of.

Throw all four ingredients into a saucepan and stir together until sugar dissolves.

Stir constantly over low heat until mixture reaches a low boil. Remove from heat and set aside, or pour into a small container, if desired.

Ding-ding-ding! Time to take the pan out of the oven. The dish might appear a little poufy at first, but it will settle over the next few minutes. Look at the beautiful, crispy crust.

Hello, beautiful. I love you. The insidious thing about this dadgum dish is that these individual cubes are so inviting and so easy just to grab straight out of the dish and pop in your mouth. My skinny mother-in-law, in fact, had the audacity to leave the leftovers with me, the meanie. And I spent the next 24 hours popping "just one" cube in my mouth every time I walked by. It became a problem.

With a serving spoon, dish up a nice helping onto a plate. Notice how the "soft" part of the bread still isn’t a soggy mess? The sourdough really gives it character.

Either pour or spoon a small amount of sauce onto each individual serving.

And serve. And weep tears of joy and contentment, because you’ve just made the best bread pudding. Ever.

For those of you who love bread pudding, I know you’ll love this recipe. For those of you who think you don’t like bread pudding, please, please try this recipe. And report back to me so we can oooh and aaaah together.

From Pioneer Woman

Delicious Baked Acorn Squash

Acorn Squash
Kosher Salt
Butter
Brown Sugar
Pure Maple Syrup

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Half each squash, then scrape out the seeds and stringy membranes.
Sprinkle each half with salt.
Add a generous tablespoon of butter to the center of each squash.
Add 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons brown sugar.
Drizzle squash with maple syrup.
Pour 2 cups water in the bottom of the baking pan.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 30-45 minutes, or until squash is golden brown. In the last 5 minutes of baking, turn on the broiler and allow tops to get a little more brown and the butter/sugar mixture to bubble.

Today’s offering is Baked Acorn Squash, something I’ve made off and on for years, and something about which I fantasize during the years I don’t make it. I’m a real squash fanatic, whether it’s pumpkin, butternut, spaghetti, or acorn (or zucchini or summer squash, for that matter) so I’m always looking for great ways to prepare it that’s a little set apart from the fray.

This is as easy as it comes: you simply halve and hollow out acorn squash, then fill the hollow center with butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and salt…then you bake it. The results is a soft, flavorful squash that’s dripping with all the good things in life.

While some folks might prefer to scrape out the individual halves into a large casserole dish, I prefer to serve them straight out of the oven. If the squash are large, they might be a little to big for one person. But if your family is close like mine, they won’t be afraid to share.

This is one of those “fun to make” dishes, by the way. So let’s have some fun together. K? K. 10-4, good buddy.

The Cast of Characters: Acorn Squash, salt (kosher works best), butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup (the real stuff; not Aunt Jemima.) This is simple stuff, folks. Really simple stuff.

Begin by placing each squash on a large cutting board.

To cut the squash in half lengthwise, very carefully pierce the middle with a sharp knife. The skin is quite tough, so move slowly so you don’t slip and cause yourself a trip to the E.R.

Gently push the top of the knife until it penetrates the hard skin. After that, it’ll slide right in a lot more easily.

Next, with a spoon or scoop, just scrape out the seeds and stringy membranes. It’s no different from what we did with the pumpkin a couple of weeks ago, or the butternut squash we fixed last year.

Squash are similar that way.

Repeat this until all the halves are hollowed out, man.

Sometimes I just have to throw in a “man.” Makes me feel groovy, far out, and outta sight.

Now, with the tip of a sharp knife, score the surface of the squash. Just five or six lines will do just fine.

Then sprinkle the surface with salt. In situations like this, kosher is your friend. It’s just easier to sprinkle, harder to oversalt…and it feels good rubbing between your fingers.

I’m very tactile.

Add a generous tablespoon of regular (salted) butter into the hollow. So basically, 1 1/2 tablespoons, except I’m in denial about my butter use and prefer to say “generous tablespoon.”

Someday I hope to write a book about the effectiveness of euphemistic language, and how a healthy sense of denial contributes to an overall increased happiness in life. It also contributes to an overall increased bottom size, but I won’t put that in the book.

Now, dump in a heaping couple of tablespoons of brown sugar. There’s no set amount here; if you like things on the sweet side, add a little more.

Now, just drizzle with maple syrup.

Again, no set amount…

I just drizzle ’til it feels good.

Next, pour a couple of cups of water into the pan, just to provide the squash with a little moist heat while they’re baking.

In baking, it’s all about moist heat.

Now just cover the pan with foil, leaving some gaps to let some steam escape.

Pop the pan into the oven and bake ‘em for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for an additional 30 to 40 minutes. Turn on the broiler for the last five minutes to ensure the tops get brown and the butter/sugar mixture bubbles violently for a minute or so. But you’ll have to stand there and babysit! You don’t want to char the tops.

Mmmm. What you wind up with is a soft, delectable acorn squash filled with a buttery, sugary soup. It seriously doesn’t get much better than this.

Now, with a spoon, scoop up some of the liquid…

And drizzle it all over the surface of the squash.

So how do you eat this, you ask?

Well, there are two ways. One, you can scrape out the flesh (and juice) of each half and put the whole mixture into a casserole dish. mashing it up slightly. Then, just warm it up in the oven when you’re ready to serve.

OR, you can do what I do and just serve the halves on a platter. I think they look better that way.

And then…

You just use your spoon to scrape up the soft flesh inside…

And eat it by the spoonful, right along with the decadent liquid that coated it on its way out.

And then, give thanks for squash. For butter. For brown sugar. And for all the other wonderful things of this earth that make life worth living.

From Pioneer Woman

Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
cinnamon
1 small can Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

For those of you with will power, though, these are really surprisingly delightful! The texture of the crescent rolls becomes something entirely different during the baking process: the top gets delightfully crisp and flavorful, while the underneath side remains soft and mushy and more “apple dumpling-y”. And the Mountain Dew, coupled with the obscene amound of butter, creates a yummy, sweet sauce at the end. Serve these beauties with ice cream (or, if you’re on a diet, a huge dollup of sweetened whipped heavy cream) and you’ll be left wondering how such ordinary ingredients can be so sublime.

The Cast of Characters: Granny Smith apples, Butter, Sugar, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, and a can of Mountain Dew.


Start by peeling and coring 2 Granny Smith apples. It doesn’t matter if they’re a little bruised and battered. My boys used these to play raquetball earlier that day, and they worked just fine.


Next, cut the apples into eight slices.


Butter a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. (Mine was a little smaller and I later ran out of room, so please don’t take matters into your own hands and choose some funky pan that’s too small. I’ll regret it the rest of my life.)


Now I want you to cast aside any preconceived notions you might have about refrigerator crescent rolls. Then I want you to open the can of crescent rolls and unroll the dough.

Just pretend it’s puffed pastry. And really what’s the big difference? (I have a feeling someone out there is going to answer that for me.)


In any event, roll up an apple slice in each of the cresent rolls.

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Like this!


Now lay each one into the buttered baking pan. And let’s just acknowledge the elephant in the room: the black smudge on my left thumb. It isn’t mascara. It isn’t Sharpie pen. It’s grease from the underside of my tripod head, which can stick a little. I would have Photoshopped it out, but that wouldn’t be keepin’ it real, now, would it?


Now, melt 2 sticks regular (salted) butter in a saucepan.


Dump in 1 1/2 cups sugar…


And here’s the kicker: just barely stir together.

Also add in 1 teaspoon vanilla…


And barely stir. You definitely want the mixture lumpy and grainy.


Now pour the very low-calorie mixture over the top of the dumplings, making sure to thoroughly coat them.


I’m so pleased to be able to bring you healthy, low-fat cuisine. Makes me feel like I’m doing my part in the world.


Now, the recipe calls for a 12-ounce can of Mountain Dew, but I wound up using only one of these little ones. And by the way, aren’t these just the cutest little things?

And there’s another black smudge. I can’t escape them…they’re taking over. But I’m just happy you guys accept me, black smudgy fingers and all.


So what you want to do is, pour Mountain Dew all around the edge of the pan.

I also deviated from the rules a bit and poured it down the center. But only because I was feeling dangerous.

NOW. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, watching to make sure they don’t get too brown. (You’ll definitely want them golden brown and crispy on top, though.)

And here’s what they’ll look like.


Now, when I first pulled the pan out of the oven, there was quite a lot of liquid sloshing around in the pan. This happened because I used a smaller pan than the recipe called for, and I had to leave out two dumplings. So if you use a 9 x 13-incher, you should be fine. I poured a little of the excess liquid into a separate bowl before I began cutting into the dumplings.

Oh, baby. Honestly, these are to die for. See how crispy they are on top, and how soft and dumpling-y they are on the bottom? That combination of textures is what’s so delicious.

Serve it with vanilla ice cream (cinnamon ice cream would be perfect, too), and don’t be afraid to top the whole thing with some of the sweet sauce from the bottom of the pan.

If you want to just drink that stuff with a straw, that’d be fine, too.

Enjoy!

From Pioneer Woman

Ryan’s Bolognese Sauce

The thing about my recent houseguest Ryan is that he’s an exceptional cook. Bottom line: the guy just flat knows what he’s doing in the kitchen, wrestling pretty much any ingredient to the ground with complete confidence. If he wasn’t a minister, I’d say he missed his calling.

But…yeah. I don’t think he did.

The other thing about my recent houseguest Ryan is…he doesn’t so much use recipes. He’s one of those by-feel people, and he cooks using ratios more than anything else (more about that in a separate post.)

The night before Ryan and his family left Oklahoma (and guess what? He didn’t leave Oklahoma because…they missed their flight!) I took the liberty of inviting over a few folks from church. Ryan was good enough to, well, pretty much prepare a completely from-scratch meal for the six strangers he’d just met at church with us that morning. I asked him how he felt to be chained to a stove for three days straight and he said, “Here—grate this Parmesan for me.” And I did.

For dinner Ryan prepared homemade pasta and his version of a Bolognese sauce. It was totally delicious.

Please bear with me on the quantities of the ingredients Ryan used. I’m guesstimating…but that’s part of the deliciousness. Make it all your own, upping or decreasing ingredients to suit your needs.

He started by grating carrots.

Then he peeled and halved a red onion.

Then he diced up a good amount. This was one very large red onion.

Then he sliced and diced a HUGE boatload of garlic. Like, five to seven cloves.

Lots of olive oil went into the Dutch oven. I’d say around 1/2 cup.

When it comes to adding olive oil to the pan, we don’t deal in tablespoons around here.

When the oil was heated, Ryan threw in the grated carrots.

Then came the red onions.

According to Ryan, red onions are much stronger than yellow or white onions when they’re raw…but cooked down, there’s not much difference.

He cooked this down for a few minutes…

Then he made a well in the carrot/onion mixture…

And added in a couple of pounds of hamburger right into the pot!

He let it sit against the bottom of the pan and get nice and brown.

As it began to brown, he threw in some parsley CORRECTED: OREGANO flakes and dried basil. All I had in the fridge was fresh cilantro, dadgummit.

But Ryan wasn’t thwarted.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Ryan, it’s that he doesn’t flinch if he finds he’s short an ingredient or two.

And then: another well!

The point of these wells is to expose the hot pan so that the added ingredients can go straight against the heat and get nice and hot.

This time he added tomato paste. One can, I think.

Ryan says that getting them up against the heat like this removes the pesky aluminum taste from the can.

Velly, velly intellesting.

Oh, this is looking good.

And boy, was it smelling good.

Then the chopped garlic went in.

After the garlic, guess what? Another well for the red wine. Lots of it. About two cups.

Followed by…Worcestershire sauce!

Intellesting.

You can’t imagine how good this smells. Guests began to arrive right about now, and they gasped when they walked through the door.

Next came the canned whole tomatoes.

I think he added two cans, but I can’t be too sure. I was too busy licking my chops.

And the final ingredient was…a cup of milk!

You’re just going to have to trust him on this.

The dinner guests absolutely loved it. I absolutely loved it.

You’ll absolutely love it.

Here’s the recipe, in approximations.

(Pastor Ryan, if you ever make it back home to Cincinnati, please correct me if I have anything wrong.)

Ryan’s Bolognese

1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 large red onion, diced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 pounds ground beef
2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes CORRECTED: OREGANO flakes
2 tablespoons dried basil flakes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 cups red wine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire
salt
pepper
2 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes
1 cup milk
Fresh Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add grated carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes.
Make a well in the center of the mixture, then add in the ground beef. Cook for a few minutes until brown, gradually stirring it into the carrot mixture.
Throw in oregano and basil. Use fresh if you have it; if you don’t, it’s fine.
When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients, make another well. Add tomato paste and let it heat.
Add garlic and stir to combine.
Make a well in the center of the mixture and add red wine. Stir together.
Add Worcestershire and stir.
Finally, pour in milk, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—however long you need.

Serve with pasta and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Scrumptious!

From Pioneer Woman