Modern Bread Pudding Ideas

If everyone loves bread pudding, then everyone knows of its sweet history as stale bread soaked in milk, sugar, butter, fruits and seasonings then bake to form  luscious bread pudding!  While old-fashioned bread pudding is already making a great come-back along with today's reborn of traditional foods, either of its sweet or savory versions can be easy to make.

Making luscious bread pudding is one of the simplest and easy to prepare desserts even a newbie can cook right away. Since we are now in the modern times, why not make a blend of new ingredients cooked the old-fashioned way?

Here are my new-fangled modern bread pudding recipes:

Fruit Cocktail Bread Pudding 

Ingredients

• 5 cups bread cubes, or torn into pieces
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, not margarine
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 cans fruit cocktail, drained and cut into tidbits
• chopped nuts, optional
• Whipped cream, optional

Directions

In a mixing bowl, beat together sugar, butter and cinnamon with an electric mixer for 1 minute, or 3 minutes by hand. Add eggs and beat until blended. Fold bread cubes and fruit cocktail tidbits into the creamed mixture then pour into crock pot. Cover and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours or on High for 3 to 4 hours. You may top with crushed nuts or whipped cream topping if desired. Serve warm or cold.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 loaf bread, cubed or torn into pieces
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/4 cups white-chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups toasted pecans, crushed

Directions

Prepare chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl, set aside. In a saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat until simmering. Pour hot cream over the chocolate chips, whisking until the chips dissolve. Whisk sugar into the mixture then the milk, eggs, and vanilla to form a custard base. Add the bread cubes into the bowl, gently mixing to coat bread cubes with the custard base. Set mixture aside to allow the bread to soak for an hour. Toss once in a while so bread is thoroughly soaked into the custard base. For the meantime, heat the oven to 325 degrees, and grease a baking dish.

Toss the pecans into the soaked bread mixture, then pour the mixture into the baking dish. Cover loosely with foil, and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Remove foil and increase the heat to 400 degrees. Continue baking for 10 minutes longer or until the top of pudding has lightly browned. You may top your bread pudding with whipped cream. Serve warm or cold.

Which Peach Cobbler Is Best

If you enjoy peaches, then you are always excited about the National Peach Cobbler Day. I always make sure we have a basket of peaches for that national day so everyone in my house eats peaches.

There has been a question as to which cobbler is best, the American or the English peach cobbler?
This is a question I always have a hard time solving. In the United Kingdom (England), cobbler is usually a meat dish made into a type of casserole and I first tasted this with my English and Irish mother. American cobbler is typically a dessert consisting of fruit filling and batter that when baked, rises into a dumpling. From the way these two famous cobblers are cooked also sounds the way they tastes. Perhaps it depends on your personal preference as to which cobbler is really for you.

For the American cobbler, there are many different types of fruit cobblers. You can make one that includes apple, blackberry, mango, cherry, rhubarb, pear, and of course peach. Well, I wonder if there will someday be an Apple Cobbler Day or a Cherry-Rhubarb Day. Anyway, since I am a sweet lover, my pick is the American cobbler.

Because the pie crust is mostly not homemade and the peaches are usually canned, I find making peach cobblers a lot easier that I can make 6 pans of peach cobbler for National Cobbler Day. There are two types of cobblers that you can enjoy, one with a biscuit crust topping and the second using a pie crust. Since my kids enjoy making biscuits in our Dutch oven, a peach cobbler with a biscuit topping is always our pick. Yes, my kids make peach cobblers.

Although me and my husband prefer the pie crust, we were forced to shift to the biscuit type as there is nothing as enjoyable as eating what your kids make. It really comes down to your own preference or how you were taught to cook cobbler, and we want our kids to know that.

Happy Peach Cobbler Day!