Toffee-Pear Sticky Pudding

Yesterday we ate Caramel Pear Scones for breakfast (recipe coming soon) and leftover Sunday dinner for lunch. For dinner, my husband fried some tofu - sliced thin and fried in hot oil. He, then, made a stirfry of carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage and served it over brown rice. I made up a quick sweet and sour sauce (1/2 vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 catsup, 1/2 cup water with 2 TB cornstarch, cook until thick while whisking to prevent lumps). It was rather tasty and made enough for lunch today.
I made the Toffee-Pear Sticky Pudding on Sunday. It is a gooey sticky mess that lives up to it's name but it so tasty that you don't mind licking your fingers clean. This is not a finger food, however.
I did forget to add the baking soda but it didn't seem to damage the final dish. It might have been lighter than the dense goo I got but I don't really care. I know a gooey dish might not sound appealing but think of it as a sweet sticky caramel - it's a lot like that. I used slightly more dates since my package was about 1 1/2 cups and I didn't feel like having to return it to the cupboard. I used basic chopped dates from Walmart. I never peel my pears either which works for this because they were so soft that the peel gave them some structure. Also since I have stopped buying brown sugar - I use white sugar with molasses (which is basically brown sugar). I like the molasses flavor and think it really added a richness to this dish. For the sauce I used 1 cup chopped pears and whole milk instead of cream.
Oh and as I re-read this I realize that I stopped reading the instructions too early. I didn't prick the pudding nor did I return it to the oven to bake in the topping. (opps!)
I did change the method for the sauce - I melted the 1/2 cup butter (nucoa in our case), added my chopped pears and stirred for a moment before continuing on with the sauce recipe. My pears were not pretty enough to make them more garnish-like so I just dumped them in. I did follow the rest of the instructions.

Toffee-Pear Sticky Pudding
1 1/4 cups water
1 1/4 cups pitted whole dates, preferably Medjool dates
1 cup chopped peeled fresh pears
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 recipe Toffee-Pear Sauce
In a large saucepan combine the water, dates, and pears. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cook, covered, about 15 minutes or until fruit is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Mash with a potato masher, fork, or immersion blender until as smooth as possible. Stir in baking soda; set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8x2-inch baking pan; set aside. In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and nutmeg; set aside. In a large bowl combine brown sugar and butter. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed about 1 minute or until combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and vanilla. Stir in date-pear mixture. Stir in flour mixture just until combined. Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Place pan on a wire rack. Immediately use a long skewer to prick top of cake all over. Spoon the portion of Toffee-Pear Sauce without pears over cake. Bake for 3 minutes more. Cool on the wire rack for 10 minutes. Serve warm with the portion of Toffee-Pear Sauce with pears.

Toffee-Pear Sauce
1 fresh pear
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Peel and core pear; thinly slice pear. In a medium skillet melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add pear slices; cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until tender and lightly browned, turning pear slices occasionally and reducing heat to low if pear browns too quickly. Set aside. In a small saucepan melt 1/2 cup butter over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar. Bring to boiling, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil gently, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Carefully stir in whipping cream. Bring to boiling. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Divide sauce in half. Stir pear slices into one portion.

Tapioca Pudding

We watched Thoroughly Modern Millie this week and that movie is not complete without a serving of Tapioca pudding. My mom gave me this quick and easy recipe which is so tasty. I can't wait to try it with other flavors aside from vanilla but I like the plain pudding so much I haven't been able to talk myself into making it lemon or orange.

Tapioca Pudding
1/4 cup small tapioca pearls
1/4 cup boiling water
3 cups milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Add tapioca to boiling water and let sit. Heat milk, eggs, and sugar in a saucepan on the stove. Whisk them smooth while heating over med-high heat. Add tapioca when the water is completely soaked up or after you have everything whisked smooth, which ever comes last. Stir constantly with a spoon until warm and thick. Add vanilla and mix well.

We serve right away because we are impatient. We ate this with cool whip and blueberries and it was so tasty.

Easy and Tasty Bread Pudding

This is my last post of 2011 so I thought I'd share a really good one. This is my mom's recipe for Bread Pudding that she created just a week ago. It won first place in a contest at her work but it has stolen the hearts and stomachs of all who has tried it. This is super simple because most of the ingredients are pre-made. It's super sweet and full of that homey goodness that everyone craves during the holidays. Now - my mother is not one who uses recipes so she was kind enough to attempt to create a recipe. This is what she sent me and what I can't wait to try sometime over the next week.

Three LARGE almond poppy seed muffins. Would have been better if they were a little drier. And maybe not as much muffin
2 1/4 cups eggnog
5 eggs
1 cup sugar (or it might have been half a cup)
a teaspoon of orange zest - fresh
1 T or so of Countreau - or however you spell the orange liquor
1/4 c butter (1/2 stick)
about 1/2 to 1 cup walnuts

Cut up muffins into bite size pieces, set aside
In a large bowl mix (with mixer) eggnog, eggs, sugar and liquor
In a saucepan or frying pan melt butter, add walnuts and orange zest.
Mix egg mixture, muffins and walnuts (but not butter) together, gently to not mush the muffins.
In an ovenproof bowl pour butter and spread all over bowl to keep pudding from sticking
Pour or place in the rest of the ingredients.

Preheat oven to 375, using a roasting type pan (rectangle) fill about 1/3 with water and place
bowl with the pudding into so that it is cooking in a water bath.

Cook until done in center. This is like 30 to 60 minutes. While cooking it will crust but still be jiggly inside until it is done.

Serve warm.

Hard Sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup brandy
2 T butterscotch schnapps (optional)

Cook in saucepan, bring to a boil but be careful not to scorch.
Turn down heat. Cook to slightly thicken but
not so that it hardens. Spoon over pudding in bowls. Also serve warm or hot.


Okay, that is the best I can do.

Chocolate Pudding

I am working on a writing project that I could be doing lots with but I don't give myself enough time to work on. Yesterday, I thought I'd set aside my blogs for later in the day and work on the project. I did better but I still goof off way too much. I had forgetten my blogs in the process since I always do them early in the day. Not a problem - I'll do it at home, except I forgot my computer was completely eaten by a virus and keeps having to go back to the shop while they try to figure out how to restore it to it's former glory (the computer is about 6 months old and this worm/trojan thing went right through our anti-virus software and completely ate our windows - my mom keeps telling vindow viping jokes since Viper is our software). Needless to say, no blogging was done yesterday and I am sorry. To make up for it I will do two posts today.

With everything going on and the crummy weather, I decided it was a chocolate pudding night. I love hot chocolate pudding. I usually make Jello cook and serve but I really want to start making things from scratch. My aunt used to tell me about making real pudding with flour (Jello uses cornstarch). Flour is a more stable thickener where cornstarch breaks down and makes your pudding watery over time. I will say it had good flavor but there was a major texture difference. I make flour gravies that are great but this pudding was a little gritty. It could be that I used cocoa powder instead of unsweetened chocolate so I may be posting this recipe again with some changes (if I waited for every recipe to be perfect I don't think I'd post ever again).

Chocolate Pudding
6 TB cocoa powder (or 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted in pan before adding milk)
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
4 TB flour
2 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Mix cocoa and milk in a saucepan. Heat on medium to med-low temperature until hot but not boiling. Mix remaining ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk until smooth. Add to hot milk and whisk until fully encorporated. Let cook until thickened. Remove from heat.
Serve hot or let chill to serve cold.
The great thing about homemade pudding is you can add your own flavors - subsitute almond, orange, peppermint (anything) for the vanilla. Just remember that the stronger the extract flavor, the less you need.

Banana Cream Pie

I took the banana pudding recipe from Country Recipes by Martha Storey (same as the piecrust) and adapted it slightly to turn it into banana cream pie. Something I didn't know about banana pudding is that the pudding is not banana flavored but that bananas are layered in the pudding. I layered bananas in my cream pie and found it had wonderful banana flavor (too weird).

Banana Cream Pie
1 piecrust, baked at 350 until golden brown
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons AP flour
2 eggs
1/2 teas vanilla extract
2-3 very ripe but still firm bananas
Whipping cream
additional sugar
In medium saucepan, heat milk until nearly boiling but do not let boil. In a bowl (I used my 4 cup measuring cup that I measured the milk with), mix together sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla. Add to milk. On medium heat, stirring constantly, cook pudding until thickened. Slice bananas and layer in piecrust. Pour over pudding and let chill. Meanwhile, whip cream and add sugar to taste (I think it's about 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup cream but I didn't measure).
If you just want pudding then line a casserole dish with Nilla wafers in place of the crust.

Irish Bread Pudding

Years ago, a local tv station had a mid-morning news show that I loved. Once a week, a woman from the Heart Institute would share a recipe. I was so sad when the show stopped airing but this recipe that she shared will always be a favorite. It's a heart healthy version of bread pudding which I had never made until this recipe. I am shocked at what a "real" bread pudding looks like - some recipes have a dozen eggs in them. I sometimes omit the raisins and just pour a little whiskey over the batter to infuse that flavor (I really dislike raisins). Also, I don't use low fat versions of the ingredients unless that is what I have on had. When we were gluten free - we just didn't eat this recipe. It is not one I have made allergy free but if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

Irish Bread Pudding With Caramel-Whiskey Sauce
1/4 cup light butter -- melted
1 (10 ounce) French bread baguette, cut into 1-inch thick slices
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup Irish whiskey
1 3/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated skim milk
2 large eggs -- lightly beaten
cooking spray
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Caramel-Whiskey Sauce:
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup light butter
2 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel) -- (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup Irish whiskey
1/4 cup 1% low-fat milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brush melted butter on one side of French bread slices, and place bread, butter sides up, on baking sheet. Bake bread at 350 degrees for 10 min. or lightly toasted. Cut bread into 1/2-inch cubes, and set aside.
Combine raisins and whiskey in a small bowl; cover and let stand 10 min. or until soft (do not drain).
Combine 1% milk and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add bread cubes and raisin mixture, pressing gently to moisten; let stand 15 minutes.
Spread bread mixture into a 13x9" baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine 1 tablespoon sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over pudding. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. or until set. Serve warm with Caramel-Whiskey Sauce.
For Sauce: Combine sugar and water in a small heavy saucepan over med-high heat; cook until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Cook an additional 15 minutes or until golden (do not stir). Remove from heat. Carefully add butter and cream cheese, stirring constantly with a whisk ( mixture will be hot and bubble vigorously). Cool slightly, and stir in whiskey and milk.

Note: the best Irish Whiskey is Bushmills. A bottle is a little pricey but between this and the Irish Whiskey Pie - it is put to good use (and only using the whiskey for those makes the bottle last a couple of years). If you are worried about the alcohol - it's all burned off in the cooking process so the finished product is alcohol free and safe to serve children.

Zucchini Bread Pudding

As I mentioned in the Zucchini Bread - I made a double batch of the zucchini bread in a 9x13 pan and took it out too early causing it to fall. So I thought instead of dumping the pan that I would turn it into bread pudding and it was great.
I attempted to dry the bread in the oven but it was so dense it didn't really dry out.

double batch of zucchini bread cut into 1" squares (approximately)
1 3/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated skim milk (I didn't have evaporated milk so I just used regular milk)
2 large eggs -- lightly beaten
Mix together wet ingredients and add bread, pressing it down to soak up some of the mixture. Let set for about 15 minutes. Grease a 9x13 baking dish. Pour mixture into pan and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes or until set. I added a splash of Irish Whiskey to give it a little extra flavor.