Cream Cheese Cookies

Cream Cheese Cookies - made dough July 22, 2013, recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies

The original recipe was called Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies and called for walnuts to be added to the batter and for the cookie dough log to be rolled in chopped walnuts before slicing and baking.  But I don't like walnuts (too bitter) so I originally opted to substitute cashews instead.  While I'm not big on nuts in my cookies, I have a higher tolerance for cashews (and macadamia nuts) if I am going to add them in.  However, in the end, I decided to forego even the cashews and just went with a plain cream cheese cookie, mostly because I had leftover lemon frosting from my cake wreck Lemon Drop Cake that I decided to frost the cookies with and I just wanted a plain cookie with the frosting.

Turns out that was the right decision to make.  I really liked these cookies for their simplicity and straightforward goodness.  Be sure to bake them long enough for the bottoms and sides to get golden and the middles to "dry out" on top but not get more than lightly golden brown.  That'll ensure they've baked long enough for a good "snap" to the texture.  The cream cheese taste was very subtle but contributed to the nice crisp texture of the cookie.  It paired well with the lemon frosting but I also think it would've been good unfrosted.  This is a good tea cookie to go with coffee or tea and/or be served at an afternoon tea or as a light dessert after lunch. Er, "light" assuming you only have one, that is.

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 ¼ teaspoons coarse salt

2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

6 ounces cream cheese (not whipped), room temperature

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 ½ cups walnut halves, 1 ½ cups toasted and coarsely chopped, 1 cup finely chopped (optional)

1. Whisk together flour and salt in a large bowl.
2. Put butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Mix in sugar and vanilla.  Reduce speed to low.  Add flour mixture, and mix until just combined (do not overmix).  Mix in toasted walnuts, if using.
3. Transfer dough to a work surface.  Divide in half; shape each half into an 8 ½” log about 2” in diameter.  Wrap each log in parchment paper; freeze until firm, about 30 minutes or up to 2 weeks.
4. Preheat oven to 350˚F with racks in upper and lower thirds.  Unwrap one log, and roll in ½ cup chopped walnuts, coating completely (optional).  Cut into ¼” thick rounds.  Space 1” apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake cookies, rotating halfway through, until golden around edges, 18 to 20 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks.  Repeat with remaining log and remaining ½ cup chopped walnuts, if using.  Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Bakery Review: Cake Monkey

Cake Monkey Bakery - order received July 17, 2013

My old college roommate, Caroline, gets points every year for always, always finding a new-to-me bakery to send me a birthday gift from.  Last year it was mini cupcakes from Baked by Melissa.  The year before, cupcakes from Crumbs Bakery.  This year, she sent me mini cakes from Cake Monkey.  I'm always fascinated by all these bakeries she discovers all over the country that ship.  I try to do the same thing when I need to send a present and I have the hardest time finding good ones who ship and (if possible) don't charge an internal organ for shipping.

Cake Monkey makes these mini layer cakes, frosted and filled in different flavors, enrobed completely in chocolate.  Think of them as high class Ding Dongs, just a little taller and a lot better quality (yes, I'm snobby about Ding Dongs too).  On their website, they bill them as individual-sized layer cakes and that's pretty accurate.

Caroline sent me the Cakewich Collection which is 4 cakewiches in 4 flavors: Black & White, Raspberry Red Velvet, Peanut Butter & Marshmallow and Strawberries & Cream.  They come nicely packaged in a sturdy shipping box with those frozen gel packs that ensure the products arrive still cool and not a melted mess, even during warm summer shipping months.

An explanatory sheet lists out the flavors and what's in them so you know what to expect as you unwrap each one.  They're individually wrapped and labeled on the bottom so there's no guessing which flavor you're about to indulge in.  Since even *I* am unable to consume 16 mini cakes in one sitting, I was able to pick out the ONE (yes, just one) cakewich I wanted to try first and put the rest of freezer bags to keep in the freezer until I was ready for the next one.

The packaging is simple and cute with their label on the top and the flavor and ingredients (in tiny type) on the label on the bottom.  You unwrap it and behold a good-sized chocolate-covered, high-end mini layer cake.

The first one I tried was the Black and White.  It's a chocolate layer cake filled with vanilla cream and studded with Valrhona crunchy pearls.  Which I had never heard of before but I discovered I like crunchy pearls.  The cake layers were good and I didn't even mind the vanilla cream (I'm not normally a cream person).  The crunchy pearls were my favorite part of the cake in terms of both flavor and crunch texture.  I also like the cakewich slightly chilled as the cream part seemed more like a chilled pudding or a soft ice cream.

Black & White

I tried the second flavor, the Strawberries & Cream, on a different day and this time I thawed it completely.  The cake layer was still good but I have to admit I wasn't a fan of the strawberry jam.  I don't like jams or jellies and I'm not big on fruit in my cakes or most of my desserts.

Strawberries & Cream

Not surprisingly, I had the same reaction to the third flavor, Raspberry Red Velvet.  I like strawberries more than raspberries and although I liked the red velvet cake layer even more than the vanilla cake layer from the Strawberries & Cream cakewich, I couldn't get into the raspberry jam stuffed in the middle of the cakewich.  I would've probably felt differently if it was caramel but alas, it wasn't.

Sorry for the bad picture resolution on the last flavor, Peanut Butter & Marshmallow but I was in my office, had packed the cakewich for lunch and didn't have my camera with me so the picture taken with my ipad is somewhat grainy.  Again, the vanilla cake layer was good but I'm not into marshmallow and I'm indifferent to peanut butter so this didn't trump the Black & White as my favorite.

Overall, this is a cute gift idea and a great way to try a new bakery.  Cakewiches are clever and a little bit different if you need something beyond the norm.  They have many other enticing flavors so it's not outside the realm of possibility that I would put in my own order to try out their other offerings.  But I thank Caroline for once again broadening my horizons, especially with another small business bakery I can support, even from afar.

On the Fence Brownies

On the Fence Brownies - made July 28, 2013 from King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

I first made these brownies almost 8 years ago and, according to my notes, they were pretty good so I thought I'd make them again so I could post them on my blog.  I'm single-handedly trying to prove you can't have too many good brownie recipes.  Besides, also according to my notes, when I made these back then, I had run out of Pernigotti cocoa so I had to substitute in Hershey's (eek).  So they deserved to be made properly this time.  Although I did use half Pernigotti and half Scharffenberger for this batch as I've found that if I use that much Pernigotti cocoa in one recipe, the results will be a really dark chocolate flavor.  I prefer something not quite so bittersweet so I subbed in the Scharffenberger for half the cocoa.

For the most part, it worked pretty well although I think next time I would do 2/3 Pernigotti and 1/3 Scharffenberger instead of half-sies as I wanted a little more dark chocolate flavor.  Although the pictures make the brownies appear really fudgy, they're actually a little bit cakey too.  Which is what the name implies because this is supposed to be for people who are "on the fence" over whether they want a fudgy brownie or a cakey brownie.  This is both.  I'm a "give me fudge" kind of brownie girl so I prefer something just a trifle more dense but for your average brownie lover, this is a pretty good compromise.  Actually,  I suspect most people wouldn't notice it's either/or and would like it anyway.  I just happen to be a brownie snob in both taste and texture. Fudgy for me all the way.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 ¼ cups sugar

1 ¼ cups Dutch process cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional, I left them out)

1. In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine.  Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly, just until it’s hot but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it.  Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
2. Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, and vanilla.  Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth; then add the flour, chips, espresso powder and nuts, again stirring until smooth.  Spoon the batter into a 9 x 13-inch pan lined with foil and lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
3. Bake the brownies in a preheated 350˚F oven for 28 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it.  The brownies should feel set on the edges and in the center (barely).  Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

"Bakery" review: Cream - home of ice cream cookie sandwiches

Cream - July 21, 2013 (first visit sometime in May 2013)

Usually a good sign when there's a line out the door

While Cream may or may not technically be considered a bakery, I'm willing to include them in a review, both to publicize a good, local small business and because they make great products.  Cream was founded in 2010 in Berkeley, CA by Jimmy and Gus Shamieh and family. I love places like these that are family-owned and succeed because they make great products.

If you like ice cream cookie sandwiches made with fresh, slightly warm cookies and creamy ice cream, you may already be part of Cream Nation.  If you aren't, you don't know what you're missing.  My niece first told me about Cream a few months ago so of course we had to go there when I visited her.  Cream is perfect for any college town.  The ice cream sandwiches are cheap, you can choose which cookies you want for your ice cream sandwich (can be two different cookies for the same sandwich) and which ice cream you want between the cookies.  They open "late" (noon) and close anywhere from 11 pm to 2 am, depending on the day. Plus both their cookies and their ice creams are really good. And did I mention cheap?? $2 for an ice cream sandwich if you're paying with cash and $2.50 for non-cash transactions

Not the best pic but I had to take it fast before my ice cream sandwich melted

If you just want a cookie without the ice cream, they're something like 3 cookies for less than $2.  Which is what my niece brought me when she came to visit.  If I couldn't have the ice cream, I could at least have the cookies.

It's no wonder there was a line coming out of the shop when we first went there.  Once we got in line, it got even longer.  Inside the shop was a flurry of activity as the counter people waited on the customers. As you might expect in a college town, the counter was staffed by mostly college kids but the customers were a diverse bunch of all shapes, sizes and ages.  Because good cookies, good ice cream and great ice cream cookie sandwiches are universal.  At the moment, Cream is only in Berkeley, CA and (to my pleasant surprise because it's closer to me) in Palo Alto but they have plans to open at Davis and Walnut Creek.  So be on the lookout for a Cream near you.

Lemon Drop Cake - my personal Cake Wreck

Lemon Drop Cake - made July 26, 2013 from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

I need to call this my Cake Wreck cake.  Because it literally wrecked my kitchen.  I started out making this recipe innocently enough.  I had woken up at my usual early time and once again, rather than doing a morning workout, I decided to get a head start on this cake.  I was meeting a friend for dinner that night and I thought I'd tackle this cake recipe from one of my Baked books.  A couple of my aunts had raided their lemon trees to give me fresh lemons and what better way to use them up than with a three layer lemon cake filled with homemade lemon curd and lemon frosting?

Making the cake was easy enough and I had it in the oven and baked before my first meeting at 7:30 am.  I'd never made lemon curd before but that also turned out to be straightforward and I made it while the cake layers were baking.  The only thing I was uncertain about was if I had cooked the lemon curd to a proper thickness. It seemed okay and it tasted good so I went with it.

However, once the work day was over and I started on the frosting, that's when the wheels started to come off the bus.  I'd never made frosting like this before but I thought it was intriguing so I was looking forward to seeing how it turned out.  I boiled the mixture then poured it into my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and set it on high speed to beat "until it cools".  Then I made the mistake of turning my back to it while I started to wash the baking accoutrements I'd used. It did not occur to me that my mixer wouldn't stay where I put it.  It didn't have legs after all. But....do you know when your stand mixer is set at high speed and near the edge of the counter, the vibrations from the mixer start to move it?  Next thing I know, I hear a loud thunk and my beautiful pink Kitchen Aid is on the floor, the bowl is in an unnatural position it was never meant to be in, sticky white goo which was the frosting base is everywhere and I'm staring at a gouge in my kitchen tile.  In hindsight, I probably should've taken pictures of the whole thing but I was so horrified, dismayed and beat-my-head-against-the-wall exasperated with myself that I didn't think of it.

Cleanup was my first instinct and I had some bad moments when I couldn't get the bowl out from the mixer because it was firmly stuck and the lever that would lift the stand head wouldn't budge.  I was left wondering if, like my kitchen tile, my mixer was damaged.  But some maneuvering and a few curse words later, I was finally able to extract the paddle attachment and free the bowl.  It took me awhile to clean up all the sticky mess that would have been the frosting (more cursing) but when my kitchen was finally put back to rights except for the gouge in my tile, I was able to plug the mixer back in and ascertain that it still worked.  Its most noticeable war wound was slight and didn't seem to have affected its functionality so, in the battle between the kitchen floor and the Kitchen Aid, the mixer won that round.

After all that aggravation, you knew I was still forging ahead with the cake, right?  The stakes had gone up but I wasn't going to be stopped by the worst catastrophe I'd ever experienced in the kitchen The Incident.  I didn't have enough milk to make the original frosting recipe again so I had to improvise with a more standard recipe: 1 cup of softened butter and then a mix of powdered sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice until I got the taste and consistency I wanted.  Sorry I didn't measure but at the time, I was in too much of a hurry to get this cake finished before I had to meet my friend for dinner.

Once the frosting was made, I started to assemble the layers: lemon curd over the first layer, top with the second layer, more lemon curd and crown with the third layer.  Then I tried to crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting.  Tried being the operative word.  I don't know if my lemon curd was too soft (I hadn't thought so) but the cake layers kept sliding whenever I tried to frost because the curd wasn't firm enough to hold them in place on top of each other.  By the time I had even applied a thin layer on top and somewhat on the sides, the whole thing threatened to topple so I decided to place it in the fridge to chill briefly and hopefully set a little so I could finish frosting the cake without killing it with my bare hands.

That seemed like such a good plan and I got ready while it was chilling.  Only to open my fridge to discover the cake had a mind of its own and part of it had slid off, smashed itself into the side of the fridge and broken apart.  Seriously, could this cake be more of a pain?  So I had to take it out, clean up the refrigerator, and slapdash whatever frosting I could whilst trying to keep the lemon curd from further oozing out and mingling with the frosting.  At a certain point I gave up, sliced it as best I could, took the obligatory pictures and rushed off to my dinner.

The irony in this saga?  This cake is fan-freakin'-tastic.  I loved the taste and texture of the cake, the lemon curd and even the substitute frosting I came up with.  I'm not sure it was worth the sacrifice of my kitchen tile but it was some consolation that I went through all that aggravation for something so tasty.  I might even dare to make this cake again but I'm either going to fill the layers with frosting instead of the curd or incorporate the lemon curd in some other way (because it really was tasty) or not make it three layers or something.  And get my kitchen tile fixed.

Cake

2 ½ cups cake flour

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

½ cup shortening

1 ¾ cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1 large egg

1 ½ cups ice cold water

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Lemon Curd Filling

¾ cup fresh lemon juice (from about 6 lemons)

Grated zest of 2 lemons

2 large eggs

7 large egg yolks

¾ cup sugar

4 tablespoons (½  stick) butter, room temperature

Lemon Drop Frosting

1 ½ cups sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups milk

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into tablespoons

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup lemon curd

Make the cake

1.       Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly spray three 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and spray the parchment.  Dust with flour and knock out the excess flour.

2.       In a large bowl, sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.  Set aside.

3.       In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, add the egg and beat just until combined.  Reduce the speed to low.  Add the flour mixture, alternating with the ice water, in three separate additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Scrape down the bowl, then mix on low speed for a few more seconds.

4.       In a clean bowl, with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Do not overbeat.  Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

5.       Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean.  Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rack, remove the pans and let cool completely.  Remove the parchment when ready to assemble the cake.

Make the lemon curd filling

6.       In a small bowl, pour the lemon juice over the lemon zest and let stand for 10 minutes to soften the zest. 

7.       In a nonreactive bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until combined.  Add the lemon zest and lemon juice to the egg mixture and whisk until just combined.

8.       Place the bowl over a double boiler filled with simmering water.  Continuously stir the mixture with a heatproof spatula until the mixture has thickened to a pudding-like texture, about 6 minutes.

9.       Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the butter until emulsified.  Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.  Cover curd directly with plastic wrap so that it does not form a skin.

10.   Set lemon curd aside while you make the frosting.  Do not refrigerate the curd unless you’re saving it for a future use.

Make the frosting

11.   In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together.  Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 20 minutes.

12.   Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Beat on high speed until cool.  Reduce the speed to low and add the butter; mix until thoroughly incorporated.  Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

13.   Add the vanilla extract and ½ cup of the lemon curd and continue mixing until combined.  If frosting is too soft, place in refrigerator to chill slightly until it is the proper consistency.  If the frosting is too firm, lace the bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until it is the proper consistency.

Assemble the cake

14.   Refrigerate the frosting for a few minutes (but no more) until it can hold its shape.  Place one cake layer on a serving platter.  Trim the top to create a flat surface and evenly spread about 1 cup of the remaining lemon curd on top.  Add the next layer, trim and fill with 1 cup of lemon curd, then add the third layer and trim.  Crumb coat the cake (apply a thin layer of frosting to seal the layers together) and refrigerate for 15 minutes.  Frost the sides and top of the cake with the remaining frosting. 

Eatery Review: St John's Bar and Grill

St John's Bar and Grill - July 20, 2013

Everyone needs a good burger joint in their lives. Small business, unpretentious, cheap, been there for years, something of an institution, something all the locals know about. For me, that's St John's Bar and Grill.  It's got a 4-star rating on yelp based on 1300 reviews if that gives you any indication of how good it is. I was first introduced to St John's back in the late 90s, after I'd graduated from business school and was working nearby. I remember going there with my coworkers during lunch but was warned ahead of time that it might be crowded.  Sure enough, when we got there, the line was out the door.  Although the line goes fairly quickly, it's still long when it runs from the back of the restaurant where the cashiers are through the restaurant's front doors and out those doors.

My favorite: Pineapple Teriyaki Burger, hold the cole slaw

Since that first visit, I've since learned to go to St John's either before 12 on a weekday for lunch or before 6 for dinner or just during off hours in general.  But even if you're caught in the rush, the burgers and cheesesteaks are still worth the wait.  And I'm not one to want to wait for my food.  But the burgers are juicy and always cooked just right.  If you get the cheesesteaks (and they have many varieties of both), the meat is really tender and I love the bread they use. 

And of course, you can't have a burger or a cheesesteak without a (small) basket of fries.

Jalapeno Burger

St John's runs specials every day so you can also eat well and be budget conscious.  If I'm there on a Saturday, I get a burger because all burgers are half off.  If I'm there on a Monday night, I get a cheesesteak for half off.  They're worth it at full price so my thrifty soul is well pleased when I get them for less (leaves room in the discretionary budget for more baking ingredients, haha).  They're closed on Sundays which I do appreciate since everyone who works there always seems to be working hard to keep up with the crowds.

Oh, I almost forgot, they're also a sports bar and there are big screen TVs everywhere you blink, except for the outside patio.  My nephew Vanilla King is a sports fanatic and loves St John's because no matter where we sit, he can simultaneously watch 1-3 games of football, baseball or basketball during any given time of the year.

Don't expect fancy when you go to St John's but you can expect delicious.

Pure Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Pure Chocolate Chunk Cookies - made dough July 23, 2013 from Pure Chocolate by Fran Bigelow

The title of this recipe is completely "truth in advertising".  It really is pure chocolate.  I used 85% Lindt bittersweet and tried a smidge of the cookie dough to see what it tasted like.  It was almost a little too dark chocolate for me so I ended up experimenting and rolling the dough balls in confectioners' sugar before baking.  It turned out to be the right move because the sweetness of the sugar was a perfect complement to the dark fudginess of the cookie itself. You can skip it if you're more of a dark chocolate purist but it's a good option if you have more of a sweet tooth than a chocolate tooth.

The texture is soft, moist and fudgy - all good things in a chocolate cookie.  BUT you'll only achieve that texture as long as you don't overbake it and if you use a good-quality chocolate. I made mine small since I knew these would be rich and just under 10 minutes was the perfect length of time to bake them in my oven.  Err on the side of underbaking than risk overbaking.

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups cake flour, sifted then measured
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch chunks
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted, for rolling (optional)

1. In a double boiler, melt the semisweet and unsweetened chocolates over low heat until melted and smooth.  Let cool to lukewarm.
2. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugars and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, stopping several times to scrape the bowl.  Pour in the melted chocolate and mix to combine.
3. Fold in the sifted flour by hand until no traces of white remain.  Fold in the bittersweet chocolate chunks.  Chill for 1 hour.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.
5. Using a scoop or large spoon, scoop 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie, roll in sifted confectioners' sugar (if desired) and place on lined cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches of space between cookies.
6. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until cracked and puffed on top. For smaller cookies, bake 9 to 10 minutes.  Let cool on sheets for about 10 minutes.  Transfer to racks to cool completely.

Muffin Bakers! Submit your winning recipe!

Are you a muffin baker extraordinaire?  Want to win a signed copy of Joanne Chang's Flour, Too AND have bragging rights that you have an awesome muffin recipe that'll get featured online for the world to drool over?

Then send the recipe of your best homemade creation to The Christian Science Monitor's Stir It Up! at food@csps.com.  Contest rules are here.  Deadline is tomorrow, July 31, so pass the word along!

As a side note: no, I will not be entering.  Simply because I tend to have a heavy hand with muffins and I could probably count on the fingers of one the number of times I've made really good muffins.

Pinky: Glazed Doughnut Muffins
Index finger: Pineapple Upside Up Muffin
Thumb: Pralines and Cream Pecan Caramel Muffins

Uh, still have 2 more fingers and I ran out of good muffin recipes I've made....

Banana Pecan-Coconut Bread Pudding

Banana Pecan-Coconut Bread Pudding - made July 20, 2013, recipe adapted from All-American Dessert Book by Nancy Baggett

My niece and her boyfriend were visiting me one weekend and, as always, I asked them "what do you want me to make for dessert?"  She chose her favorite Red Velvet Cookies and he chose the Banana Caramel Bread Pudding I'd blogged about earlier.  But, being me, I couldn't resist trying a similar but different recipe for bread pudding and adding my own modifications to it.  I kept the key elements such as bread pudding and caramelized bananas.  But I also kept to the coconut and pecans in the original recipe.

However, I didn't toast the coconut and I didn't chop the nuts or include them in the custard or mix them in with the bread like the original recipe called for.  Instead I just layered them on top so they would get crisp during baking.  Nuts get soggy when you mix them into wet doughs or batters and stay soggy even after baking.  I don't like that texture so I kept them on top to toast.

This plan turned out to be only marginally successful.  I didn't toast the nuts before I layered them on top, figuring they would toast during the baking of the bread pudding.  And they did but they didn't seem like they quite toasted enough.  Next time, I would probably lightly toast them first before putting them on top.  If they get too brown, just loosely cover with foil to prevent over-browning before the bread pudding is done.

I also started off baking this in a water bath as directed but after 25 minutes, it didn't look anywhere near done while the top was almost perfectly browned already so I removed it from the water bath, wiped the bottom and sides of the dish and baked it directly on the oven rack.  It puffed up obligingly after that and 20 minutes later, was done without being over done.  I added the warm caramelized bananas on top before serving (simply melt butter and add brown sugar, whisk to combine then add sliced bananas until soft and caramelized).  I liked this as much as the earlier recipe and very much enjoyed the addition of the coconut.  Next time though, I would leave off the pecans entirely.  I'm just not a fan of nuts in desserts like bread pudding.  Or else I would caramelize the pecans separately and add it to the caramelized bananas right before serving.  This is best eaten when the bread pudding is lukewarm and the caramelized bananas are freshly made and still hot to warm.

4 cups cubed (1/3 inch) crusty French or Italian bread, including crust (I used 16 ounces of challah)

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted

2/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted

4 large eggs

Scant 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 ¼ cups whole milk

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed banana

½ cup semisweet chocolate morsels or mini morsels, optional (I left them out)

1. Lightly grease a 7 x 11-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.  Spread the bread cubes in the dish.  Toast in the oven, stirring once or twice, until lightly crisp, 11 to 15 minutes; set aside. 
2. In a medium bowl, using a fork, beat the eggs until frothy and smooth.  Add the brown sugar, stirring until it dissolves.  Stir in the milk, cream, vanilla and mashed banana until well blended.  Stir in half the coconut and all of the chocolate morsels, if using.  Pour the egg mixture over the bread.  Press down lightly until all of the bread is submerged.  Cover with plastic wrap and let bread soak in the mixture overnight or for several hours.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325°F.  Sprinkle remaining coconut and the toasted pecans over the surface.
4. Set the dish in a slightly larger roasting pan or broiler pan.  Place on the oven rack.  Add ¾ inch hot water to the pan.  Bake just until the pudding feels in the center when lightly tapped and is nicely browned on top, 35 to 45 minutes.  If bread pudding does not seem to be baking but the top is getting brown, remove from water bath and bake directly on oven rack.  Cover top loosely with foil to prevent it from becoming too brown.  When puffed and brown, transfer to a wire rack.  Let cool for at least 15 minutes.  Serve warm with ice cream or caramelized bananas.