Satisfying things

[commodorified]

Turning no longer usable food into seriously decadent food, i.e. bread pudding.

Preheat oven to 350 F

Take 1/2 small loaf of apricot-almond loaf, stale
1/3 small loaf of oatmeal sourdough, stale
or roughly 2 C of any good bread which has gone stale

Cut (hack, bash, rip) all bread into smallish chunks and put it in a deepish 9x9 baking dish

add:

a handful of raisins (optional)
two overripe bananas, cut small (optional, obviously, but I had them)
cinnamon
nutmeg

crack four eggs over mixture.
Pour roughly 3/4 C milk over mixture.

add 2 capsful vanilla

Mix everything roughly with a fork.

Bake for 30 minutes, then add

1/2 C brown sugar, sprinkled overtop
large dollop salted butter, placed in centre.

and bake for 15 minutes more.

Put the kettle on while it cools.

ETA: if you have also half a loaf of Very Stale French Bread, you can:

Slice it very thin
Butter the pieces
Salt and pepper them (other spices as desired)
And toss them into the same 350 oven beside the bread pudding.

Then you will also have crackers.

Comments

Q

[jumpuphigh]

Sure thing!

I use a recipe called no-knead bread. If you search for that term, you'll get hundreds of hits. I started with the recipe published in The New York Times but have since modified it to work for me. I'm American so all my measurements are coming from that perspective.

You need some sort of large covered pot where the lid can go in the oven. For the longest time, I used a 1.5 Quart casserole dish since that was what I had but I get more of a rise in the summertime and it wouldn't hold it all so I bought a 3 Qt cast iron pot. I alternate between the two depending on how much rise I get from my dough.

In a large mixing bowl, add:

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Combine then add 1 5/8 cups water. Mix. Dough will be shaggy and sticky. It doesn't need to look pretty or cohesive. Cover bowl with plastic wrap/cling film and a tea towel. (If you live someplace with high humidity, you may be able to eliminate the plastic wrap for this stage.)

This is the best part: Set aside for 12-18 hours. Time does all the work. It will be ready when the top is covered in bubbles. What is truly awesome about this stage is you don't have to be exact about it. If it is ready at 12 hours but you need to leave to do something for a few hours, the dough will only be better when you return.

When you are ready to work it again, uncover and use a handful of flour to dust the top and especially the edges. Use a mixing spoon to draw the dough away from the edges of the bowl, spreading the edge flour down. Eventually, you'll have pulled it all away and you can pick it up. Fold it over itself a few times, adding more flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Put more flour in the bottom of the bowl and put the dough back in. Place plastic wrap on the dough itself. Set timer for 10 minutes.

(To be honest, I have occasionally forgotten about the dough and left it for longer than 10 minutes. This hasn't harmed it.) When the timer goes off, pull out the dough, add more flour, and make a ball out of it. To make a ball, you pull it out gently and tuck the edges underneath. Add more flour to the bottom of the bowl, put the dough back in, sprinkle top with flour, cover with the tea towel, set your timer for 1.5 hours, and walk away.

(TBH, I have occasionally forgotten about the dough and left it for longer than 1.5 hours. This has been less successful.) When the timer goes off, set your oven for 400F and put the covered dish in the oven to heat up. Set the timer for 30 minutes and walk away.

Timer goes off. Carefully remove the dish. Gently pour the dough into the dish. There will be sticking but just be gentle in the pulling of the dough out of the bowl. Recover your dish. Put in oven for 45 minutes.

At this point, you can uncover to make the crust super crusty and let it bake another 5-10 minutes or you can leave it covered and let it brown that way. When you think the bread is the color you want it, pull it out, put it on a board to cool and dance around the kitchen saying, "Cool faster, bread!"

Things to know:
There are other techniques. Read other versions of this recipe if you are interested. This is what works best for me with my lack of spoons and my equipment.
It is worth buying nice flour. It makes all the difference. I like Whole Foods organic flour and Trader Joe's regular flour.
There are two kinds of yeast for baking. Use what you can find. If you get deeper into baking, yell and I'll give you more information.
Your first loaf will not be the best loaf that you can make. Even so, it should still be as good as any $4US loaf. Even my disastrous loaves have been devoured.
It will take about four-six loaves before you feel really comfortable doing this. It is worth it.
Start making loaves for your friends and they will never abandon you. :D

Re: Q

[deakat]

Thanks so much! I'll have to give this a try once the temperature here allows for baking again.