(not) Bourbon bread pudding

I topped it with some blood orange segments and caramel

Bread pudding is a great way to use up slightly stale bread, but if you rarely have bread in the house it's not so convenient. After baking with TWD last week and getting such a warm welcome back I really didn't want to miss this week. Of course, things never work out quite the way I expect. I had a lovely weekend of visiting friends, eating out and skating on the canal. After work today, I skated home (about 6 km/4 miles) on a very soft and slushy canal, put on some comfy clothes and settled in to relax. I did relax, for about 5 minutes, until I realized I didn't have any bread for the bread pudding. I was so reluctant to get dressed and go back outside that I started gathering the ingredients to make a loaf of bread. This seemed perfectly reasonable to me, until I discovered I was out of yeast too. Not having the time to gather wild yeast, I moped for a couple of minutes, then looked in the freezer and found some little crumpets I had made for the poached egg challenge a couple of months ago. So, here's what I did: I quartered the recipe, except for the booze. I doubled that. Wouldn't you, at this point? I used mostly milk and skipped the extra egg yolks. Instead of bourbon I used my favourite heavily spiced rum/extrait antillais. It tastes of vanilla, mace, sapote and tonka beans. I made 2 little ramekins, and ate one for dessert. If you see a picture with this post, it means the other little bread pudding survived the night. How was it? Absolutely delicious! Thanks to Sharon of Simply Southern for choosing this recipe. As always, she'll have the recipe for you, and you can see who else baked this week by heading to the Tuesdays with Dorie site.

The homemade mini crumpets

TWD: Rhubarb-rhubarb bread pudding

I have been on a bit of a rhubarb bender lately. Luckily, it doesn't cause a hangover, but I'm not sure the enamel on my teeth can stand up to much more. Is it just me, or does rhubarb make your teeth feel weird too? Anyway, enough about my teeth, let's talk about bread pudding, which doesn't require teeth. The original recipe, chosen by Elizabeth of Cake or Death? and posted on her site, calls for caramelized apples and apple butter, but I still had about 4 pounds of rhubarb in the fridge, so that's what I used.

I roasted some stalks of rhubarb and a vanilla been, all sprinkled with sugar in a 375℉ oven for 15 minutes or so. This resulted in tender but not falling apart rhubarb and a beautiful pink syrup speckled with vanilla seeds. I used this rhubarb in between the layers of bread in the pudding. To replace the apple butter, I cooked some sliced rhubarb with sugar, cardamom pods, a vanilla bean and a bit of water until it fell apart. I then reduced it until it was very thick and spreadable. I spread this on the bread and it was delicious--you could really taste the cardamom.

I only made 2 ramekins of the bread pudding, as it's not one of my favourite desserts, but I regretted this as soon as I tasted it. It may look a bit schlumpy and unappealing, but this was fantastic! Rhubarb and custard are a perfect match, and mine was really custardy. Here's a photo I snapped as I was eating the second one, minutes after finishing the first. Yes, it's a bit blurry, but I wanted to eat it before it cooled off. Notice I didn't bother with the sauce and roasted rhubarb garnish the second time around.

I had some of the custard mixture as well as some of the bread left over the next morning, so I made some very decadent French toast. I gave the rhubarb a rest and went for good old Canadian maple syrup. Mmmmm...

I have also made rhubarb soda, rhubarb tarts and rhubarb fool/pavlova with my mountain of rhubarb, but the pictures are stuck on a camera that stubbornly refuses to turn on. I'll post those, and the other rhubarb desserts I have in mind when I can figure out how to get the pictures.