Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

As luck would have it, I get to celebrate two Thanksgivings every year: Canadian and American. For American Thanksgiving we go out for a nine course meal at my favorite restaurant. So for Canadian Thanksgiving I do the cooking. My picky husband of course sometimes makes that a bit of a challenge. So other than the fact that he doesn’t want turkey I pretty much do my own thing and he can pick and choose what he wants from what I made.
Today we will be having a roasted chicken, plain ol’ mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, cranberry-pear chutney, sausage apple stuffing, rolls and pumpkin bread pudding. He wont touch the bread pudding so I was sure to buy him ice cream for dessert. I on the other hand will be eating a heaping bowl of bread pudding…though most likely a few hours after dinner.
It’s nice to get the chance to count my blessings up twice a year instead of just once. It’s been a more than crazy year and it is good to set aside time to be thankful for all that I have.
So Happy Thanksgiving to those to whom it applies to!

Pumpkin Raisin Bread Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Bread Pudding
1 loaf raisin bread(for recipe go here)
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup whole milk
¾  cup sugar
1 ½ TBSP pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350F.
1.Tear raisin bread into pieces and place into baking dish(mine was a 9 by 11).
2 Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and pumpkin together in a large bowl. Add the sugar and whisk until combined. Add the heavy cream, milk and pumpkin pie spices. Whisk until completely incorporated.
3.Pour the custard over the bread. Press down the bread pieces until the bread is soaked with the custard. 
4.Place pan into another pan that will hold a water bath. Bake the bread pudding for 45-55 minutes. You may want to check at the 45 minute mark to see if the custard is setting up, if not cook for another 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and serve warm with butterscotch sauce.

Butterscotch Sauce

3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, and margarine in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in cream and vanilla immediately. Cool; store in the refrigerator.
Stir before serving over ice cream, puddings, or desserts.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups of butterscotch sauce.

I always have such and internal struggle when my favorite hockey team(Flames) plays the team of my favorite player(Flyers). As fate would have it, they played each other last night…for their first games. As usual my Flames lost. No big shocker there. However, when this situation occurs ideally I like for them to tie, and then the Flames win in overtime, that way they each get a point. That didn’t happen but  my player did score two goals. Luckily this is the only time they will meet…unless of course they both go to the Stanley Cup Playoffs(hahahahahahahahahahahahaha).
When the Flames lose I like to bake. I bake a lot.
When I woke up this morning, the weather just screamed, bake bread. So that is what I did. When the Daring Bakers made cinnamon rolls we used a recipe from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice. I own this book and had dragged it out to follow the recipe from there. Ever since I dragged it out I told myself I needed to make more bread. I used to do it all the time. Technically, I still do, but I make the same kind over and over again and I have already posted those recipes. I wanted to make new bread. I wanted to make new bread so that I would have some stale bread left over to make pumpkin bread pudding for Thanksgiving on Monday(even though my hubby wont touch it…his loss). This was a great bread. In the book it is made with cranberry and walnuts but I chose to just use raisins and omit the walnuts as my bread pudding will most likely have nuts in the toffee sauce.
It’s going to be a long hockey season so who knows, you may be seeing many a loaf of bread on here…I am trying to make that my goal.

Raisin Bread

3 cups unbleached bread flour
3 TBSP granulated sugar
¾ tsp salt
3 ½ tsp instant yeast
2 eggs, slightly beaten
½ cup buttermilk
2 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
¼ to ½ cup water, at room temperature
1 ½ cups raisins
1 egg, whisked until frothy, for egg wash

Mix together flour, sugar, salt and yeast using the paddle attachment of the mixer. Add the eggs, buttermilk and butter. Mix on low speed, adding just enough water to make a soft, pliable ball of dough.
Sprinkle flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and only slightly tacky, but not sticky. It should have a soft, pliable quality, not  stiff and resistant. Add the raisins and knead for another 2 minutes or until they are evenly distributed. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Ferment at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until it doubles in size.
Transfer the dough to the counter. Shape bread how you desire. This recipe braided the bread but I was lazy and just made it into a very lard torpedo shape and slashed it a few times. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Place  dough on to pan.  Brush the entire top half with egg wash. Refrigerate  the remaining egg wash to be used later.
Proof uncovered at room temperature for about 90 minutes, or until the dough nearly doubles in size. Brush the loaf a second time with the remaining egg wash.
Preheat over to 325F with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
Bake for approximately 24 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees for an even baking and then continue baking another 25 to 30 minutes or until the loaf is a deep golden brown, feels very firm, and sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. The internal temperature at the center of the loaf should register between 185 and 190F.
Remove the bread from the pan and transfer it to a cooling rack. Allow the bread to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing it.

Source: Adapted from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

“Yeah. Well, you know me. Give me a full ballerina skirt and a hint of saloon and I’m on board.” Nigel in the Devil Wears Prada(the movie).
This is pretty much how I feel about toffee sauce…give me brown sugar, butter and cream and I’m on board. I have often even wondered if I would eat cardboard as long as there was toffee sauce thrown on it? My guess would be yes.
Saturday morning around 10 am I was laying on the couch half asleep. I was bundled up in a blanket with the dog crushing my legs(like she usually does) listening to the comforting voice of Ron MacLean(Hockey Night in Canada host). Yes, Hockey Night in Canada was on at 9 am on the West Coast on Saturday(it sucked because I am not a morning person). You see the NHL decided they would start the season in London, England. The Ducks and the Kings played each other on Saturday and Sunday this last weekend. Which meant no sleeping in for me. Though the NHL season has “officially” started with those two games, the real fun begins today, the “real” opening of the NHL season, or as I like to call it, my happy time. So while I watched the game on Saturday I just kept thinking, comfort/England, comfort/England…and what did I get? Sticky toffee pudding.
Sticky toffee pudding seems to have many different versions of the “pudding” part. One thing that is constant is a toffee sauce and dates in the pudding. Other than that you can find many a variety. This comes from a relative who lives in Perth, Scotland. I messed around with it a bit, so not sure how authentic it is anymore, but tasty all the same. Normally, I would have used pecans(as that is what it calls for) but I didn’t seem to have any, which is highly unusual. But I suspect you could use just about any type of nut and you’d be fine.
So here is the start of the NHL hockey season. Here is to my Flames, who if the pre-season is any indication, will have me swearing and crying all season. Here is to my Danny who is a skilled player on a team known for being goons….good luck Danny! Here is to the happiest time of the year. The time when I can hope that my team will make it to the Stanly Cup playoffs. The time when reality hasn’t set in.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

For the pudding:
8 ounces unsalted butter, cut into 1 ounce pieces
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ cup water
½ cup milk
1 ½ cups dates, pitted and chopped

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease and flour a muffin tin(full size muffins, no minis)
In a food processor, blend together butter and sugar, adding the butter one ounce at a time. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides down after each egg. Add the remaining ingredients, except dates, and blend until smooth. Add dates and pulse to combine.
Using a ice cream scoop, scoop batter into muffin tin(s). Mine holds 12 and could have probably made 14. You can also use pudding cups or ramekins if you would like.
Bake for about 30 minutes. If you are using the larger pudding cup you might have to go as long as 45  minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing them from the muffin tins. Continue cooling on a rack.

Toffee Sauce:
2 cups brown sugar, tightly packed
2 ounces unsalted butter
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
½ cup nuts(preferably pecans but all I had was walnuts)

Bring cream, brown sugar and butter to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and stir occasionally for about 5 minutes. Stir in the nuts and pour over puddings.