In which I make bread pudding

I have met people who say they don't like bread pudding.  I have met them, but I think they're lying.  That, or they have had only bread pudding with too much bread in it. Which is actually quite good, too.

My favorite sort of bread pudding is the kind my maternal grandfather used to make: a thin layer of custardy-bread shielding a thick custard underneath.  The ratio of the two on your spoon is easily altered without changing the amount of bread or custard.  If you cut your bread into chunks instead of slices, they will mix into the custard, making the texture and flavors of the pudding more uniform.  If you bake your pudding in a deeper dish, you will wind up with a thicker layer of custardy bread and a thinner layer of straight custard.

Often I bake my pudding with slices of toasted raisin bread in a round 9 or 10 inch glass dish (it really would better for the safety of my feet, floors, and cats if every pan I had were aluminum, but this recipe looks so nice in glass).  But whenever I have left over sweet rolls of some sort, like my poppy seed croissants*, I trim the rolls to fit my ramekins, and pop one into each dish.

*Bread pudding is also excellent with pain au raisin.

Poppy seed croissant bread pudding 

(adapted from Dorie Greenspan, Baking: from my home to yours)

4 day-old poppy seed rolls**, or other sweet breakfast pastry

3 C whole milk

1 C heavy cream

pinch salt

6 large egg yolks

2 large eggs

3/4 C sugar

1 t vanilla extract

1/4 C apricot jam

4 t rum (bourbon, or brandy, would be good too)

Butter four 1 cup ramekins.  Trim the rolls to fit the ramekins, and put one ramekin in each dish.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the milk, cream, and salt just to a boil.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks, and sugar.

Whisking constantly, slowly ladle about one quarter of the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture.  Continuing to whisk constantly, slowly pour in the remaining milk.  Whisk in the vanilla.  Rap the bowl against the counter to pop bubbles, and remove any remaining foam with a spoon.

Pour the custard over the rolls, as much as you can fit into each ramekin.  You may have some left over; if you have an extra oven-safe dish (extra roll or not), the solution is easy.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  While it is preheating, allow the rolls to soak in the custard, gently and occasionally pressing them down with the back of a wooden spoon, for 30 minutes.

During this time, prepare to bake the puddings: on the stove, heat a pot of water to boiling (you will use this to make a water bath for the puddings), and line a roasting pan with a double thickness of paper towels (this will keep the ramekins from sliding around in the pan).

When ready to bake, place the ramekins in the roasting pan on top of the paper towels.  Put the pan in the oven, and very carefully pour the hot water into the roasting pan, until it reaches half way up the ramekins.  Close the oven door, and bake the puddings until just set (a knife inserted into the center should come out clean).  This will take 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the size and shape of your ramekins.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven, and switch the broiler on (you can also use a culinary torch, if you are lucky enough to live with people who are not too frightened by your torching zeal to let you have one).  Heat the apricot jam until it begins to liquify, then remove from heat and stir in the rum.  Brush the tops of the puddings with the jam, and then put the roasting pan back in the oven, 4 to 6 inches under the broiler.  Broil for just a few minutes, checking frequently (!!), until the jam is bubbling merrily.

Remove the ramekins and cool on a wire rack, at least 20 minutes before eating.  The pudding is good served warm, room temperature, straight from the refrigerator, and in a bowl with milk poured over it.

**If your rolls are not stale, bake them for about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven to dry them out.

In which I make croissant dough

My favorite croissant recipe (also the only one I've tried) comes from the Tartine pastry book. So far, even in unpredictable New England weather, it has not failed to produce flaky exteriors, moist interiors, and all other manner of good things.

The recipe makes quite a lot of dough -- more so since I tend to roll it a bit thinner than recommended. So in addition to the croissants (which I like to brush, when still warm, with apricot jam), I made a few danish-like pastries, and sweet poppy seed rolls.  I was never much of a fan of poppy seeds in sweet things -- a few poppy seeds floating in a lemon muffin always seemed put there solely for the surprise -- and in my mind unwelcome -- crunch.  It was not until I had a spectacular poppy seed hamentashen (Diamond Bakery in Los Angeles, try it) that I realized crushed poppy seeds, mixed with honey and dairy, had a distinctive, sweet, and rich character of their own.  I think crushed poppy seeds make a perfect filling for thin layers of croissant dough.

The croissant recipe is a bit long to reproduce online, but here are my recipes for the danish and poppy seed roll fillings, which could be used with any croissant or danish dough (brioche would be nice with the poppy seeds, too).

Cherry danish filling (adapted from Rose Levy Berenbaum's The Cake Bible)
1 14-oz to 16-oz can tart, pitted, water-packed cherries

1/4 C + 2 T sugar

2 T brandy*

1 T cornstarch

pinch salt

Over a bowl, drain the cherries in a colander or strainer for 30 minutes, pressing lightly if necessary -- you should have about 3/4 C of juice. Reserve 1/4 cup of the juice.

In a saucepan, combine the 1/4 C juice, sugar, and brandy, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cherries and bring to a boil. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes (or let sit until cool and then refrigerate overnight)**.

Drain the liquid from the cherries into a saucepan. On the stove, reduce the liquid to 1/2 cup. Transfer to a bowl to cool. In the same saucepan, combine the cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in the cooled liquid, and then add the cherries. Bring to a full boil and simmer for 1 minute. The mixture should just barely drop from a spoon. Remove from heat and let cool a bit before spooning it onto the danishes.

*I think I'll up the brandy next time.

**I was pressed for time (ah, day job) so I cut short most of the steps in the original recipe. I quite liked the flavor of the filling that I got, but I'm sure if you allowed the cherries to sit longer you'd get an even cherry-er, brandy-er filling out of it.

Cheese danish filling
1/2 C (4 oz) cream cheese
1/2 C strained cottage cheese (or farmer's cheese, if you can find it)
1/4 C sugar
1 T flour
1 large egg
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t lemon zest

Note: If you don't have farmer's cheese (which I could get in Vermont, but can't for the life of me find in Boston), simply line a strainer with cheesecloth, and drain the liquid out of some full-fat cottage cheese.

Mix together the cream cheese and strained cottage cheese (I found this easiest to do in my food processor, but a mixer would be fine). Mix in the remaining ingredients until combined. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour, or up to 24 hours.

To make the danishes:

1/2 recipe croissant dough
2 large egg yolks
2 T heavy cream

pinch salt

1 or 2 T warmed apricot jam

Make a recipe of croissant dough (as described in Tartine or elsewhere) -- only half a recipe makes a good 12 or so danishes, so you can easily devote the other half to plain croissants, or the poppy seed rolls below.

Roll out dough to thickness instructed in your recipe.  Instead of cutting the dough into triangles to form the croissants, cut the dough into 4-inch squares. Fold each corner partly over toward the center, stretching the corner slightly as you do so. Press down gently -- they should stick. Transfer the formed danishes to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.*

Proof the dough until when you press it slightly with your finger, the indentation fills in slowly (1-2 hours for the Tartine croissant dough). Be sure not to proof your dough at a temperature high enough to melt the layers of butter (75 degrees F is a good proofing temperature). During the last 30 minutes of proofing, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

By the time the danishes are done proofing, the folded-over corners may have popped up; don't worry, just press them back down, and press down the center of each danish as well, to create a slight hollow to hold the filling. Spoon 2 tablespoons of filling onto each danish. The danishes will look over-full; don't worry, the dough will expand quite a lot in the oven. Whisk together the egg wash (2 large yolks, 2 T heavy cream, a pinch of salt), and brush the dough (but not the filling) of each danish with the wash.

Allow the egg wash to dry slightly (5-10 minutes), and then pop the danishes in the oven. Bake them for 10 minutes. Then, quickly open the door, rotate the baking sheet around, and turn the oven temperature down to 400 degrees F. Bake for 10-20 additional minutes, rotating the sheet again if necessary (I have a very uneven oven). The pastry should be nicely browned when done. Remove from the baking sheet and cool on a wire rack. At this point I like to glaze cheese danishes with warmed apricot jam.

*I have a tendency to nearly light ovens on fire when I bake croissant dough. (Butter, it seems, is flammable. Honey is too, but that's for another time.) If you don't have a baking sheet rimmed on all four sides, I recommend fashioning rims for your sheet by putting a large piece (or two) of aluminum foil under your baking sheet, and folding up the edges to prevent leaking butter from spilling out into the oven.

Poppy seed filling

almond cream (adapted from Dorie Greenspan)

3 T unsalted butter, softened
1/4 C + 2 T confectioner's sugar
1/4 C + 2 T ground (blanched or unblanched) almonds
1 t all-purpose flour
1/2 t cornstarch
1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 t rose water

poppy seed cream
1/2 cup canned poppy seed filling (I prefer Love 'n Bake to Solo)
2 T milk
2 T honey

1 T unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/8 t salt
1/4 t lemon zest

1/4 t cinnamon
1/2 t vanilla extract

This poppy seed filling has two components, mixed together in the end.

To make the almond cream: process the butter and confectioner's sugar in a food processor until smooth.  Add the ground almonds and process until smooth.  Do the same with the flour and cornstarch, and then with the egg.  Add the rose water and process.

To make the poppy seed cream: in a bowl, stir together the poppy seed filling and butter, then add the milk and honey.  Stir in the butter, then the egg, and then the flavorings.

Add the almond cream to the poppy seed cream and stir -- they don't need to be well mixed.

To make the poppy seed rolls:

1/4 recipe croissant dough

1 C poppy seed filling
2 large egg yolks
2 T heavy cream

pinch salt

Roll the croissant dough into a 16 inch square (the dough will be about 1/4 inch thick). Spread the poppy seed filling over the dough, leaving a half-inch margin at the edge furthest from you.  If 1 cup of filling seems like too much for your dough, be cautious and use less.  The dough is soft and hard to work with at this stage, and too much filling will only make things harder.

Carefully (the dough will be warm and harder to work with) roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Wrap in plastic wrap and place on a flat surface (such as a baking sheet), and let it cool in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

When cool, remove from the refrigerator and, working quickly, cut into 2-inch rounds using a serrated knife. Place the rounds, cut side down, on a parchment-lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Allow to proof for 1-2 hours.  During the last half hour of proofing, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

When done proofing, combine the yolks, heavy cream, and salt to make the egg wash, and brush it onto the tops and sides of the rolls. Allow the wash to dry for 5-10 minutes. Then bake for 10 minutes.  Working quickly, rotate the baking sheet, and then turn down the temperature to 400 degrees F.  Bake for an additional 10 to 20 minutes.  The pastries are done when the tops are nicely browned.  Remove and cool on a wire rack.

With any leftover croissant dough, make plain croissants.  There's certainly nothing wrong with that.