One time when I was a teenager and my parents went back to see my grandpa I was left to my own devices. I was left with grocery money (because I knew how to cook) and money for Chinese food (which is pretty much all I wanted to eat back then…kind of still do). For whatever reason I really, really wanted potato salad but we had no hard boiled eggs…but for some reason I had already boiled potatoes. So I had a great idea.

Put the egg in the microwave. So I did. It was fine. Since I was in a rush I decided I would put it in a bowl and run it under cold water to speed up the process. And with that I had hardboiled egg 4th of July…with little bits of hard boiled fireworks flying through the kitchen everywhere.

I cleaned up what I saw but I’m not a very good cleaner and when my mom came home in a couple of days she noticed right away (I missed the large chunks of the ceiling….who knew?) My parents weren’t mad or anything. I mean you know you have a good teen when you go away for 10 days and only come home to microwaved boiled eggs. But my mother was of course annoyed and swears she still found bits of egg over a two year span. I think she was lying.

So I learned it apparently is a mistake to hard boil eggs in the microwave. Good to know.

These rolls are another lesson learned. I saw a recipe on Pinterest for just cake batter cinnamon rolls and that didn’t appeal to me so I decided that I would go the snail route (not that kind of snail) and fill mine with Funfetti pastry cream. But when I clicked through the recipe was super long and they had basically made croissant dough…which is awesome but oh so time consuming. And well I got me yet another part time job and so time is even more limited. So I decided to look up a no yeast quick fix cinnamon roll recipe. Big mistake.

So I made this dough that said it might be wet and if it is add more flour. I added and added flour to no end. I finally plopped it out onto the counter to roll out and it spread around like the Blob…it gave new meaning to the expression nailing down Jello. I added more flour which just mean these were going to be seriously tough rolls…they were. When I finally got them manageable I spread on the pastry cream and attempt as quickly as I can to cut them and put them into a pan. That was less than fun. It said bake for 15…it took almost 30. The recipe and me were not friends. So I didn’t include it and I am not going to link it.

While the rolls were a mistake the idea was good and if I ever get the time to make brioche again I will make these again. So be prepared to see them again at some point…with better results. But life is about making mistakes and learning from them. I’ve never boiled an egg in a microwave ever again and I’m never going to skip corners and try and make a quick roll again. Yuck. A perfectly good waste of sprinkles.

The pastry cream FYI can be mixed with whipped cream and thrown into a prepared pie crust (think cookie) and it would make a great pie!

Also want to say a big Happy Birthday to my mom today!!!

Funfetti Pastry Cream

1 cup whole milk
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 TBSP cornstarch, sifted
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 TBSP unsalted butter, cut into bits at room temperature
1/3 cup funfetti cake mix

Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.

Meanwhile, in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the egg yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended.

Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk– this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won’t curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk.

Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and thoroughly (making sure to get the edges of the pot), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.
Whisk in the vanilla extract and cake mix. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until they are full incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky.

Scrape the cream into a bowl. You can press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate the pastry cream until cold or, if you want to cool it quickly–as I always do–put the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water, and stir the pastry cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.

Adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

MDP and I were roaming the aisles of our local Rite Aid in search of Mini Cadbury Crème Eggs…found them obviously . In doing so we were picking up all sorts of candy and commenting. One of them were Prayer Jelly Beans “Reaching the World One Piece at a Time”…it’s up on my CCbP Facebook page if you care to see those. The other thing we were commenting on were the Brach’s Chicks and Rabbits Marshmallow Candy which we both agreed we secretly loved.

I sat there staring at them and he was like don’t buy those we will eat them in one sitting. Which is true. I told him though that I wondered if I could make anything with them. He told me he doubted that. I told him they were just like Circus Peanuts and that I once made Circus Peanut Ice cream…and I kind of almost shouted it. Except I didn’t say Peanuts. I said something that sounded like peanuts. I meant to say peanuts. It didn’t come out as peanuts. It came out as an ice cream flavor I don’t ever want to eat. MDP turned bright red and quickly fled from the aisle as quickly as he could. I decided to put the candy back after that. Somehow making it into an ice cream was no longer appealing.

But I still wanted to make Cadbury Crème Egg Crème Brulee. I searched the internet only to find that someone made what they called Cadbury Crème Egg Crème Brulee only for me to be greatly disappointed. It was crème brulee that they just stuck and egg in. While I am sure tasty, a little bit of a cop out in my opinion. I figured it would taste way more like a crème egg if there was actual crème egg throughout the custard…and it does. It is pretty sweet but then again if you are eating the crème eggs whole it’s actually less sweet than that…so I take that back.

My back-up goalie really wanted these. He called me evil when I told him I was making them. I told him he could come get them…not sure if he is going to take me up on that. If not, I have a feeling they can find a home.

Cadbury Crème Egg Brulee

4 ounces Mini Cadbury Crème Eggs (unwrapped…I know this seems obvious but I had a reader once not do it and complained I didn’t explain that), chopped up
1 cup heavy cream
3 egg yolks, at room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ tsp. vanilla extract

In a medium bowl whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract.

Using a double boiler or a saucepan with heatproof bowl over it, melt the Cadbury crème eggs. They won’t totally melt like normal chocolate because it’s got fondant in it. It will make a nice warm blob…go with that. Place into a blender…yep, blender.

In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Once at a boil remove from heat. Take ¼ cup of the cream and pour into egg mixture while whisking the whole time. You are tempering the eggs so they don’t scramble on you. Keep doing this ¼ cup at a time until all the cream is whisked in. Pour mixture into blender and let sit for a minute.

Turn blender on low at first and then up to high, you want the chocolate fully incorporated into the cream/egg mixture. You don’t want chunks but the end of the world won’t happen if you do.

Pour into 3-4 (depending on how big yours are…I got 4) leaving just a little room. Place them into a 9-13-inch pan and fill half way up the ramekin with hot water making them a little water bath.

Bake at 300F for 30-37 minutes depending again on the size of your ramekins. I had one slightly smaller on and that took 34 minutes the other three took 37. You just need to watch it. You want it firm but with a little jiggle in the middle. Remove from oven and from water bath and let sit for about 5 minutes. Then while still warm add the extra egg on top. It will sink a little…that’s okay. You will notice this says brulee and looks it. The fondant makes it look that way. These don’t actually get tourched unless you want it. And if you do want that, do it after they have been in the fridge for 4 hours.

Hope everyone has a great Pi Day!

Recipe to come later…

I don’t think best friends work for most adults. I don’t really think they work all that well for kids either but right now I am focusing on the adults. A friend of mine basically started a discussion on how we don’t really have best friends. Most of us had concluded that we had someone we called our best friend but they were back from college or even high school days and in reality knew very little about what was actually going on in our day to day lives. And we all concluded that no one we know lived like a Friends episode.

I have this too. The female that most people assume is my best friend still lives in Phoenix. I probably speak to her physically on the phone maybe once a year and we text maybe a few times a month. How is it that this person is expected to be my best friend? It’s a good question and the one that we have been mulling over.

I think one thing that comes into play is that people end up marrying their best friend kind of thing. When you used to run and tell your best female friend all your stuff you find yourself telling your spouse instead…unless of course you are complaining about your spouse. But in some ways that spot gets filled. And while when you were single your girlfriends were there for you, it all really changes when you are in a relationship. And this is why for adults the concept doesn’t work all that well.

It doesn’t work well for kids just for the fact that it just causes super drama. Girls get upset about being left out. Or thinking they were someone’s best friend only to find out that they weren’t when they see them wearing the other half of the BFF forever necklace.

What about you? Do you have a best friend? Or do you have a collection of close friends? And if you do have a best friend are they the same sex as you? If you read the blog you know that most of my friends are guys. Though I do have female friends as well, I just tend to hang with the guys much more.

If you don’t have any friends and want to make some, maybe you should make some bread pudding. Nothing says be my friend like carby-sugary-comforting bread pudding. I used Hawaiian rolls because they are sweeter and just all around awesome but you can use regular dinner rolls. Since the orange and chocolate chip loaf went over so well a while back I thought I would make it into bread pudding form. Glad I did. Share it with a friend today.

Orange-Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

1 (12 pack) package King’s Hawaiian Rolls (or dinner rolls), on the stale side, torn into pieces

1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup orange juice concentrate
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a 8-x-8-inch pan.

Place bread pieces into pan to cover bottom.

Mix the egg s, egg yolk, sugar, orange juice concentrate and salt in a large bowl. Then stir in the heavy cream and milk. Whisk until fully incorporated.

Pour the custard over the bread layer. Press down the bread pieces until the bread is soaked with the custard. Sprinkle ½ the chocolate chips.

Make another layer of bread. Pour custard over second bread layer. Repeat as many times as you have ingredients and room. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips.

You will most likely have extra custard depending on how stale your bread is. 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 45-55 minutes until golden on top, and custard isn’t running in the middle. Cool 10 minutes and serve warm with orange toffee sauce.

Orange Toffee Sauce
2 TBSP orange juice concentrate
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup whipping cream

Stir brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes.

Add cream and orange juice concentrate and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Serve over bread pudding warm.