Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce-Printable Recipe Card!

I originally posted this two years ago. I still am asked for this recipe and wanted to add the lovely little printable card function at the bottom. WARNING-This Bread Pudding recipe is NOT healthy, but it IS oh-so good!

This simple dessert can be made ahead of time and is so very delectable. I don’t use that word-“delectable”-lightly, mind you.

Here’s what you’ll need to make Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce.

For the Pudding:
4-5 Cups of Sweet Breads
-toasted and cut into 1″ cubed pieces
-or cut into cubes and dried in the oven at 300 degrees for 10 minutes
1/2 Cup of Raisins or dried fruit of your choice
2 Slightly Beaten Eggs
2 Cups of Milk
1/4 Cup Melted Butter
1/2 Cup + 2 TBS Sugar
1 tsp (heaping) Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp Mexican Vanilla (substitute with regular vanilla, if applicable-but add another 1/4 tsp)

For the Butterscotch Sauce:
1/2 Cup of unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Half and Half
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Mexican Vanilla (substitute with regular vanilla, if applicable-but add another 1/4 tsp)

Combine the cubed bread pieces and raisins in a large mixing bowl.

In another medium mixing bowl, slightly beat the 2 eggs.

Add the 2 Cups of Milk.

Add the melted butter.

Next, add the sugar and stir thoroughly.

Add the 1 tsp Cinnamon.

And the 1/2 tsp of Nutmeg.

Finally, add the 1 1/2 tsp of Mexican Vanilla.

Stir thoroughly until the spices are distributed throughout the liquid.

Add the liquid mixture to the cubed bread and raisins.

Gently fold the liquid mixture in with a spatula.

Pour the bread pudding into a greased 8 x 8 pan.
Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes, or until puffy and a knife comes out of the center clean.

Now-for the Butterscotch Sauce! (Make this right before you serve the bread pudding.)

Combine everything, except for the Mexican Vanilla, in a medium saucepan and cook over a medium/low heat for 5-8 minutes or until slightly thickened. Once the liquid comes to a full boil, immediately remove from heat.
Add the 1 1/2 tsp Mexican Vanilla and stir.

Transfer the desired amount of Bread Pudding onto a plate and pour the hot Butterscotch Sauce on top.

Enjoy!

Easy Baked Apples

Last night it got down to 58 degrees. Burr…Fall is upon us! I’m ready for scarves and spiced cider and mittens and leaves.

Fall brings to mind comfort foods, hot desserts and turkey. And this is one of my favorite (not so healthy-involves butter, but appears healthy-also involves apples) desserts. Printable recipe card found at the bottom of this post.

Easy Baked Apples are one of my favorite go-to’s when last minute guests arrive. To really push it over the top, add a little french vanilla ice cream. Yum….

Here’s what you’ll need to make these Easy Baked Apples:

4-6 Jonathan Apples
6 TBS butter-room temperature
1/4 C Raisins
1/4 C finely chopped Walnuts or Pecans
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Lemon juice (only needed if you are making these ahead and cooking them later, as I did)
1 TBS sugar (if desired to make the dessert a little sweeter, but can be left out)

By using either an apple corer or a paring knife, remove the center of the apple, including all seeds.

Take a moment to make a face with your cored apples.

Place your apples in a sprayed/greased microwavable baking dish.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the 6 TBS room temperature butter to the 1/4 C of raisins.

Add the 1/4 Walnuts or Pecans.

Next, add the 1/4 tsp of Nutmeg.

And then add the 1/2 tsp of Cinnamon.

If you are making this dessert hours ahead of when you might want to actually consume it, add the 1 tsp of lemon juice. The lemon juice allows the apples to maintain their color and crispness, but gives you the option of cooking the apples several hours or even a day later.

If you enjoy sweeter desserts, add 1 TBS sugar to the bowl. I opted not to do this, allowing the ice cream to sweeten the deal.

Mix everything together using a fork.

Using a baby spoon or a knife, fill the apples completely full and a little overflowing with the mixture.

Tightly saran wrap the top of your baking dish. (If cooking the apples later, place them in the fridge until you are ready.)
Microwave for about 6 minutes, or until the apple skin is pliable and easily cut with a butter knife.

Let the apples cool slightly for 1-2 minutes, leaving the saran wrap on the baking dish.

Transfer to your serving plate and liberally spoon the excess juices over the apples (and over the ice cream, if desired). Serve the apples whole or sliced up for easy eating.

Enjoy!

Delicious & Easy-Roasted Squash

The bees are pollinating and doing their thing in my garden. In turn, those creative little buzzy guys are making some UGO (unidentified ground objects) for me to play around with.

Take this mix of zucchini/butternut squash. To understand the enormity of this squash, that is a beefsteak tomato next to it (about the size of a baseball).

This hybrid offered yellowish skin with a beautiful zucchini coating.

I had to taste it-in the raw-and the flesh was sweeter than your average zucchini. I decided then and there, it must be cooked! Or roasted. And eaten. And enjoyed. And boy was it enjoyed.

Here’s all that you need to roast your very own zucchini-hybrid or not (printable recipe on the bottom):

1-2 Sizable Zucchinis
4-8 Cloves Garlic
1 Medium Onion
1/4 C Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Preheat the oven to 400.

Start by slicing the zucchinis into rounds, then cut the rounds in quarters.

Slice the onion into large rings and then in half.

Disrobe the garlic and smash each clove (a little bit) with a spoon or the palm of your hand.

Line one or two 9 x 13 pan(s) with aluminum foil and add the zucchini, onions and garlic. Drizzle the olive oil over the top of the vegetables.

Roast at 400 for 40 minutes, stirring once halfway through the roasting time.

Enjoy as a side, or as a full meal-as Biceps did.

Below is the printable recipe for those of you that like that sort of thing.

Playing with my Food-Happy Faces

Do you ever notice patterns in your life? You tell the same jokes. You recount the same stories at parties as fall back conversation. You wear the same outfit relentlessly because you know it’s cute…
 

…you do weird things in the kitchen to creep other people out.

Like playing with your food when no one is looking…

…which eventually is so irresistible to others, they have to join you.

Lately, I’ve been noticing a pattern when I’m cooking in the kitchen.

It started off slowly.

But then continued to grow into an obsession.

Maybe it’s a lack of real faces surrounding me that prompts me to create ones from inanimate objects.

Whatever the cause, I love to see “happy faces” in my kitchen, whether animal, mineral or vegetable.

It seriously never gets old.

Seriously.

What weirdo thing do you do?