Pumpkin Bread Pudding

J. and I love bread pudding. Dense, solid bread pudding. None of this light, fluffy, airy stuff. So when it came time for his birthday party this year, I decided to make an autumnal flavor bread pudding to go along with his favorite chocolate birthday cake. And thank goodness I made 2 desserts. The cake was gone in seconds, it was like locusts invaded!

My favorite bread to use for bread pudding is King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread. It's light, sweet, and really soaks up the custard nicely, leaving that dense texture I'm looking for. For those who have only seen the rolls in small packages, which is all you get around here, they make 1 pound round loaves (actually the original form). Other sweet breads work well too, like challah or brioche. And when I've got a lot of leftover, stale bread of any type, I'll use it for bread pudding and it works fine. I usually go by the weight of the bread, not the volume, when changing types.

This bread pudding definitely improves after a day and is great cold. The sweetness and spices come through much better. I served it warm out of the oven and it was okay, but the next day out of the fridge? Fantastic!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding
1 pound loaf Hawaiian sweet bread, 3/4" cubed (about 16 cups)
5 large eggs
12 ounces evaporated milk
1 cup milk
15 ounces pumpkin puree (1-3/4 cups)
5-1/3 ounces brown sugar (3/4 cup, 150 g)
1-3/4 ounces sugar (1/4 cup, 50 g)
1/4 cup dark rum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into little cubes

Lightly toast the bread in a 350° oven just to dry it out.

In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients except bread and butter until well combined. Stir in toasted bread cubes. Transfer to a 9" x 13" baking dish. Let rest for at least 1 hour or cover and chill overnight. Sprinkle butter cubes over the top.

Preheat oven to 350°. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, until set.

Lemon Flaxseed Loaf Cake

This is a cake for lemon lovers. Sometimes I just want clean citrus flavors. Nothing else will do, not even chocolate or ginger. So faced with a yearning for citrus, a bag full of lemons, and dislike of poppy seeds, I came up with this moist, tender, distinctly lemon cake where the flax seeds give just a hint of nuttiness. If you are really crazy about lemon, double the amount of glaze and coat the loaf on all sides, slowly so it all soaks in.

Lemon Flaxseed Cake
90 g whole-wheat pastry flour (about 3/4 cup)
130 g all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
20 g flaxseed meal (about 3 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
200 g sugar (about 1 cup)
1-1/2 Tablespoons lemon zest (2 large lemons, use juice in glaze)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup half-and-half (or additional yogurt)
Lemon Glaze

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease & flour a 9" x 5" loaf pan.

In a bowl, whisk together flours, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon zest until pale. Add butter to egg mixture and whisk to combine. Add yogurt and half-and-half to egg mixture and whisk to combine. Sprinkle 1/3 of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and gently stir just to combine. Repeat in 2 more additions, stirring just to combine, lumps are okay.

Bake until tester comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Remove from pan and poke holes in the top and sides of the cake with a toothpick. Slowly drizzle glaze all over, making sure it soaks in and trying to waste as little as possible to drips. Cool completely.

Lemon Glaze
3 Tablespoons lemon juice (2 large lemons)
2 Tablespoons sugar

Heat lemon juice and sugar gently, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Miniature Elizabethan style scroll

When Her Majesty requested a tiny scroll in an Elizabethan grant/charter document style for an award dear to her heart I really wasn't sure what to do. The extra small scrolls are something I like to do but the style is heavy on calligraphy, not my strong point. The original plan was to collaborate where I would do the drawing/painting but someone else would do the calligraphy. We found examples of the style with portraits of Elizabeth in the initial capital E, sometimes in color, sometimes pen and ink. Being grants or charters, these were all of a rather large size, easily over 2 feet on a side.

The primary exemplar was a letter patent dated 1572 (UC Berkeley, Robbins MS 151). It is 609 x 761 mm (24 x 30 inches), which eventually got worked down to 4 x 6 inches, not entirely to scale but it looked okay. The wordsmith, also specially requested by Her Majesty, did an amazing job with creating a short text in the corresponding style. Not something that you'd historically see but it "felt" right!

Unfortunately, due to the way scheduling worked out, the calligrapher had a lot going on and I wasn't willing to add more to her plate just because I was afraid of a new writing style and those fancy cadels. Eek. I'd avoided this for a really long time but everyone kept telling me it wasn't so hard. Well, after a lot of practice, fiddling, tracing, graphing, and creativity, I came up with cadels I found acceptable. The hardest part was the B with the entire center section empty for the portrait. They were actually right about the calligraphy, not that bad! More like handwriting and a lot more forgiving than most hands.

The drawing was the easy part for me. At that size, really, just get it vaguely looking like the person and it's fine. The little acorn represented Her Majesty and the rose represented the award.

Whole Wheat Apple Cake

Occasionally, I get it in my head to come up with a baked good that will satisfy my mother-in-law's love of sweets but also fit with the low-sugar, low-refined carbohydrate diet that she should be following. Even more occasionally, this works.

The first version of this cake was way too dry & crumbly, although it tasted good. Just a bit more fat and it became something much more enjoyable to eat. If you use applesauce in place of the half-and-half, it will be a bit less tender but still good.

Whole Wheat Apple Cake
210 g whole wheat pastry flour (about 1-3/4 cups)
26 g ground flax seed (about 1/4 cup)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
200 g light brown sugar (about 1/2 cup)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup half-and-half or unsweetened applesauce
1-1/2 cups sweet red apples (fuji), unpeeled, diced small (about 2 small)

Preheat oven to 375°. Grease and flour a 9" x 4" loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, flax seed, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, buttermilk, oil and half-and-half. Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring just until moist. Fold in apples. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely.

late 12th century french style scroll

When a friend was scheduled to receive an award, I asked to create her scroll. Her persona is a late 12th, early 13th century English woman living on the continent. The text was written by another friend based on a grant of lands by Countess Adela of Blois, c. 1101. The inspiration piece I finally decided to use is a French Bible, 1185-1195, approximately 525 x 360 cm (Bibliothèque St. Geneviève ms 0010, f.77v and f.1).

I tried to keep the layout as close to the inspiration manuscript as possible, scaling down from the original size to fit on an 11" x 14" piece of pergamenata, keeping the same number of lines on the page and the same line height for the illuminated capitals. The original manuscript marks the start of new sections of the text with illuminated capital letters, often preceded by red and blue capitals that introduce the following section. The words and phrases that I wanted to emphasize in the award text were not actually the beginning of sections, but were spaced in a way that I could achieve a similar feel to the page.

I also tried to keep the same relative proportions for calligraphy as the inspiration manuscript; proportional to row height, body height = 5/11, elevated 1/11 over bottom line, ascender & descender = 3/11. Letter forms and punctuation and from the original (period, comma/colon, hyphen) and abbreviations and ligatures are inspired by both the original and a similar manuscript (British Library Arundel 490).

Christmas baking leftover bars

It's been a while so I have a backlog of things to post. I'm going to try for something like chronological order in catching up, though.

After making the various baked goods my mother requested at Christmas time, there were small amounts of various ingredients leftover. Since the alternative was letting them sit around for another year until I came back, these were going to be used up. Give me chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, coconut, and powdered sugar, katakuriko, and a few standard items, I give you some rather decadent bar cookies.

As with the sweet potato bars, it's written for an odd sized pan but could easily be scaled up for a standard size. The katakuriko (potato starch) and powdered sugar result in a nicely textured shortbread that you could eat alone (if for some reason you were against the topping). You could probably substitute cornstarch for the potato starch, or maybe even rice flour, if that's what you've got.

Leftover Bar Cookies
Crust:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup katakuriko (potato starch)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts or pecans (optional)

Topping:
1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 10" x 6" pan.

Make crust: In a bowl, combine flour, katakuriko, powdered sugar, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture is sandy, with the largest butter chunks the size of peas. Mix in nuts. Press mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan. Dock (poke holes in) crust with a fork. Bake until very lightly golden at the edges, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven.

Make filling: While crust is baking, beat together egg and sugar. Stir in flour, followed by coconut, chocolate chips, and nuts. Spread over baked crust. Return to oven and continue baking 20 minutes longer. Allow to cool somewhat before cutting and serving.

Sweet Potato Bars

As I said earlier, there's this expectation that I come up with at least two desserts for Christmas Eve. The Bundt cake was number one, a caramel mochi (recipe in the Honolulu Advertiser a few years ago) was number two. And I'm done, right?

So my mother asks if I can do something with these sweet potatoes she's got sitting around. She asks this on Christmas Eve, while I am starting to make the planned two desserts. Sure. Why not. So, I toss the sweet potatoes in the oven to cook with everything else and come up with something. It's an odd size pan because it was chosen to fit the amount of sweet potatoes she had.

Sweet Potato Bars
Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes

Filling:
2-1/4 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 10" x 6" x 2" pan.

Make crust: In a bowl, combine 1 cup flour and 3 Tbsp sugar. Cut in cubed butter until mixture is sandy with the largest butter chunks the size of small peas. Press mixture into the bottom prepared pan. Bake until very lightly golden at the edges, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Make filling: In a bowl, combine all filling ingredients, stirring well to combine. Spread over baked crust. Bake until slightly puffed, lightly browned at the edges, and somewhat set, about 45 to 55 minutes. Note that the oven seemed to be struggling by this point in the day and it may take significantly less time. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Chocolate Kahlua Bundt Cake

Christmas Eve when in Hawaii is spent at the home of my mother's friend. In classic local style, the men are outside with the cooler of beer, poke, and grill, while the women eat and talk story with an insane quantity of food inside. The men come in solely to fill their plates or to drop off even more food from the grill. Multiple starches are a must. I mean, how do you survive without rice, noodles AND potatoes?

Multiple desserts are a must, too. I'm generally expected to come up with at least two choices. This year, my mother requested a chocolate bundt cake, moist and with a glaze. She talked longingly of the way the bakery used to make a cake (rum cake?) that would get fully submerged in glaze, leaving it completely encased in sweet, slightly crisp, goodness. Well, I sure as heck am not making a literal bucket of glaze! Still, once you've had the full glaze experience, it's hard to go back. It takes some patience, but you really can encase a cake in glaze without the bucket.

The first incarnation of this cake used peanut butter chips. My mother dug them out of the fridge and asked if I could use them up. Sure, I say, why not? Chocolate and peanut butter, great! Or not. Some people loved it, gummy though the texture seemed to us. Maybe it's a guy thing. Those who loved it were all male. We preferred the second version with plain old semisweet chocolate chips. Yes, I made two of these in two days.

This is a truly easy cake. You don't need anything fancier than a whisk, which was part of the plan since my mother doesn't have an electric mixer. It's also measured by volume since she doesn't have a scale. And yes, we do have ovens in Hawaii so it isn't designed to cook in an imu (pit with hot rocks); it's Kahlua the liqueur, not kalua like pig.

Chocolate Kahlua Bundt Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1-1/2 cups water

1/2 cup Kahlua liqueur
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
3/4 cup chocolate chips (or peanut butter chips if you're adventurous)
1 recipe Kahlua Glaze

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a Bundt pan very well.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking soda, salt and cocoa. In a separate bowl, whisk together water, Kahlua, oil and vinegar. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk until well combined. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top.

Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool until just slightly warm on rack. Place on serving plate.

Carefully spoon glaze over cake, a little at a time. Use your fingers to spread the glaze over the entire surface, adding more glaze layer by layer until all the glaze is on the cake, encasing it fully. Try to add the glaze slowly enough that you don't waste much dripping onto the plate.

Kahlua Glaze
8 ounces sifted powdered sugar (about 2 cups or, if no scale, half the box)
3 Tablespoons soy milk (or half-and-half, cream, or milk, if that's what you have)
2 Tablespoons Kahlua

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth.

Chocolate Chip Applesauce Loaf

There's been a long delay since I've posted anything and there are some things I want to add from while I was in Hawaii for Christmas but, for now, a quick post on a quick bread.

Yesterday I was feeling tired and cranky but still really felt like baking for the usual Tuesday night group. Baking makes me feel better. There wasn't a lot of time and there was applesauce to use up so, after a quick recipe creation session, I got this truly quick bread in the oven in under 10 minutes. It was out of the oven, rested, and out of the pan just in time to pack it up to go. It turned out tasty; not too sweet, with a nice apple-cinnamon smell.

Chocolate Chip Applesauce Loaf
350 g all-purpose flour (about 2-1/2 cups)
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups applesauce
100 g brown sugar (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
cinnamon-sugar to sprinkle (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9" x 4" loaf pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together applesauce, sugar, oil and eggs. Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan. If desired, sprinkle top with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely. Or toss it into a paper bag and head out the door.