pumpkin bread pudding with praline sauce

I had grand plans for posting all sorts of Thanksgiving recipes, honest. In fact, I started picking them out in September. Sweet potato puree, port wine-basted turkey, brussel sprouts braised in sage butter. Yes, I was going to serve a grand feast this year. But alas, it was not to be. Mom and Dad are in the middle of a remodeling project of epic proportions. Someday soon there will be a glorious new kitchen just for me for everyone to enjoy. Just not quite yet.

The remodeling project is running a little behind, so in the absence of appliances, a sink, and, well, a floor, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my uncle's house. While I was disappointed that I didn't get to prepare a full meal, the part I did get to do -- the dessert -- turned out to be even more fun than I anticipated. As evidenced by the photo at left, I may not be the only cooking aficionado in the family. Two-thirds of my blonde-haired trio of cousins couldn't get enough of of the pumpkin bread pudding assembly process.

I want to mix!
No problem.
My turn to stir!
Have at it.
What's this?
Booze.
What are those?
Booze soaked rais--no, don't drink that!

OK, they didn't try to drink the bourbon, but they were very enthusiastic helpers. And while they did all the pouring, whisking, and more whisking, I took the liberty of indulging in a little fantasy about running my own restaurant...assisted by two tiny sous chefs who eagerly await my instructions and applaud the finished products with utter glee. Mmm...happy Thanksgiving, indeed.

I tried something a little different with this recipe. Instead of cutting the bread into the traditional 1-inch cubes, I layered whole slices in an oven-safe bowl. It did make for a prettier presentation like I had hoped, but next time I might throw in a bit more batter so there is a higher gooey bread to crispy bread ratio. Nonetheless, the bread pudding, and especially the praline sauce, were very well received. TSA: 0 Me: 1

Note: The recipe below is for cubed bread in an 8" x 8" dish. If you try my method, you'll need a 2-quart capacity bowl. (Though I actually doubled the whole recipe and used a 4-quart bowl.)

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Bourbon-Soaked Raisins & Praline Sauce
Serves 6

Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Adapted from Gourmet, October 2007

1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tablespoons bourbon
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread*
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup bourbon-soaked raisins**

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together the pumpkin, milk, bourbon, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, and spices in a bowl.

Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and raisins and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25-30 minutes. Serve warm topped with praline sauce and homemade whipped cream.

* I used challah...in fact, I flew 2,500 miles with two loaves of it because they sure as heck don't sell it at the local Super Wal-Mart.

** This is easy-peasy. Put your raisins in a small saucepan and add enough bourbon to cover the bottom of the pan. Bring the bourbon to a boil and then turn off the heat and cover the pan. Let the raisins soak in the covered pan until they absorb up most or all of the bourbon, about 30 minutes.

Praline Sauce
Adapted from Allrecipes.com
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
16 large marshmallows
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 dash salt
1 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, marshmallows, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and cool for 5 minutes. Stir in evaporated milk and vanilla and mix well.

Unused sauce can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a couple of days (maybe longer, but you'll eat it all before then anyway).

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linguine with clams & mussels

I'm acutely aware that there are certain luxuries I can only enjoy at this point in my life. Take today, for example: I got up, took a shower, and then took a nap. I'm pretty sure that's not the morning routine of a woman who is married with children. However, it was fabulously relaxing, so I'll continue to enjoy Saturday mornings like this while I can.

Anyway, following my morning nap, I headed out the door to do some Christmas present scouting. I'll have a fairly light load when I travel home next week, so I thought perhaps I could pick up a few gifts and take them with me. The shopping trip was a great success. I bought three things for myself...and nothing for anyone else. It's typical, though. My holiday shopping always begins this way. Holidays = sales, so if I've had my eye on something that is now on sale, why wouldn't I pick it up? Especially if that "it" is the new Williams-Sonoma Holiday Turkey Cake Pan -- it's not even Thanksgiving yet and they've already discounted it from $35 to $14.95. Happy day!

I swung by the new Red Mango store (yogurt was good; mango only OK) to celebrate the new addition to my cake pan collection (I've taken to calling him "Mr. Turkey Head") and then headed home to make the dinner you see above. What you don't see above, however, is linguine. I got a mandoline for my birthday and I purchased the rouet attachment for it, so I thought I would try my hand at creating angel-hair zucchini instead of using regular pasta. Since I'm sure 99.9% of the people who read this blog don't own a kitchen tool like a rouet, I won't talk at length about it, but it was pretty satisfying to know that instead of a big bowl of starch and carbs, I ate a huge serving of vegetables and hardly noticed the difference. (The recipe below is for regular pasta preparation, but I'll be happy to include more information about the using the mandoline or rouet upon request.)

Alright, wrapping up here.... Zucchini preparation aside, from start to finish, this dish only took about 30 minutes to make. Steaming the shellfish with garlic and white wine -- a classic combination -- yields a delicious sauce that begs to be soaked up with a slice of hearty bread. It was a perfectly indulgent way to cap off my first self-centered holiday shopping trip of the season.

Linguine with Clams & Mussels
Adapted from Williams-Sonoma's Complete Pasta Cookbook
Serves 6

1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 shallots, peeled and minced*
6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup dry white wine**
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 lbs small clams, scrubbed
2 lbs mussels, scrubbed and debearded

6 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
1 lb linguine

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter until foamy. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the shallots and garlic and saute, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes and wine, increase the heat to medium, and simmer until the liquid is evaporated by one-third, about 7 minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice and parsley. Add the clams and mussels, discarding any that do not close when tapped. Cover the pan tightly and simmer until the shellfish just open, 3-5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove and discard any shellfish that do not open. Cover and keep warm.

In a large pot over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt and the linguine and cook according to the package directions. Drain. Combine the shellfish and cooking liquid with the linguine and toss to mix well. Serve immediately.

* As you can see from the 2-inch long strips in the pictures, I am totally lazy and rarely mince when I'm supposed to. Though I have to admit that I also kind of like the visual appeal of the larger pieces....

** I used a Woodbridge Sauvignon Blanc by Robert Mondavi.

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scones, one hundred ways

I love to make things like muffins, quick breads, and scones because once you find a good basic recipe, you can endlessly modify it to make variations for every mood or season. Fresh blueberry muffins in July, apple cinnamon muffins in October -- same recipe, minor fruit and spice adjustment. The food services department at Notre Dame made great scones (don't laugh - their dining halls are regularly ranked among the best in the country), but I haven't made or purchased a decent one since I left. Tully's and Starbuck's were dry and tasteless. Even the one I bought from a boutique bakery at Pike Place was more puck-like than pleasing. (And if you're in need of stones for an upcoming landscaping project, this recipe should do the trick.)

However, the recipe below from America's Test Kitchen is worth keeping...and modifying over and over again. The texture of the scones is just what I was looking for: slightly crisp on the outside and firm enough to hold together, but with a soft interior crumb. I made orange currant scones, but you could swap out the currants for cranberries, or you could skip the fruit and extract entirely and throw in a teaspoon or two of cinnamon -- whatever suits you. The basic recipe is posted first and then my variation below that. I'll come back and add to the variations list as I try out new combinations in the future. If you have a suggestion for one, I'd be glad to hear it!

Cream Scones
America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook
Yields 8 scones

2 cups flour, preferably a low-protein brand such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar*
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup currants
1 cup heavy cream (regular whipping cream will also work)
White sparkling sugar for garnish (large grain)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Place flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse six times. Distribute butter evenly over the flour mixture and pulse 12 times. Add currants and pulse once more.

Transfer dough to large bowl. Stir in the cream with a rubber spatula until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. Knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds (you can do this right in the bowl). Press the dough into an 8-inch round cake pan lined with plastic wrap and then invert the pan onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Remove the plastic wrap and score the dough round into 8 wedges using a knife or bench scraper. Sprinkle the round with sparkling sugar.

Bake until the tops and edges are light brown, about 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*This will make the scones ever-so-slightly sweet. You may want to double the amount if you prefer a more sugary scone.

Variations

Orange Currant Scones
Add 1 teaspoon of orange extract and 1 tablespoon of freshly grated orange zest to the cream prior to stirring it into the flour mixture.

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pumpkin butter

The TSA's totalitarian airport security rules don't work for me. I'm sure The Powers That Be are well aware of the inconvenience they cause to travelers, but do you think they know they are preventing beloved family traditions and holiday happiness as well? Doubtful.

You see, I am the only person in my family who is both willing and able to make a pumpkin pie, and I have to bake it the day before Thanksgiving because I'm also in charge of making everything else for the Thanksgiving meal. This was fine until I moved 2,500 miles away. For a variety of reasons -- mom and dad don't own a food processor, my plane doesn't even land in St. Louis until 10:30 p.m., etc. -- I cannot make the pie this year. It is endlessly irritating to me to know that these reasons could be overcome if I could just fly with the pie. It doesn't matter that I'm willing to shepherd it through airport security and cradle it for 3.5 mind-numbing hours in the air. Apparently the TSA is so concerned about pie-wielding terrorists that I can't bring my loosely-defined-as-gelatinous baked good along at all. Fine. So it's the TSA's fault that we will NOT have pie this year. Hrumph.

Well the TSA will win this battle, but I will win the war. We will still have a delicious, harvest-themed, non-cake dessert, and it may even include this pumpkin butter somehow. Some of the recipes I will post here require some patience or have a moderate degree of difficulty, but this is not one of them. You can throw it together in well under an hour, it fills the kitchen with a heavenly autumnal scent, it tastes great, and it keeps for days. Is there a reason you aren't standing at your stove yet?

Pumpkin Butter
A recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen
Yields about 3 1/2 cups

1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree, approx. 3½ cups
¾ cup apple juice
2 teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/3 cups brown sugar*
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Juice of half a lemon (optional)

Combine pumpkin, apple juice, spices, and sugar in a large saucepan; stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until thickened. Stir frequently. Adjust spices to taste. Stir in lemon juice if using. Serve pumpkin butter with muffins, ladle it over cheesecake, mix it with yogurt (as I did, above), or whatever your heart desires.

Once cool, pumpkin butter can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge. I'm not sure how long since I already gave half of mine away and I'll eat the rest within a few days. Please note that pumpkin is not considered safe for home canning.

* I used Splenda Blend brown sugar to save a few calories since it doesn't affect the consistency of the butter (like it would a cake or other baked good where rising is necessary).

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pumpkin cakelets

I've always associated the smell of pumpkin and spices with home. However, when I stopped and thought about this as I mentally assembled my ideas for this post, I realized that I didn't know why. My mother doesn't cook and she's not big into lighting candles, so our house never actually smells of pumpkin or spices in the fall. But as I stood at the stove breathing in the aroma from gradually thickening pumpkin butter, I made the connection. When the scent of cinnamon, pumpkin, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg comes wafting through the air, I know the holidays are near and that's why I think of home. Perhaps that feeling is even stronger this year since I haven't seen a single familiar face in four months. But that will be remedied soon enough. Thanksgiving -- and a trip home -- is only a week and a half away!

One thing you're sure to notice as recipes and posts accrue on this site is that I'm rather fond of the NordicWare cast-aluminum cake pans available (sometimes exclusively) at Williams-Sonoma. I picked up the pumpkin patch pan last fall, but was so busy with managing a tour and Notre Dame football season that I never actually used it. When I packed it into a box in July for my big move out West, I decided that I had to try it out this fall or I couldn't justify owning it. Well, I wish I wouldn't have waited so long because this was the best pumpkin cake I've ever had. In fact, it also trumps any pumpkin bread I've ever had. It is incredibly moist, but not in that oily, where-are-my-elastic-waistband-pants? sort of way, and I think the balance of spices is spot-on. It doesn't need frosting, powdered sugar, or adornment of any sort because it is delicious as is -- and pretty, too, if you use a neat pan.

Pumpkin Cakelets
A Williams-Sonoma recipe
Yields 24 cakelet halves (or cupcakes)

3 1/3 cups flour
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 3/4 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 2/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 2/3 cups pumpkin puree

Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease and flour the wells of a pumpkin patch pan (or regular cupcake/muffin tin); tap out excess flour.

In a medium-size bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat each addition just until incorporated, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the pumpkin puree and beat until incorporated.

Divide half of the batter between the wells of the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center of a cake comes out clean, 18-22 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pan for 15 minutes, and then invert them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Wash pan and repeat baking steps with remaining batter.

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cookies and cream cupcakes

As promised, I made cupcakes to mark the one-year anniversary of my very first moving violation. On a totally unrelated note, I've included a picture of the construction going on in downtown Bellevue. I took it while driving. (You can see a few more pictures of the construction here.)

Anyway, I also made these cupcakes for my sister -- henceforth referred to as "The Athlete." The Athlete's birthday was a few weeks ago, but I was sick as a dog and didn't want to mail her a package of germy cakes. (Happy Birthday! Here's a cold!) The Athlete doesn't really get into dessert. Mostly she just likes junk food. However, growing up, she would make a regular request for "dirt cake" -- that famed Oreo cookie/chocolate pudding/Cool Whip potluck classic. She still likes Oreos, so I thought cookies and cream cupcakes would be a nice surprise for her first birthday away from home. (Maybe not so much a surprise since I'm announcing it here before the package arrives at her dorm. Oh well.)

If you like to bake, and especially if you like to bake cupcakes, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskawitz and Terry Hope Romero is a must-own book. The writing is humorous, the pictures are appetizing, and, most importantly, the recipes yield no-fail, delicious cupcake treats. One of my favorite parts of the book is a short section in the front called "Cupcakes from A to Z," which gives a cupcakism for every letter of the alphabet. This cupcakism is brought to you by Isa, Terry, and the letter "B":

[Cupcakes are] blogworthy. A surefire way to get people to look at your blog is by posting pictures of cupcakes. No one wants to hear about your terrible day at the office or what you think of China's space program. They want to see pictures of cupcakes. Trust us.

In keeping with this principle, I won't tell you about my unpleasant weekend and I don't have any thoughts about China's space program, so I certainly don't have to worry about boring you with those. Instead, I'll just share my thoughts on this cookies and cream cupcake, which uses the basic chocolate cupcake recipe from VCTOTW. The coworkers raved about these, even going so far as to call them heavenly. With respect to the frosting, I'll definitely agree. You can't get more cookies-n-cream than this, and it is very, very tasty. I wasn't quite as crazy about the cake. It is moist and rises nicely, but it didn't have enough chocolate flavor for me. It was dark, but not chocolatey -- does that make sense? (No one else thought that, though, so I'm probably in the minority.) Chocolatey or not, the cake isn't overly sweet, so it pairs well with this frosting. We'll see what The Athlete has to say about it.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Cake

Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskawitz and Terry Hope Romero
Yields 12 regular cupcakes

1 cup light vanilla soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup crushed chocolate sandwich cookies*

Frosting
Yields about 2 cups
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 cup light vanilla soy milk
3/4 cup crushed chocolate sandwich cookies

To make the cakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Add the milk and vinegar to the bowl of an electric mixer; allow it to sit for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, and vanilla extract to the bowl and mix until foamy. Add the flour mixture in two additions and beat until no large lumps remain. Stir in the crushed cookies.

Fill your cupcake containers of choice about 3/4 full. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

To make the frosting:
Beat the butter until smooth. Add the milk, vanilla, and half the sugar and beat until incorporated. Add the remaining sugar and beat until smooth. Stir in the crushed cookies.

* If you buy the mini Oreos, you can crush them right in the bag they come in. Pretty handy.

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cioppino

I love special occasions. Real ones, made-up ones -- you name it, and I like to celebrate it. I've only lived in the Pacific Northwest for three months, but I've already celebrated a number of things. Like the night I got all four of my green dining chairs for only $40. That called for a trip to Cupcake Royale. And the day I picked up my table for only $60 -- "Hello, Cupcake" in Tacoma. This weekend I'll be celebrating the end of my membership in Indiana's illustrious Infraction Deferral Program by making my own cupcakes.

[Unrelated side note about my infraction: So this is how it went: I was enduring a day-long worst date ever. We went to a late-morning wedding. He was rude. (It was astounding, really.) Thankfully, I was able to escape for a few hours after the reception to join my friends for dinner and a play. I had such a good time with them, that by the time the play was over, the memory of the day's earlier catastrophe had faded. And this is where it all goes awry. Worst Date Ever called back and asked me to join him for a drink at my favorite South Bend establishment, CJ's Pub. Still on a fun-friend high, I thought, "I love that place. How bad could it be to go there with him?" So I fancied myself up, got in the car, and was pulled over by the police as I came coasting down what is probably the steepest hill in the greater South Bend metropolitan area. Fine. I deserved it. I was not happy, but I deserved a ticket for letting my car go 15 mph over the completely unreasonable posted 30 mph speed limit. So I arrived at CJ's already agitated over receiving my first-ever ticket, and was quickly reminded of why Worst Date Ever and I are not a match. He had a lot to drink -- a whole heck of a lot. And he was embarrassing. Finally, when I just could not take the sight or sound of him anymore, I made up an excuse about feeling ill and went home. (Well, I didn't go straight home, and the night got a whole lot better after that, but that's a story for another day.)]

Anyway...where was I? Right. I like to celebrate things. So after I collected a table and chairs (and celebrated them accordingly -- they're great!), the next natural thing was to celebrate the first dinner in my new apartment by, obviously, making an actual dinner. Inspired by all the fresh seafood available in my new home, I made cioppino, which is similar to a French bouillabaisse (cioppino nixes the saffron in favor of a true tomato base). And, OH, it was delicious! And so simple to prepare! You can make the base a day ahead (recommended to let the flavors draw through) and then just heat it up and dump in the seafood a few minutes before you are ready to eat. Served with a good loaf of crusty bread, this soup fed me very well for five days in a row...because it was just that good.

Cioppino
Adapted from Gourmet March 2002
Serves 6

Base
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2 medium onions, chopped
1 Turkish bay leaf or 1/2 California bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons course salt (not the regular stuff, please)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 whole tomato, pureed, or 2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1 (28- to 32-oz) can whole plum tomatoes, drained, reserving juice, and chopped*
2 cups seafood stock**
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil

Seafood
You don't have to pick the same seafood I did. Use what is fresh and available at your store.
1 lb small (2-inch) hard-shelled clams, such as littlenecks, scrubbed
3/4 lb mussels, scrubbed with beards removed just prior to cooking
1 lb firm white fish, such as skinless red snapper or halibut, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
1 lb large shrimp, shelled (tails and bottom segment of shells left intact)
3/4 lb baby sea scallops

Cook garlic, onions, bay leaf, oregano, and red pepper flakes with salt and pepper in oil in an 8-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring until onions are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in bell pepper and tomato puree and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add wine and boil until reduced by about half, 5-6 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juice, seafood stock, and broth and simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Cool and refrigerate if not serving immediately.

Add clams and mussels to stew and simmer, covered, for 5-10 minutes. (Discard any unopened clams and mussels after 10 minutes -- they aren't safe to eat.) Lightly season fish fillets, shrimp, and scallops with salt and add to stew, then simmer, covered, until just cooked through, about 5 minutes more. Discard bay leaf, stir in parsley and basil. Salt to taste and serve immediately in big bowls!

* Use the highest quality canned tomatoes you can find, preferably San Marzano.

** The original recipe calls for one bottle of clam juice, but I used the concentrated Glace de Fruit de Mer Gold seafood stock by More Than Gourmet. You can find it at Sur La Table, specialty markets, and high-end grocery stores. The nice thing about making cioppino is that you will have enough shell scraps to make your own seafood stock for the next go around.

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