Granny's Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

Bread pudding is my favorite comfort food dessert.  I fell in love with it when I went on my first Holland America cruise.  They serve it every day on the Lido Deck.  Yum!  The following recipe I found posted on Redneck Recipes Facebook page.


Granny's Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce 

• 8 slices cubed white bread
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Sauce Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions for Pudding:
Heat oven to 350°F. Combine bread and raisins in large bowl. Combine milk and 1/4 cup butter in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted (4 to 7 minutes). Pour milk mixture over bread; let stand 10 minutes.
Stir in all remaining pudding ingredients. Pour into greased 1 1/2-quart casserole. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until set in center.
Directions for Sauce:
Combine all sauce ingredients except vanilla in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil (5 to 8 minutes). Stir in vanilla.
To serve, spoon warm pudding into individual dessert dishes; serve with sauce. Store refrigerated -Fashioned Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

After reading some of the comments I altered the recipe:

Before baking

Stale bread works best for bread pudding.  If you don't have any or just can't wait, toast the bread in the oven until slightly browned before cubing it.  This makes it acquire the same properties as being stale and absorbs the "pudding" much better without making the bread too soggy.

After baking

Only use half the vanilla called for and add rum or imitation rum to make up the difference.  I promise you won't regret it!

Add unsweetened whipped cream on top to even out the sweetness. Also, I mixed in 1 cup of cream rather than 1/2 cup to make more sauce and it thickened really well. It should be notated that the sauce is not a vanilla sauce but a caramel sauce which in my opinion is much tastier.

Zucchini Brownies with Buttermilk frosting

Last year I discovered that not all zucchini brownie recipes are created equal.  When I went home recently, I found the zucchini brownie recipe that my mom used to make.  This is a delicious way to use up the giant zucchini that was left on your doorstep.

Mix together:
2 c flour
1 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 c cocoa

Add to:
2 c grated zucchini
1/2 c oil
1 beaten egg (best at room temperature)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c chopped nuts

Bake in 9x13 pan 350 degrees 18-20 mins.  You can also bake in a jelly roll pan aka cookie sheet for a more flat brownie (baking time will probably need to be adjusted)

Frosting
Melt together in saucepan until boiling:
1/4 c butter
3 Tablespoons baking cocoa
3 Tablespoons buttermilk

Remove from heat and add:
2 1/4 c powdered sugar
1/2 c chopped nuts
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cool slightly and add to baked brownies  YUMMY!.

Fresh Apple Cake

My mother passed away 14 years ago and recently I went home to visit the family.  A lot of her stuff is no longer in the house but there still remains a recipe box full of recipes she had collected over the years, many of which are in her own handwriting.  I was shuffling through it looking for something yummy to make and found the recipe for Fresh Apple Cake.  I don't remember ever having it growing up but had some apples I wanted to use so decided to make it.  It was delicious and I can tell will soon become a fan favorite.

Mix: 

4 cups of peeled and diced apples

2 cups of sugar

Then add:

1/2 c oil

1 c chopped nuts

1 cup raisins, plumped (to plump: soak in boiling water approx 10 mins)

Sift separately:

2 c flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Gradually add dry mixture to apple mixture.  Bake 350 degrees for approx 40 minutes. 

It looks more like a cobbler than a cake.  Also, it tastes like a bar cookie but is much more moist and crumbly.  It paired perfectly with the vanilla ice cream we put on top.  Next time I make this I'm going to try it with white and brown sugar for a more caramelized taste.  Also, this would probably still be good with half the sugar as it was quite sweet.

Beth's amazing potato soup

This is the quickest, easiest and most delicious potato soup I have ever consumed!  It is easily adapted to any group size, just add 1 potato per person served.  You can add more or less sausage depending on what you like.

Boil until tender:
6-8 medium potatoes chopped into bite sized pieces
1 large onion diced

Without draining add:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 pkg of cream cheese

After it melts down add 1 pkg cooked sausage.  I like to cut up slices of kielbasa or you can add other types of sausage or bacon.  Ready to serve when barely starts to bubble.

Banana Nut Bread Cookies

Forget banana bread, this is seriously, hands down, the best use for ripe bananas.  I have a couple sitting on my counter right now which are screaming to be made into cookies.  This is by far the most requested recipe that people ask me to make for them.  The cookies in the picture have red chips in them as well as chocolate.

Cream together:
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar

Add then mix well:
1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla 

Combine separately then add and blend:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 3/4 cup oats
1/2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Fold in:
1 cup mashed banana
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

Bake @ 375 for 12-14 minutes.

Browning Brownies

Just received this oh so delicious recipe a couple weeks ago while visiting the Browning cooperate office.  A co-worker of mine had eaten these brownies on her last visit and wanted the recipe ever since.  Of course I have to have a copy!  There are lots of steps but it goes together pretty quickly.

Cream together until light and fluffy:
1 cup butter
2 cup sugar

Then add:
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs (mixing after each addition)

Mix separately then combine with wet mixture:
6 T cocoa
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

Bake @ 350 for 20-25 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool brownies then spread on top:
1-7 oz container of Marshmallow creme

Melt together in saucepan:
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups chocolate chips

Then combine with:
3 cups rice krispies

Spread on top of marshmallow creme and allow to cool before serving (if you can wait that long!)

cupcake-a-thon

I wanted to make several different flavors of cupcakes so I decided to find a bunch of recipes then mix and match to get the flavor combinations I wanted.  I didn't want to make an entire batch of cupcakes for each flavor so I scaled back each recipe to make the pictured amount of cupcakes for each flavor.

Dark chocolate cupcake with salted caramel 

This snack cake recipe formed the base for my chocolate cupcakes.  I filled them with the caramel from this recipe.  I just omitted the powdered sugar and sprinkled in a bit of sea salt.  This is the recipe for the frosting.  I like it because it has the perfect texture for piping and you don't have to have powdered sugar.  

 Lemon cupcake with white frosting and zest garnish

I used this for the lemon cupcakes and the same frosting as above.  I also added a bit of lemon juice to the frosting to make it more lemony.

Strawberry cupcake with pureed strawberries and strawberry garnish

Here is the recipe I used for the strawberry cupcakes.  I used a basic buttercream frosting and added a bit of strawberry puree for flavor.