Apple-Apple Bread Pudding

Apple-Apple Bread Pudding

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Elizabeth of Cake or Death? decided on Apple-Apple Bread Pudding on pages 408 and 409 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Have you visited Liz's blog? It is filled with lovely, absolutely beautiful yumminess. See the wedding cake she made for her brother's wedding!

Layer of brioche, layer of caramelized apples and more brioche. Did I mention the custard infused in all this? Yeah. It's like apple pie AND bread pudding. I know...Shut up! It rocks.

I was really good at math growing up. The only part of chemistry that I liked was converting kilograms to whatchamacallit-grams. I've spent years doing accounting work so Microsoft Excel and I are good friends. But this recipe? I just winged it. I think I made 1/8 or 1/12 or 1/4 of the recipe, but I'm not sure. Anyway, this is yummy so I suggest you make the full recipe! :)

(left) I'm sure some bakers made their own brioche or challah bread. But me? Pressed for time and I really can't have that much bread lying around the house. I picked up these brioche buns at Trader Joe's. (right) Caramelized apples are the filling of this bread pudding.

Apple butter is spread on the bread to give the second "apple" in the Apple-Apple Bread Pudding. Los Angeles Farmer's Market shoppers may recognize Ha's Apples. Ha's Apple Farm of Tehachapi has great apples and pears. And the son looks like a clone of his dad...seriously! Have you seen them? Anyway, you won't be seeing Mrs. Ha dragging anyone on the Maury Povich show.

I knew I wanted to make one large serving in this cute Kings Arthur Individual Pie Slice pans. I got these for my birthday and this was my first time using them! Thanks J for these awesome cute pans!

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Recipe:
Check out Liz's blog: Cake or Death?
Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, page 408

New School of Cooking - Pro Baking 1 - Class 9: Cinnamon Rolls, Puff Pastry & Croissant Dough

I'm taking the Pro Baking 1 series (taught by Chef Carol Cotner Thompson) at the New School of Cooking in Culver City (Los Angeles) this fall/winter. In Class 9, we made cinnamon rolls with our brioche dough and started our Puff Pastry and Croissant doughs.

In Class 8, we started our Brioche dough (yeasted dough with added butter) and put it in the freezer. We made the Brioche dough using the paddle attachment of the KitchenAid. The paddle attachment pulls the gluten strands better than the dough hook, and it was a much faster process. I have made Brioche before with the dough hook and it takes a long time. I'm glad I learned this new method!

The day before this class, the staff moved our dough from the freezer to the refrigerator for proofing. We had it sit out for a bit on our tables and then made cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon rolls - what a great treat to make any time of day!

After a brush with melted butter and a rise, these were baked up into yummy goodness.

The class had extra broiche dough so they made donuts and beignets. Sweetness. And it was on Superbowl Sunday so the beignets were most appropriate! Yeah, the Saints won! (See, I told you I was behind in posting about my class...now I'm all about the Winter Olympics)

These donuts were filled with cherries. OMG delicious.

We started our Puff Pastry and Croissant doughs. Both doughs are very similar but the Croissant dough has yeast while the Puff Pastry doesn't. The latin term for these doughs? "Butter delivery device veni vidi vici". We used close to 2 pounds of butter today...that's 8 sticks. We turned it three of the minimum four turns. To see how the turns work, please see Tracey's Culinary Adventure's great step-by-step process.

Stay tuned to see what we made in our last class with the puff pastry and croissant doughs!

Recaps of the New School of Cooking, Pro Baking 1 course:
Baking Therapy: Going back to school
Class 1: Quick Breads
Class 2: Custards
Class 3: Soufflés & Pate a Choux
Class 4: Tarts, Pie, Crisps and Cobblers
Class 5: Chocolate
Class 6: White Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream
Class 7: Artisan Breads
Class 8: Flat Breads, Brioche and Focaccia

New School of Cooking - Pro Baking 1 - Class 8: Flat Breads, Brioche, and Focaccia

I'm taking the Pro Baking 1 series (taught by Chef Carol Cotner Thompson) at the New School of Cooking in Culver City (Los Angeles) this fall/winter. In Class 8, we continued with breads and doughs and made awesome crackers, pizza, focaccia, and started our Brioche dough.

I'm a little behind in posting...today, 2/14 is actually our last class. I'm bummed about it ending, I enjoyed it so much. She offers Pro Baking 2 but that won't be available until August 2010! Well, here is Class #8 of our 10 week class.

Making the Focaccia bread with sage. Yum!

We made a gigantic portion of focaccia! A full-sheet pan of bread!

Oh bread. I heart you.

I went home and made a spinach, roasted red pepper and egg sandwich on lightly toasted bread. Heaven! Then I cut up the rest, froze some and delivered the rest to friends! I can't have a sheet pan full of bread in the house!

We made amazing crackers. Amazing. You really need a pasta maker because you want to get them as thin as possible. You should see your hand under the sheet of dough.

After being spread out like an Ace bandage, olive oil and crushed red peppers are brushed on the crackers. Then, parm cheese and herbs are sprinkled on top. They bake up quickly.

These Spicy Country Crackers put the CRACK in crackers. Seriously. These are sooooo good.

I dropped some off at a friend's house and they said the expense of the class was worth it just for these crackers! :)

Chef Carol Cotner Thompson demonstrated making pizza dough and we each rolled one out. Oh, it was delicious. I need to get myself a pizza stone one of these days. Perhaps Santa will bring one around.

We also started our Brioche dough. Because you need 12-24 hours to make brioche, we started it in class, then the staff will move it from the freezer to the fridge on Saturday so we can make something yummy in Class #9. Stay tuned!

Recaps of the New School of Cooking, Pro Baking 1 course:
Baking Therapy: Going back to school
Class 1: Quick Breads
Class 2: Custards
Class 3: Soufflés & Pate a Choux
Class 4: Tarts, Pie, Crisps and Cobblers
Class 5: Chocolate
Class 6: White Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream
Class 7: Artisan Breads

Brioche Plum, Nectarine, Peach, and Apricot Tart (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Happy Bastille Day! I went to the Los Angeles Bastille Day festivities in Elysian Park on Sunday, and today Tuesdays with Dorie celebrates with brioche!

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Denise of Chez Us picked Brioche Plum Tart on pages 54 and 55of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The tart is a brioche dough topped with fruit. Yes, a combination of buttery, rich bread and summer fruit. We were destined for success!

I missed the Farmer's Market this week (again!!) and picked up some nectarines, peaches, red plums and black velvet apricots at my local store. I've never had the black velvet apricot (pictured above)...but its skin is sorta velvety! The inside is like an apricot.

I made the dough last night and got up at 3:20 am to make this tart! If I fall asleep while answering reference questions later today, just feed me a piece of this and I'm sure I'll perk right up.

A layer of peach jam was spread on the brioche dough. Then my various stone fruits were placed on top.

And what happens when you make something before dawn? You "misread" the directions. I thought I was supposed to mix the fruit and sugar together (like a pie) and let things macerate for 30 minutes during the 1st rise in the pan cycle. However, when I reread the directions after the tart was in the oven (yes, this IS the best time to reread the directions!), it turned out the sugar was supposed to go on top of the fruit. Thus, I got no caramelization. Oh well, it's still yummy!

The Brioche Fruit Tart.
It's worth getting up early.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers! I can't wait to see everyone's take on this - I'm sure there will be a whole farmer's market of fruit and jam!

Recipe:
Find the recipe on Denise's blog Chez Us or buy Dorie's great book, Baking: From My Home to Yours!

Chocolate Bread Pudding (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Chocolate Bread Pudding

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle picked Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding on page 410 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I've never made bread pudding! I've devoured it in restaurants but never made it! What a delight that Lauren selected this recipe.

I picked up this lovely and huge brioche from my local Italian deli (and had to pick up their famous sandwich while I was there...you know, stimulating the local economy and all). Isn't it a beauty? After weighing it, I figured I should use half of the brioche (AKA butter delivery device).

After toasting the brioche pieces for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, I just wasn't sure how much bread you should have in a bread pudding! :) Once I poured the custard mixture on the bread, I felt they were swimming and cut up another quarter of the brioche (so I used a total of 18 ounces or 3/4 of the loaf).

Only after 30 minutes did I realize I probably didn't need the extra bread as the bread is a super sponge that absorbed most of the custard mixture. (See, I told you I haven't made bread pudding before...)

I brought it into work and suggested a 10 second zap in the microwave. Those 10 seconds made all the difference in the world. It softened the custard a bit and just made the whole bread pudding sing.

Carbs + Butter + Chocolate = Yum

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers! And look for the recipe on Lauren's Upper East Side Chronicle blog or page 410 of Dorie's book, Baking. Also, did you know Dorie Greenspan is on Twitter? Follow the most wonderful cookbook author online!

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns - Tuesdays with Dorie

Pecan Sticky Buns (page 51) of Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my Home to Yours book.
(By the way, holy smokes! This is a bargain book on Amazon right now! Only $12.99!!!)

Today's Tuesdays with Dorie selection is from Madam Chow!

This recipe uses 1/2 a brioche dough. Because a batch uses three sticks of butter...Brioche is simply a butter-delivery device! The butter took forever to mix in and I felt my dough wasn't as smooth or satiny as it should be. I've never used the dough hook before on the KitchenAid and was lucky to find it!

This recipe was a labor. Not necessarily a labor of love, but a labor. It was my fault because I didn't start earlier in the weekend...I was up til close to midnight with the dough, and then up at 4:00 am so I can shape the dough and let it rise before baking. Bad timing on my part...

About to go into the oven...

...fresh from the oven

As soon as it comes out, invert onto a plate.

Be sure to check out the other creations of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!!