A Great Dessert for a large family function: Cake Doughnut Bread Pudding

Recipe: Cake Doughnut Bread Pudding

I've made this for the past few years now for our Christmas Eve dessert. Its a big hit and the only changes I make are no raisins and we don't do the rum sauce since there are a few kids and some people who don't drink.

This recipe is from the food network and Recipe courtesy Michael Chiarello specifically.

Cake Doughnut Bread Pudding

Prep Time:
15 min
Inactive Prep Time:
10 min
Cook Time:
45 min

Level:
Easy

Serves:
8 to 10 servings

Bread pudding:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
16 cake doughnuts

Rum sauce:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound confectioners' sugar
Dark rum, to taste


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a food processor, combine butter and sugar briefly, just until it forms into a ball. Add eggs, heavy cream, cinnamon, and vanilla, and process until blended.

Lightly butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Break up the doughnuts into 1-inch pieces and layer in the pan. Scatter the raisins over the top. Pour the egg mixture over the doughnuts; soak for 5 to 10 minutes. You will need to push doughnut pieces down during this time to ensure even coverage by egg mixture.

Cover with foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for additional 10 minutes to brown the top. The doughnut bread pudding is done when the custard is set, but still soft.

Make the rum sauce: melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan, and take off the heat. Add confectioners' sugar to the melted butter and whisk to blend. Add rum, to taste. Pour the sauce over the bread pudding and allow to soak in

Cami's Puff Pastry Dessert

Holy cow this is good. I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out great. I love that it feels light because it doesn't have much sugar. I used sugar free apricot jam as well and thought it was just the right sweetness. 

With the extra pastry I made a blueberry version. I just added frozen blueberries before putting it in the oven. It could not be easier. I still used some apricot jam on the blueberry and it was really good. I think it would be great with pears, assorted berries or cherries.

It's a good thing I weren't serving this to anyone but my family because as I was doing the pastry part I looked over and found this: 

Yep, he ate 3-4 bites in my apple. Oh and then he tried to drink the lemon water. After I took the apples out I let him have a taste. He loves it. Crazy kid.

On Christmas eve I made this Floret Cheese Strudel using puff pastry. Prior to that I haven't ever used it. I think I will probably try the salmon recipe in Good Eats. I'm curious about his manwich filling version but probably not enough to make it. I do like that about Alton Brown though. He isn't a pretentious chef. He doesn't assume you're only using whole, organic foods. I'm not saying you shouldn't it's just he isn't listing ridiculous ingredients that the average home cook doesn't have access to. And he seems to understand my desire for quick food.

Danielle's Flandango

I LOVE flan. I was excited when Cami picked this episode. I've made and had flan a number of times before and this was as good as any I've had. The texture was perfect. And besides the caramel, it was super easy to make. The only deviation I made from the recipe was that instead of half & half, I used half whole milk and half heavy cream. Half & half is just milk and cream anyway right? I figured I didn't need to buy cream AND half & half.

I did all of mine with caramel. I'm interested in how it would turn out with chocolate in the bottom, but I didn't want to make chocolate sauce in addition to caramel. For the caramel, I used the brown sugar caramel sauce recipe in the Baked book. I messed up the consistency (I still haven't perfected my caramel making methods), but it worked out just fine for the flan. And it tasted great. This recipe is a keeper.

Moo-Less Chocolate Pie

I do love a good chocolate pie. I really loved this chocolate pie from Baked but thought it was kind of a lot of work. When I was flipping through Good Eats and found Alton's recipe for Chocolate Pie featuring Tofu as the main ingredient, my curiosity sky rocketed.

Here is the link for the online recipe. It comes from an episode called Tofuworld and can be found in the book on page 192.

It's been in the high 90s-100s here in my part of California for almost a week now. Generally we get some relief from the fog that rolls in from the Bay at night, but not during this heatwave. It's been miserable. I don't think I've had a good night's sleep in five nights. So when I was picking my recipe, I knew I'd have to find something that did not require me to turn on the oven. Although this recipe includes a Chocolate Wafer Crust which you bake for a short period, I cheated and bought one of those pre-made Oreo cookie crusts at the store. I'm sure Alton's crust is much better, but it's just too hot here. In retrospect, I should have just used Baked's cookie crust recipe since it doesn't require an oven, but oh well.

I think this pie is WAY too sweet. When I try it again I will only use only 1/2 the package of chocolate chips (6 oz). I love chocolate and I couldn't even finish a small slice of this pie. I think the tofu is a great idea though so I will be playing around with this recipe to make it just right for me. I love finding ways to incorporate tofu into my food since it's so good for you and has relatively no taste.

Paige's Banana Cupcakes

I had a fun time making the banana cupcakes. I actually made them for Danielle's baby shower. They were a huge success! All the ladies at the shower complimented me on them, Danielle liked them (always a plus! because she has a sophisticated palette... ;) ), and my hubby gobbled up most of the extras in one day! I've never had a banana cupcake and the idea peaked my fancy. I have to be honest, I made a few changes to the recipe, but I'm really happy with how the cupcakes turned out.

Changes:

*I substituted canola oil for the shortening (I never cook with shortening). I did just a tad less than 1/4 cup.

*I used sweetened condensed milk instead of buttermilk.

*And since I used sweetened condensed milk, I did just a touch less sugar than the recipe called for

The cupcakes turned out very sweet and light (not too sweet!). I mixed the canola and butter with a hand mixer to start. It worked perfectly (I was a little nervous at first since I wasn't sure how the oil would do). I baked mine at the 325 degrees but they only took about 15 or 16 minutes. NOT the 20-25! * The recipe makes about 40 cupcakes.

I also decided to make a cream cheese frosting instead of the vanilla pastry cream (I'm not really big on pastry cream and I thought the ladies at the shower would enjoy cream cheese frosting - it seems all women like really cream cheese frosting!).

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package 3 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 box powdered sugar

*Beat cream cheese, butter, milk, salt, and vanilla until creamy. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Frost after cupcakes have completely cooled.

I topped mine with dried banana chips (from Trader Joe's) and think they turned out really cute. I would recommend them over doing the fresh sliced bananas because those would brown quickly and if you dip them in lemon juice then you'll have lemon juice dripping down your cupcake... :(

I would definitely make these again! I loved them. They could almost pass as a muffin if you left off the frosting. They are just a bit lighter and more fluffy than a muffin. They were absolutely fine without frosting but the cream cheese frosting was a nice contrast against the sweetness of cakes.

Hope you enjoy them when you make 'em! And.. I'm curious to know how they turn out with the buttermilk and vanilla pastry cream, from those of you who decide to make them that way...

Grasshopper Cake

I have to admit, this particular cake seems slightly intimidating for some reason. Perhaps it is the long laundry list of ingredients, or the slightly complex assembly process. But you can't deny the draw of chocolate and mint! And it's gorgeous. . .

So the batter came together fairly easily. I baked the cakes on the lower end (35 minutes), and they looked great, but the centers did sink a bit after I took them out. So I suggest leaving them in for a few minutes longer. The cake is also extremely delicate, and will fall apart if you aren't gentle with it. But it does taste great!

The peppermint buttercream is pretty awesome! I've never made a cooked frosting with flour before, but it turned out great! It's light and fluffy without being as rich as a Swiss meringue buttercream. I also added 3 drops of green food coloring to get that lovely mint color. Tip for this frosting - make sure you beat the sugar/milk/flour mixture long enough! The texture will change completely, but it does take quite a bit of time. I also added an extra 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract to get a decent mint flavor.

I'm not sure about the ganache. I used Scharffen Berger 70% chocolate, which I think was too dark considering the recipe has no added sugar. I had to end up adding powdered sugar to make it balanced, which didn't hurt the texture.

The assembly of the cake is not as bad as I thought it would be. I put the ganache layered cake in the freezer instead of the fridge because my kitchen was a bit warm. The buttercream spreads on like a dream. You can really have a lot of fun with decorating this cake, but I wanted to keep it simple, so I just used chocolate chips.

All in all, I think this recipe is pretty good, and with one or two more tries, it could be pretty perfect! Oh, and try to have a kitchen helper, the dirty dishes are intense!

Danielle's Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these a couple of months ago.

Like LuAnn said, this recipe makes the most delicious cookie dough! A good portion of mine got eaten as dough as well.

I made them at night and it was too late to chill the dough if I was going to get to eat any. So I made some that night and then put the rest of the dough in the fridge. Both ways I made them (chilled and not chilled), the cookies spread quite a bit and were pretty flat. The chilled dough didn't spread as much, but they were still flat cookies.

I don't mind a flat cookie, but I didn't like that the cookies browned so much. Was that just my oven or is it the dough? If anyone else makes them, let me know if you had the same experience. I kept thinking they were burning but they didn't look set yet. Even though they were pretty brown, they stayed chewy, but I still didn't really like the flavor they got from being so browned.

I can't really say why, but I thought the cookies tasted better the day after I made them.

Overall, these were tasty, but this won't be my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. I might make it again some day, but these won't replace my favorite recipe.

Danielle's Lemon Drop Cake

*Sorry, no pictures of the inside of the cake since the pieces I cut fell apart.

Isn't it cute? I love 6" cakes!

Today is Max's birthday, so this is Max's birthday cake. (Such a mean wife... he didn't even get to pick the flavor.) But lucky for me, he also really likes lemon flavored things. And we both thought this was such a delicious cake!

My experience with this recipe may not be all that helpful for the rest of you because the only part I followed out of the recipe was the cake layers. I made more of a traditional buttercream frosting because that is Max's favorite. And as I said before, I wanted to use up the curd I had leftover. However, the recipe I used for my lemon curd is very similar to the one in the book, and the curd I used made a delicious filling.

The cake itself was my favorite part. The only thing I changed was the ratio of butter to shortening. Instead of 50/50, I used a 75/25 ratio (more butter, less shortening). The cake was perfectly moist and light and had a great flavor. I'm interested in trying this recipe to make cupcakes sometime.

For anyone else who tries this, let me know how you like the frosting. I'd like to try it with the Baked frosting next time if it's good.

One thing I wanted to do was crush up a bunch of lemon heads and press them into the sides of the cake, but I went to two stores and couldn't find any! Do people not sell lemon heads anymore? Sad.

Danielle's Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

After not being able to find pumpkin anywhere here in Springfield, I thought I was in luck when I found some at a grocery store while I was in Seattle. So I stocked up and bought six cans. Turns out on the same day, Max's mom also found some at the Walmart back at home and stocked up with six cans. So I think I'm set on pumpkin for this season. :)

So the following week after returning from Seattle, I put the pumpkin to use and made these whoopie pies. I'm glad Whitney chose this recipe so I can post about it.

These were a little more moist and crumbly than I would prefer (they were easiest to eat with a fork instead of with hands), but they tasted great! I love pumpkin desserts with cream cheese frosting. Max doesn't usually like cream cheese frostings (crazy, I know), but even he liked these.

I agree with Whitney that I'll make them smaller next time. Just one of these was definitely all I could handle at one time. Bite-sized ones would be kind of fun. And it was definitely a huge recipe. I'll be halving it next time unless I'm feeding a lot of people.

Fall is Here! Time for Caramel Apples!

This week's recipe is Vanilla Bean Caramel Apples on page 166.

I really wanted to do the Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, but there appears to be a shortage of canned pumpkin puree. (I went to four stores and couldn't find any. One store employee said they've been out for weeks. I didn't know how many of you would be willing to make your own.)

These were pretty easy, and with good apples, they're pretty tasty. I used a vanilla bean, but I'm sure you could try it with vanilla extract (follow the maple extract instructions). World Market is a great place to get real vanilla beans for cheap. I got a packet with two vanilla beans for, I think, $4 (great place for other cool spices too!).

For dowels, I picked up some sturdy chop sticks at the grocery store. They were a little on the long side, but they worked great.

My caramel turned out to be a little too chewy. I don't think I overcooked it, but I would've preferred it to be a little on the runnier side. So if you don't like chewy caramel, err on the side of under cooking it rather than over cooking it.

I halved the recipe and it barely covered four large apples. Since I was halving it, I only used half of a vanilla bean, but I should've used a whole one. The vanilla bean smelled great, but the flavor wasn't very strong.

Overall, I was happy with the recipe. I don't think I've ever made my own caramel apples before, so it was fun to do. And caramel apples are the perfect treat to kick off Fall!

Danielle's Baked Brownies

Sorry, no picture. We actually made these a couple weeks ago, not knowing it was coming up in the rotation on the blog. And it didn't occur to me to take a picture.

These were really tasty brownies, but like Hyeyoung said, I don't know that I can say they're the best I've ever had. They had a unique flavor, and I can't put my finger on what it was since there weren't any unusual ingredients in them (I left out the espresso powder). But whatever it was, I liked it.

I was kind of annoyed that the recipe says not to overcook them because "an even slightly overbaked brownie is not a Baked Brownie." After 30 minutes, mine were still totally raw in the middle. I had to bake mine for at least an extra 10 minutes and they were still a little under done in my opinion.

I don't have a go-to brownie recipe, so I might make these again. I don't think this ends my search for a great brownie recipe, though.

Cami's Pear Plum Tart

As everyone has said before, this is really tasty, quick and easy. It would be good for large gatherings and I feel like it would be good with a wide variety of fruit. Of course apple would be good but blackberry and peach are on my list of things to try. This definitely serves more than 4. I would say more like 6-8. Of course, it depends on serving size but that was a lot of fruit. I added just a tiny bit more cinnamon and nutmeg because I love the flavor of both. It was great.

My husband doesn't generally appreciate baked fruit but he said this wasn't bad. That's saying something, I promise.

I would make this again.