Vanilla and Cinnamon Challah bread pudding

Yesterday was the day that the daring bakers presented this months challenge, whe made challah this time. I made 2 small loaves but whe couldn't eat all of it with the two of us and it was already starting to get dry. So i decided to make a bread pudding from the leftovers of this delicious sweet bread.
Here is the recipe

Do you want to make Challah bread yourself here is the recipe.

Vanilla and Cinnamon Challah bread pudding

Adapted from here.
serving 5 to 7

Ingredients:

5 cups challah bread, in cubes
1 cup whole milk
½ cup whipping cream
3 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup apple, peeled and chopped
½ cup of nuts, chopped
¼ cup of raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
Icing sugar and cinnamon for decoration

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and  lightly grease a 8 X 8 inch square baking dish.

Place the bread chunks in a large mixing bowl.

In another bowl, mix together the whole milk, whipping cream, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder and salt, then pour this mixture over the bread chunks & let stand for 10 minutes.

Fold in the apples and nuts,  then spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and dust the top with a little powdered sugar and cinnamon.

Bake 30-40 minutes, or until lightly golden.

Cool about 5 minutes before serving, although it will also taste just fine served cold.

Dutch apple pie for my blogs 1st anniversery!

The dutch don't let any (Birthday)anniversery go by without a piece of there homemade apple pie. So here is my version of this classic, for my blogs first anniversery!

Dutch apple pie (appeltaart or appelgebak) recipes are distinct in that they typically call for flavourings such as cinnamon and lemon juice to be added. Dutch apple pies are usually decorated in a lattice style. Dutch apple pies may include ingredients such as raisins and icing, in addition to ingredients such as apples and sugar, which they have in common with other recipes.

Recipes for Dutch apple pie go back centuries. There exists a painting from the Dutch Golden Age, dated 1626, featuring such a pie.

The basis of Dutch apple pie is a crust on the bottom and around the edges. This is then filled with pieces or slices of apple, usually a crisp and mildly tart variety such as Goudreinet or Elstar. Cinnamon and sugar are generally mixed in with the apple filling. The filling can be sprinkled with liqueur for taste although this is very uncommon. Atop the filling, strands of dough cover the pie in a lattice, holding the filling in place but keeping it visible. Though it can be eaten cold, warmed is more common, with a dash of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. In the Netherlands it is usually eaten cold, sometimes with whipped cream on top.

Ingredients:
Servings: 8-12

for the dough:
2 1/8 cups self-rising flour (300g)
3/4 cup butter (180g) or 3/4 cup margarine (180g)
1/2 cup brown sugar (150g)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence or 1 (8 g) packet vanilla sugar
1 pinch salt
1 egg

for the filling:
2 1/4 lbs apples(1kg)(i used Goudreinet but you can use any firm and a little sour apple you like)
3/4 cup raisins (washed and dried, 100g)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (40g)
3 teaspoons cinnamon (or more to taste)
2 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice (or more to taste)
3 tablespoon semolina(to absorb the juices)(or 2 tablespoons of corn starch)

Directions:
Prep Time: 2 hrs and 70 minutes baking time

For the dough:
Sieve the flour, brown sugar, vanilla and the salt into a bowl.
Cut the butter or margarine into small cubes and add these to the flour mixture.
Beat the egg and add 3/4 of it to the flour mixture (you will need the rest for the top).
Using two knives, mix the butter/margarine and the flour mixture or use your kitchen machine(i don't have one so did it by hand).
Using one hand, kneed it to form the dough - you should be able to form it into a ball (this may take a while).
Put the ball of dough in the fridge for about an hour, in the meantime, make the
filling.

For the filling:
Peel the apples and cut them in cubes.
In a (large) bowl, combine apple, raisins, sugar, cinnamon, the lemon juice and half of the semolina(or all the corn starch)
Mix well and allow the flavors to blend, stirring occasionally.

Making the actual pie:
Butter a 9-inch round springform cake pan, or spray it with a non-stick spray.
Line the pan (bottom and sides) with about 3/4 of the dough - as long as the pan is covered, the layer need not be very thick.
Cover the bottom with the remaining semolina.
Add the filling, but try to leave the juices out.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the remaining dough until it's less than 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick.
Cut the dough into strips and layer them over the apple pie to form a raster, covering no more than one third of the surface--you should be able to see quite a bit of the apple pieces (see picture).
If necessary, use (some of) the remaining dough to make the edges a bit higher.
Use the remaining egg to coat the dough strips.
Bake the pie at 175°C (340°F), just below the middle of your oven, for about 65-75 minutes.
If you have any dough left, roll it out, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon (or left-over apple mixture) and bake it on baking paper for a few minutes.
Remove the springform only *after* the pie has cooled.
Serve warm (reheat in oven or microwave) or cold, with whipped or ice cream

Tips:
- I don't bother to roll the dough out and cut it as it is pretty sticky and causes a mess. I simply wet my hands and shape it by hand, pressing the dough into the pie dish in a uniform thickness. As for the lattice-work, I shape them by hand into longish sausage shapes, which I press flat onto the pie. The pie will rise and hide a multitude of sins.
- Use any kind of nuts(about 80g) you like in the filling.
- Instead of 3 teaspoons of cinnamon use dutch speculaaskruiden or pumpkin spice mix in the same amount.
- Make a layer of almond paste on the pie bottom before you put the apple filling in.
- Soak the raisins in Rum or another liquer you like.









References:
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_pie

Daring Bakers April 2010: traditional British pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Due to the volcanic ash cloud hanging over Europe i could participate in this months challenge. Because our vacation is postponed, i had enough time to make a pudding. But unfortuned it was a sunday... so all the shops where closed. So i really had to go find a pudding recipe with ingredients i still had. Because i don't have suet lying around the house, it became a sponge cake with butter. I found a recipe on puddingclub.com for Banana & Cinnamon Pudding. I still had left one banana at home, so even had to half the recipe...

The recipe was verry easy to make, but i don't have a pudding form. But i had a little iron bowl with a rather large edge on it, so i could use aluminum foil to cover the pudding. Steamed it in my largest cooking pan, with a ramequin at the bottom so the bowl would not touch the bottom. After 1 hour of cooking it was ready. It came out perfectly and it smelled delicous! I served it with some custard(pre fab:( i didn't had the ingredients to make a custard myself). It was a scrumptious! I wil definatly try to make a pudding again. After my holiday going to try a chocolate pudding. Thanks Esther for introducing this traditional English food to us.



Banana & Cinnamon Pudding(from http://www.puddingclub.com/wikipudia/banana-cinnamon-pudding)
Bananas give a good texture and flavour to a spiced sponge mixture.

Ingredients
120g Margarine
120g Sugar
1 large Egg, beaten
1 tablespoon Milk
120g Self Raising Flour
½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 ½ level teaspoons Powdered Cinnamon
2 Bananas, peeled
2 teaspoons Lemon Juice

Method
Cream the margarine and sugar together, then beat in the egg and milk. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon together. Mash the banana with the lemon juice, then stir into the creamed mixture and fold in the flour. Spoon the mixture into a greased 900ml pudding basin. Cover securely and steam for 1 hour. Turn out and serve with Custard.






Preparation time: Preparation time is 5 to 20 minutes depending on the filling. Cooking time is 1 to 5 hours so do this on a day you have jobs around the house to do or are popping in and out as you need to occasionally check the pan hasn’t boiled dry! However it is otherwise a very low time requirement dish.

Equipment required:
• 2 pint (1 litre) pudding bowl or steam-able containers to contain a similar amount they should be higher rather than wide and low
Traditional pudding bowl so you know what is normally used.

• Steamer or large pan, ideally with a steaming stand, upturned plate or crumpled up piece of kitchen foil
• Mixing bowl
• Spoon
• Measuring cups or scales
• Foil or grease proof paper to cover the bowl
• String

Type 1 Puddings — suet crusts.

Pudding Crust for both Savoury Pudding or Sweet Pudding (using suet or a suet substitute):


Ingredients

(250 grams/12 ounces) Self-raising flour (Note* If you cannot find self-raising flour, use a combination of all-purpose flour and baking powder.)
(175 grams/6 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)
(a pinch) Salt and pepper (Note* If making a savory dish, can be replaced with spices for sweet if wished.)
(210 millilitres/a little less than a cup) Water (Note* You can use a milk or a water and milk mix for a richer pastry.)

1. Mix the flour and suet together.
2. Season the flour and suet mixture with salt and pepper if savory and just a bit of salt and/or spices if sweet.
3. Add the water, a tablespoonful at a time, as you mix the ingredients together. Make up the pastry to firm an elastic dough that leaves the bowl clean. The liquid amounts are only an estimate and most recipes just say water to mix.

4. Don’t over handle the pastry or it will be too hard.
5. Reserve a quarter for the lid and roll out the rest and line a well-greased bowl.
6. At this point add your filling.. a couple of options are give below but have fun and go wild!
7. Roll the final piece of pastry out into a circle big enough to cover the top of the basin, dampen the edges and put in position on the pudding, pinching the edges together to seal.
8. Seal well and cover with a double sheet of foil – pleated in the centre to allow room for expansion while cooking. Secure with string, and place it in a steamer over boiling water.
9. Steam for up to 5 hours, you may need to add more boiling water halfway through or possibly more often. There is a lot of leeway in this steaming time and different recipes give different steaming times. Delia Smith says 5 hours for Steak and kidney where as Mrs Beeton says 2.5 for a similar dish! One way to tell that it is cooked is when the pastry changes colour and goes from white to a sort of light golden brown. It is also hard to over steam a pudding so you can leave it bubbling away until you are ready.



This one is a steak and onion one cooked for 1.5 hours.

This sort of pastry can also be used as a topping for a baked meat pie and becomes quite a light crusty pastry when baked.

Savoury Pudding Filling options: steak and kidney pudding.


1 full amount of suet crust (see recipe above)
(450 grams/about 1 pound) Chuck steak
(225 grams/about 1/2 a pound) Ox kidney
1 medium-sized onion
2 teaspoons well-seasoned flour
splash of Worcestershire sauce

1. Chop the steak and kidney into fairly small cubes, toss them in seasoned flour, then add them to the pastry lined basin.
2. Pop the onion slices in here and there.
3. Add enough cold water to reach almost to the top of the meat and sprinkle in a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper.
4. Follow the rest of the instructions in the crust recipe to finish pudding.
5. Cook for at least 2.5 hours (Mrs Beeton) up to 5 hours (Delia Smith).



Sweet Pudding Options: Sussex Pond Pudding

1 amount of suet pastry (see recipe above)
(120 grams/4.2 ounces) Demerara Sugar
(120 grams/4.2 ounces) unsalted butter
1 large lemon

1. Cut the butter into small pieces and put half in the basin with half the sugar.
2. Prick the whole lemon (preferably one with a thin skin) all over, using a thick skewer.
3. Place on top of the butter and sugar in the basin.
4. Cover with the rest of the butter and sugar.
5. Finish building the pudding as per the pastry recipe.
6. Steam for 3 ½ hours, or longer (for a really tender lemon), adding more water if needed.
7. To serve, turn the pudding into a dish with a deep rim, when you slice into it the rich lemon sauce will gush out.
8. Make sure each person is served some of the suet crust, lemon and tangy luscious sauce.

Type 2 puddings – Steamed Suet Pudding, sponge type.

(100 grams/4 ounces) All-purpose flour
(1/4 teaspoon) salt
(1.5 teaspoons) Baking powder
(100 grams/4 ounces) breadcrumbs
(75 grams/3 ounces) Caster sugar
(75 grams/ 3 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)
(1) large egg
(6 to 8 tablespoons) Cold milk

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.
2. Add breadcrumbs, sugar and suet.
3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk
4. Turn into a buttered 1 litre/ 2pint pudding basin and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.
5. Steam steadily for 2.5 to 3 hours
6. Turn out onto warm plate, Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.

Variants:
Spotted Dick - Add 75g/ 3oz currants and 25g/1 oz of mixed chopped peel with the sugar.
Syrup or Treacle or Marmalade Pudding – put 2 Tablespoons of golden syrup, treacle or marmalade at the bottom of the bowl before adding pudding mix.
My Fair Lady Pudding – Add finely grated rind of 1 medium orange or lemon with the sugar.
Ginger Pudding – replace the sugar with 100g/4oz of treacle, and add 1/2 tsp ground ginger.