Pineapple Coconut Bread Pudding with Buttered Rum Sauce

It's almost the start of the New Year so I've been thinking about what my 2014 New Year's resolutions will be. This got me to thinking about what they were for this year and then I remembered that my resolution involved baking. And I quote (from my blog entry on Jan 16, 2013), "I have decided that 2013 is the year I take on more challenging recipes. Recipes that push me out of my comfort zone and hopefully make me realize that yes, I CAN do it. It will also help me understand different techniques of baking that I haven't dabbled in yet. (Or I'll learn from my failure with the new techniques.)"

 

I've done pretty well this year with trying new recipes that weren't my usual go tos (cookies & brownies.) In fact, I've never made a bread pudding before and lookie here! While it's not complicated, I did get to try something new!

 

I brought this to a holiday party and people raved about it. I used a basic recipe and added a couple ingredients to the bread pudding and then added a buttered rum sauce. I think THAT'S what made people rave. :)

 

Have you thought about your 2014 resolutions? Do they involve baking?

Pineapple Coconut Bread Pudding with Buttered Rum Sauce (adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients for Pudding:

3 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple in juice, undrained

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

12 slices bread, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I used country-style white bread)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

 

Ingredients for Sauce:

6 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons white sugar

4+ teaspoons of rum

Directions for pudding:Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 baking dish. (Or use ramekins.) Beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until sugar is dissolved. Stir in pineapple, butter, coconut, and raisins. Stir in bread until well coated. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake in preheated oven until bread is fluffy, about 40 minutes.

Directions for sauce:

When pudding is ready to be served, melt butter in a pan on the stove and stir in the sugar and rum. Once completely melted, drizzle over the bread pudding while warm and enjoy. 

Bake well and prosper!

Apple Crisp in Mini Pumpkins (Vegan Option Available)

I have a little phobia when it comes to carving pumpkins. You see, when I was 14 I was at a party where everyone was carving pumpkins. While I was carving mine, I got my knife stuck in the pumpkin. The next thing I knew I had broken the knife in half. One part was in my hand and one was in the pumpkin! I felt so badly about breaking the host's knife.

So, there I was this morning, cutting into a pumpkin for about the 4th time in my life... I kept switching knives because I was so scared about a repeat knife break. 

Look! None were broken. But yes, I used all 4 for this tiny little pumpkin.

And in even more good news, getting the seeds out of the pumpkin turned out to be very messy (and quite clingy).

I've been hankering to make this recipe for weeks now, but sleep seemed more important than baking. My schedule has been super busy the last two weeks and continues to be, but I finally bounced out of bed early this morning ready for this fun recipe. 

Whether you bounce out of bed or slowly roll out, try making this recipe. It's fun to put together and rather healthy for you as well!

Apple Crisp in Mini Pumpkins (adapted from The View from the Great Island)

1/2 apple chopped in small chunks (peeled if you'd prefer)

Juice from 1/2 lemon

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp flour

1/2 Tbsp soft butter (don't add this if wanting to keep it vegan)

2 Tbsp chopped almonds

1 Tbsp raisins

2 Tbsp oats

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut tops off of pumpkins and remove all seeds and as much of the pumpkin strings as possible. Prepare ingredients and mix them in a medium bowl. Stuff inside pumpkins. (Should fill 3 small pumpkins.) Add  a little bit of butter on top of each mixture. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the pumpkin is soft.

Feel free to put whip cream with cinnamon or nutmeg on top or drizzle with maple syrup.

Bake well and prosper!

An Apple a Day - McIntosh-Oatmeal Cookies

Mmmmm! Welcome to day 5 of

I had to take Sunday off as a rest day and now I'm back with a new recipe! I think this brings my apple count down to 5 apples. Seeing I had 9 pounds of apples when I started, I am making pretty good progress using up my freshly picked apples. This new recipe comes from my Mom's Best Recipe Cookbook. Enjoy!

McIntosh-Oatmeal Cookies (From my Mom's Best Recipes Cookbook)

1 C unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 C sugar

1 1/2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1 t vanilla

2 large eggs

2 medium McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, and diced (about 2 C) (I used Stayman Winesap because I didn't pick any McIntosh apples. Sorry, Mom!)

3 C oatmeal
1 C raisins
3/4 C walnuts, chopped

In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, and eggs; beat until just blended, occasionally scarping bowl with spatula. Stir in apples, oats, raisins, and walnuts.

Drop dough by level 1/4 C, about 3 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 350 degrees until golden, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower oven racks halfway through. With wide spatula, transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Bake well and prosper!