Somewhat similar to that of my wedding day, I remember talking to people, and eating, and drinking but when I go to recollect it is all a blur. The 2nd annual International Food Bloggers Conference came to an end today. Sad and relieved all at once as my pillow is not only calling my name at this point, it’s downright screaming it. If you followed me on Twitter this weekend at all you know I consumed what one may consider to be a large amount of beer (though really that’s subjective ) with others whom I won’t rat out but I think that might be contributing to my overtired self as well.
I went the conference with two goals in mind. To meet and greet people that I had been On-line friends with, and to hopefully get inspired to be a good blogger again. As anyone who runs a blog knows the motivation wall often pops up, mine lately being the size of the Great Wall of China. I am happy to report that both things happened. And more importantly, I made new friends as well.
By far the most inspiration for me (as for many others) was the Penny De Los Santos, who is a food photographer for Saveur magazine. Not only are her photos absolutely incredible, but her passion for what she does emanated with every word that came out of her mouth. Loving the phrase that you don’t take photos, you make photos. I thought that was the best.
Honorable mention goes to Shauna of Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef who also has passion that shines through. She also makes a mean blackberry and peach cobbler I might add.
There were a variety of topics covered. I only skipped one session, on ethics…to drink beer. How ethical is that?
All in all it was a very positive experience and God and finances willing, I will be going to the conference again next year.
Since I was tired but still inspired I knew I needed to go home and make something quickly before the call of the bed won me over. I went simple with this insanely easy, yet yummy bread pudding. If you are an Oreo cookie dunker, this bread pudding is for you. You are essentially dunking a whole bunch of cookies into the custard and letting them take a soak. Then pour that over the bread, bake it off, and top with fudge sauce.
And with that, this food blogger is going to get very familiar with her bed (please remove mind from gutter).

(Best photo op…me and the Swedish Chef. Sorry the picture is small, from my phone)

Cookies and Cream Bread Pudding

(AKA…My pants no longer fit after the IFBC Cookies and Cream Bread Pudding)

2 ½ cups heavy cream

5 egg yolks

3/4 cup of sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Roughly 25 Oreo (or other sandwich cookie)…I say roughly as I got to eating a few and lost count (my bad)

One medium sized loaf of brioche bread or French bread (fresh), cut into cubes

Fudge Sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Butter a 8-x-8-inch pan.

Pour cream into a large bowl. Add Oreos. Let them soak in refrigerator. A good soak. A long day at the office need time in the tub with wine soak. So about 20 minutes…or longer.

Add in egg yolks one at a time, whisk vigorously after each yolk is added. Repeat until all the yolks are gone. Add vanilla extract and sugar and whisk vigorously again. At this point the cookies should be pretty darn good and mushed up and easily mixable. If not, be less wimpy and whisk more vigorously than what you were doing.

Scatter bread pieces into the prepared pan.

Pour the custard over the bread. Press down the bread pieces until the bread is soaked with the custard. You will most likely have extra custard, because some bread is more absorbent that others, don’t feel like you have to use all the custard.

Place pan into another pan that will hold a water bath. Bake the bread pudding for 45 minutes until golden on top. Cool 10 minutes and serve warm and topped with fudge sauce.
Fudge Sauce

2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 unsalted butter
1 heaping cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
In a large saucepan, combine the chocolate chips and butter. Cook and stir over low heat until melted and smooth in texture.
Gradually add the powdered sugar and evaporated milk, 1/3 cup at a time.
Increase heat to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly, for 7-8 minutes.
Remove from heat, and then stir in vanilla and salt.

As with most government, my city has done an outstanding job of doing road construction at every possible way out of my subdivision. Now, I’m all for better roads and people having jobs, but is it really necessary to do it all at the same time? Spread the love…or pavement as it may be in this case.

It’s provided some headaches of course but it has definitely added some amusement. While sitting there the other day with my window down I got to hear a daughter shout to her mom (she was the worker holding the stop sign) from across the street that she was pregnant. Lots of key words were exchanged and it ended with, “be glad there are people around or else I’d come hit you with this sign”. Sadly I don’t know if she ever did as I the sign moved from STOP to SLOW and I had to move on.

The other guy that works there just always looks bored to tears. About a week ago I brought him cookies. I asked if that was against the rules. He told me he didn’t care it if was, those cookies looked good. From that point on, I may or may not have brought him more baked goods in hope of getting preferential traffic treatment. Which I may or may not be getting. Though I think at this point anyone with a bright blue car is getting that treatment, but hey, it’s working for me. I’m getting to go around the special cones. I feel privileged all the same.

Sadly I think my privileges will be going away. The temperatures are warming up around here and the thought of the oven on is a big NO. So I went with what we do in the baking world, I turned to frozen treats. This is Tiramisu that I turned into a sundae. Most of the elements are the same with the exception of the mascarpone layer, which was turned into ice cream form. I also added some crushed toffee bars because I can’t seem to say no to the buy 3 candy bars for a $1 display at the check out.

And a big hello to anyone who came over from CNN.com today. They have a little write up about the blog, you can see it here.

Tira- Me So Hot to Bake Sundaes

Vanilla Bean Mascarpone Ice Cream (recipe follows)
Mocha Ganache (recipe follows)
Purchased Iced Mocha (I used the kind from the store by the famous Seattle area maker)
1 package Ladyfingers
Toffee Bars (such as Heath or Skor), crushed up real good

To build your sundae first place your iced mocha in a bowl (if there is actual ice, remove that). Get a bowl however large you like. Dunk lady fingers into ice mocha and layer on bottom. Top with some ganache and then some toffee. Place a scoop of ice cream on top. Then repeat with the ladyfingers, then ganache, then toffee. Then one more scoop of ice cream. Add more ganache and toffee and place a full size ladyfinger for garnish.

Makes two Peabody sized sundaes…or more like 6 normal people sundaes

Vanilla Bean Mascarpone Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk
A pinch of salt
¾  cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
8 ounces mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, then add the bean pod to the milk. Cover, remove from heat, and infuse for one hour.

To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2l) bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl.

In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice until cool, add the vanilla extract, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly. Preferably overnight.

Remove the vanilla bean. Add mascarpone cheese and freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Adapted from the Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Mocha Ganache

½  cup heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

Cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips, and instant coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.

Kindly remove your mind from the gutter. Not that O. I meant the O in Orama.

As in Peach-Orama.

Apparently my local grocery store is having one. Which of course I am a marketers dream and fall victim every time for things like that. Seriously. You put Orama, Fest, or Extravaganza at the end of something and I will be drawn in.

This worked especially well for my mother growing up. I can’t tell you how many times I fell for helping out at Laundry-Fest. Which, FYI, there is nothing festive about folding laundry. Sigh. Now a days I call them Laundry parties but my husband is too cleaver and catches on before I can sucker him into it. Tom Sawyer I am not.

So falling into the trap of Peach-Orama I ended up with a lot of peaches. Which just like all other fruit for some reason doesn’t want to sit around on my counter and in the fridge for 3 weeks while I leisurely get to it.

I went with a simple biscuit topped peach-raspberry cobbler (somehow ended up with a half flat of those as well). You definitely want to eat this with some ice cream. A biscuit top is usually a little on the plain side. But I love them because you can really taste the fruit. And well, that’s kind of the point of fruit desserts.

Peach-Raspberry Cobbler-Orama

4 cups peeled and cored peaches

1 cup raspberries

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp peach schnapps

5 TBSP unbleached flour

for topping:

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

½ cup granulate sugar

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

6 TBSP unsalted butter

½ cup cream

Decorative sugar for top

Pre-heat the oven to 375F.

I used individual ramekins, but you could use a 8-x-8-inch pan.

In a large bowl toss together the peaches, raspberries, sugar, schnapps, and flour. Set aside.

Evenly distribute peach mixture among ramekins, filling them almost full.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. Add the cold butter and milk and stir until mixed. Spoon the biscuit mixture over the peaches. I used a mini ice cream scoop for this.

Sprinkle decorative sugar on top of the cobbler. Put into the oven and bake until the top browns, about 35-45 minutes depending on size of ramekins. Cool for about 20 minutes and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Glad to see so many of you agreed with me in the last post, and if you didn’t that’s cool too. But one thing several people said, and I agree, is that sometimes being a good baker is a curse.
You can’t ever just bring store bought cookies to a party and be done with it because you had a busy day. People look in horror at you when you do that. It’s perfectly fine that they always pick up the Albertson’s fruit platter, but God-forbid if you slack out. And it’s not even just that it can’t be store bought. I have people actually get disappointed when I “just” bring cookies or brownies. “I was hoping for something from your blog”. Well, those cookies or brownies were probably on the blog. Somewhere in these people’s minds the ability to bake means you also have the time to bake, which as you know is well, NOT THE CASE!
Recently I’ve been strolling though the beginning of this here blog. Most of my current readers have really only been with me over the last two years (with some die hard exceptions of course). So many of the quality recipes from way back in the day have long been forgotten. We flashback to this unusual style cobbler that I made back originally in 2006. I was intrigued by the fact that you roll it up and cut it like cinnamon rolls and then poor simple syrup over the whole thing. It looks scary dreadful when it goes into the oven and you get a little worried, but then it comes out awesome. Over the years I have made a ton of these. While staring at my flat of blackberries I decided it was time for you to get reacquainted with this cobbler.
This is a slightly different version of the original one I made. I used my mom’s peach jam instead of sprinkling cinnamon on the inside of the rolls. I personally love the taste of peaches and blackberries together so I thought it would be a nice pairing, and it is.

Why Do I Always Think I Can Eat a Whole Flat of Blackberries Before they Spoil Blackberry-Peach Jam Cobbler

4 ounces unsalted butter, divided

1 cup water
1 cup plus 2 TBSP granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 TBSP cornstarch
2 TBSP brown sugar
3 cups fresh blackberries (about 1 pound)

5 TBSP Peach Jam (preferably homemade)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a medium sized bowl, toss blackberries with cornstarch and brown sugar. Set aside.

In a 10-inch glass pie plate or baking dish melt 1/2 stick (2 ounces) butter in oven.

In a small saucepan combine 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar and heat over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is completely dissolved.
In a food processor pulse together flour and remaining 1/2 stick butter (cut into dime size pieces) until mixture resembles fine meal. Add cream, vanilla, cinnamon and salt, and pulse just until a dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and with a floured rolling pin roll into an 11- by 9-inch rectangle.

Brush peach jam on top of dough evenly and scatter blackberry mixture evenly over top.

Beginning with a long side roll up dough jelly-roll fashion and cut into 1 1/2-inch thick slices. (Slices will come apart and be messy…really messy).
Arrange slices, cut sides up, on melted butter in pie plate or baking dish. Pour sugar syrup over slices, soaking dough, and bake cobbler in middle of oven 45 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over cobbler and bake 15 minutes more, or until golden.

Serve cobbler warm with ice cream…vanilla is the best.

Serves 6 normal people, or 2 Peabody’s.

Adapted from: Gourmet June 1996 Denise Maguire: Saint Petersburg, Florida