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.

Some people get off on being a bridesmaid. I am not one of those people. I don’t even really like going to weddings. Mine was perfectly lovely to go to, but I understand if people wanted to skip. I tried to make mine as least painful as possible. One way I did that was by making our dog be the bridal party. And that was it. I was not dragging my friends down into the humiliation that is the bridesmaid dress.

Oh now before you go and say that there are some lovely bridesmaid dresses out there. No there is not. I have only liked one of mine and that was because the bride told us to go buy any dress we wanted in burgundy. So I bought a dress I could truly use again.  I think there are some decent ones out there but the problem is that you are trying to conform 2-22 of your closest friends to all look good in the same dress. Soooo not going to happen.

And they cost a bunch of money.  A bunch. So because I have had to fork out ridiculous amounts of money I insist on using them again. Though not how you probably think. I don’t live a glamorous life and so there aren’t a lot of balls for me to be attending and quite honestly I would wear any of the dresses I have been a bridesmaid in if I did.

No, I wear mine to do housework in. Yes,  my husband has on more than one occasion come home to me vacuuming in a full length, off the shoulder, navy velvet  bridesmaid gown (pictured below…worn for another occasion…Sloppy Joe Night). That way I am not ruining something I will wear again, like say a perfectly good t-shirt. Oh sure, it’s not that functional but I can assure that dress has  a lot o f miles on it now, and has more than paid for itself instead of waiting time in the back of the closet or torturing someone at Goodwill for a dollar.

Have you had some hideous bridesmaid dresses in your past? Do you still own it? If so, seriously, bust it out for laundry day.

Or perhaps you can bake in it? If so, consider making sticky buns with a twist. A banana fosters twist that is. Since sticky buns already have the lovely brown sugar glaze goodness, it makes perfect sense for them to have a little banana thrown in with them. The dough is a little extra sticky because of the moisture of the bananas, just go with it.

Don’t forget you can follow CCbP on Facebook.

(Ignore the fact like I could stab someone with my fingernails )
Banana Fosters Sticky Buns

Banana Brioche

1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup plus 2 tsp. granulated sugar, divided
1 1/2 tsp. dried yeast
2 large very ripe bananas, mashed up
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
8 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into dime sized pieces

Filling:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature

Sticky Bun Glaze:

1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cup pecans

Generously butter a 9 x 13-inch baking pan(a Pyrex is perfect for this).

To Make the Glaze: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter and honey to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Pour the glaze into the buttered pan, evening it out as best you can by tilting the pan or spreading the glaze with a heatproof spatula. Sprinkle over the pecans.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Place warm water and 2 tsp. of the sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer.
Sprinkle yeast on top and mix with a whisk until yeast is dissolved. Let stand for 5 minutes while yeast blooms.

Add remaining sugar, vanilla extract, milk, flour, bananas, and salt.
Using the hook attachment, mix on low speed for 3 minutes to start bringing dough together. Switch to medium speed and slowly drop pieces of butter into dough. Mix for 10-12 minutes. Dough will be wet and sticky and will have good elasticity when stretched.

Pull dough from bowl and onto a floured surface. Using extra flour on your hands, form dough into a ball. Place dough in an oiled, medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm room, 70-75F, for about 2 1/2 hours. Dough will almost double in size. Chill for 1 hour.

To shape the Buns: On a flour-dusted work surface, roll the chilled dough into a 16-inch square. Using your fingers or pastry brush, spread the softened butter over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1 inch strip bare on the side farthest from you. Starting with the side nearest to you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can.
With a chef’s knife, using a gentle sawing motion, trim just a tiny bit from the ends of the rolls if they’re very ragged or not well filled, then cut the log into 1-inch-thick buns. Fit the buns into the pan cut side down, leaving some space between them.
Lightly cover the pan with a piece of wax paper and set the pan in a warm place until the buns have doubled in volume, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The buns are properly risen when they are puffy, soft, doubled and,in all likelihood, touching each other.

Getting Ready to Bake: When the buns have almost fully risen, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375F.
Remove the sheet of wax paper and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Bake the sticky buns for about 30 minutes or until they are puffed and gorgeously golden: the glaze will be bubbling way merrily. Pull the pan from the oven.
The sticky buns must be unmolded minutes after they come out of the oven. If you do not have a rimmed platter large enough to hold them, use a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat or butter foil. Be careful-the glaze is super-hot and super-sticky.

Adpated from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Well, I haven’t gotten much hate mail in awhile so clearly I am being too politically correct as of late. So to rectify that, I shall bring up a topic that my friends and I were discussing the other day.

We were watching Top Chef and they all had to make a pie. The immense fear that was in the eyes of the contestants was too funny to me. It’s the fear that they all seem to get when they tell them they have to make a dessert. Now don’t get me started on the whole you know they do a dessert every season just memorize a recipe thing that I go off on every season, that was not the discussion my friends and I got into. The discussion topic was this….is it better to be a great cook or a great baker?

So I think we can all figure out where I stand on this one, but here is why…most people who can bake  seem to be okay in the cooking department as well. But I have met way too many a chef who is an awesome cook but can’t bake or make desserts to save their life (there are always exceptions I know). I am an excellent baker (though I have several sever disasters under my belt ) and a decent cook. I used to belong to a supper club in Arizona. Every single member was  a chef except for me. When it was time for the meals to be allocated (we did it from just pulling out of a hat) people would throw hissy fits when they got stuck with bread or desserts. But the two bakers of the group always just took whatever we got and rolled with it. And for the record, every single one of those chefs would just bring bread or dessert from their restaurants.

Then there is the convenience of being a baker. It’s so much easier to bring someone a loaf of bread then say a rack of lamb or crock of chili. Doable yes, but awkward and usually needing refrigeration.

So what do you think? Better to be a great cook or a great baker?

Speaking of great baking…I present my 3am idea….cinnamon rolls topped with NY style crumb cake topping. Not sure how this craving came about, but it did. Oddly enough, I could not find a recipe for that idea , so I had to make one of my own.

This was such a poor choice to make. I seriously could not stop eating these. Lucky for me there was hockey that night and I could give them away. See, again, with the portable baked goods (plus one for the bakers).

This ends up being more like pull apart bread  or a cake than that of individual cinnamon rolls. But the messier the better, eh?

Baking is Better NY Style Crumb Cake Topped Cinnamon Rolls

 
For the brioche dough:
1/4 cup warm water (filtered preferably)
1/2 cup plus 2 tsp. granulated sugar, divided
1 1/2 tsp. dried yeast
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
8 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into dime sized pieces

For the filling:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

3 TBSP butter, softened

For the NY Style Crumb Topping:
2/3 cup granulate sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cimmamon
16 TBSP (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
3 1/2 cups cake flour

Place warm water and 2 tsp. of  the sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Sprinkle yeast on top and mix with a whisk until yeast is dissolved. Let stand for 5 minutes while yeast blooms.

Add remaining sugar, vanilla extract, milk, flour, and salt. Using the hook attachment, mix on low speed for 3 minutes to start bringing dough together. Switch to medium speed and slowly drop pieces of butter into dough. Mix for 10-12 minutes. Dough will be wet and sticky and will have good elasticity when stretched.

Pull dough from bowl and onto a floured surface. Using extra flour on your hands, form dough into o a ball. Place dough in an oiled, medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm room, 70-75F, for about 2 1/2 hours. Dough will almost double in size.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugars and cinnamon. Set aside.

On a flour dusted surface, roll the dough into a rectangle about 12 inches wide and 16 inches long, with a short end toward you. Spread butter using your hands (messy but works best) across the dough leaving a1-inch strip bare on the side farthest from you.

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture evenly across surface. Press down the sugar into the butter.

Starting with the side nearest you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can.

With a bread knife(or chef knife), using a gentle sawing motion cut the log into rounds a scant 1/2 inch thick. These are going to be smaller than your average buns because we are adding a crumb topping to them.

Spray baking spray into TWO 9-inch Spring form pans (you can just use a cake pan, but it is MUCH easier to remove using the spring form).

Divide rolls between baking dishes, arranging cut side up (there will be almost no space between rolls). Cover baking dishes with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

20 minutes before the dough is done rising, prepare the crumb topping.

Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a medium bowl to combine. Add flour and stir with a  spatula or spoon until the mixture resembles thick crumbles; set aside to cool to room temperature, 10-15 minutes.

Once cinnamon rolls have risen, split the crumble topping in half. As best you can evenly crumble topping on top of the cinnamon roll dough. Do this for both pans.

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes and top with icing.

For Icing:

Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar into a bowl. Add 6 tablespoons to 1/2 cup of warm milk, briskly whisking until all the sugar is dissolved. Add the milk slowly and only as much as is needed to make a thick, smooth paste.

Brioche recipe from Macrina Bakery and Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Makie

Icing recipe from The Break Baker´s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

Once again, my ability to stop time has failed, and my birthday has rolled around again.
I’ll admit that 37 was not quite the year I thought it was going to be, it had a high learning curve, but then I guess you need those every now and then.

This year I will be celebrating in an unorthodox capacity…I’m going to Beer fest. I actually already went to one a couple of weeks ago, but this is the big Seattle one and I didn’t really have any plans. We are making the controversial (read most likely regret later) decision to bring the dog. My husband cringed at this idea, but it’s my birthday so he has to go along with it. Don’t worry, Crazy Cocker Spaniel won’t be doing any beer sampling. She will however most likely be annoying people and trying to jump and lick on them. Which some people like to get jumped…and licked, just not usually by animals.

I don’t usually bother with a cake for my birthday. Since my husband’s birthday is three days after mine we make cake for him. Unfortunately for me though, he likes BOXED yellow cake with STORE BOUGHT icing. Oh the horror. But as a good little wife I make it. I do however want a birthday treat of my own.

So when I ran across a recipe that encompassed all the food I love (except no bacon darn it all) I almost fell over. Pumpkin. Love that. Cheesecake. Love that. Bread Pudding. Duh, love that. But a Pumpkin Cheesecake Bread Pudding…are you F*ing serious with that. They were.
It was about as awesome as it sounds. Next time I might add a little more spice to mine but other than that, oh my. And now that I’ve made one, I see many more Cheesecake based Bread Puddings in my future. Watch out hips…here it comes. I topped mine with some butterscotch sauce that a friend of mine brought back from Oregon. You can use a caramel sauce just fine.

Hope everyone has a great Canada Day (those celebrating it) and I hope you all enjoy my birthday (July 2nd)…have a beer, it will be like you are with me.

Birthday Girl Pumpkin Cheesecake Bread Pudding
14 to 16 1/2 inch slices brioche

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
6 eggs
1 15-oz can pumpkin
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

For the topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP unsalted butter, melted

Preheat to 350F. Set rack in middle. Spray a 9-x-13-inch oven proof glass (I used metal) baking dish with baking spray.
Combine the cream cheese and sugar in a bowl and mix until smooth.
Combine eggs, pumpkin, milk, heavy cream, salt, and spices in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment,. Beat until smooth. Add cream cheese mixture and combine.

Pour 1/2 cup custard in bottom of baking dish. Tilt and swirl dish until bottom is completely covered with thin layer of custard. Layer 6 slices of brioche on top of custard. Pour half of the remaining custard over brioche. Add remain brioche and custard in layers.

Use a knife to cut 8 slits though layered pudding. Cover the top of pudding with plastic wrap and press down gently with your palm. Let stand 15 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and sprinkle brown sugar over top of pudding. Pour melted butter over sugar.

Place baking dish on a rack in a large meal pan. Pour hot water from glass forming a water bath. You want to go half way up the side. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until top is nicely browned and the custard has risen to top of baking dish. Check water bath occasionally and add more water if needed. Do not let the water evaporate from the water bath.

Carefully remove baking dish room oven and water bath. Allow pudding to cool on rack 1 hour. Serve slightly warm or cold. Store covered with a paper towel and plastic wrap in refrigerator.

Adapted from Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters by Marilynn Brass and Shelia Brass