Pintertest: Peanut Butter & Jelly Bread Pudding

I've been saving bread crust all this week... kinda sounds weird when you read it. 

Well at least its to make bread pudding

Had you met me 2 and a half years ago, I would never have done this. Certain desserts just freak me out a little (i.e. rice pudding & formerly bread pudding). So I would not have touched bread pudding with a ten foot pole, but then I had the most delicious bread pudding on our cruise and was converted as a bread pudding lover. 

A new personal fave is the Croissant Bread Pudding at La Boulange Cafes

Photo from Foodgawker

For August I pinned

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bread Pudding

Looks pretty awesome but I think mine looks better! 

Recipe is modified by me

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk

• 3 large eggs, at room temperature

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

• dash of salt

• 1/2 cup of your favorite jelly, jam, or preserves (I used mixed berry)

• 4 cups coarsely chopped bread crust, from 1 loaf white bread (or the same amount of day-old bread)

• Unsalted butter, for greasing pan

• brown sugar for sprinkling on top

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 8 by-8-inch baking pan.

Put 1 cup milk, the eggs, peanut butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt into a bowl and mix until smooth, taking care that the peanut butter is thoroughly emulsified into the mixture. Then whisk in the remaining 1 cup of milk. Stir in the bread and set aside to soak for about 10 minutes. Pour this mixture into the prepared baking pan. Place spoonfuls of your favorite jelly, jam, or preserves around the bread mixture, pushing them in a bit with your spoon. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the pudding is browned, puffed, and a little firm. Halfway through sprinkle brown sugar on top. Broil for about one minute before pulling it out of oven. Let cool. Cut into squares to serve & enjoy!

-xo emily

Go link up your Pintertests too!

Pretzels!

As promised, homemade soft pretzels simplified! Just a week late...

Ingredients

Dough

1 1/2 cups water, at room temperature

3 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

3 3/4 cups of flour

1 3/4 teaspoons of salt

olive oil, for spraying the pretzels

2 quarts of water

3 tablespoons baking soda

1 large egg yolk mixed with 2 teaspoons water, for the glaze

kosher/coarse salt, sesame, poppy seeds or cinnamon sugar, for topping

Directions

1. To make the dough, pour water into bread maker. Sprinkle in yeast and let sit for approximately 5 minutes, while yeast activates. Add in butter, flour and salt. 
2. Set bread maker to dough setting and start. Dough will rise in bread maker.
3. Place dough on lightly floured surface and divide into 14 equal portions. On an un-floured surface, roll each dough piece out to form a 16-inch-long rope. Set aside and cover with plastic wrap. Let dough sit for 5 minutes.
4. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat. Starting with first rope rolled, re-roll each rope into a 16-inch rope and twist into a pretzel: Cross ends of rope and twist together. Shape into pretzel and attach ends to rounded bottom securely. Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with the remaining pretzels and let stand for about 10 minutes, until they look puffy.
5. Spray pretzels lightly with olive oil mister. Bake or freeze. 
6. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F. Combine the water and baking soda in a large pot and bring to boil over high heat. Mix egg glaze.
7. Place a few pretzels at a time in boiling water, 30 seconds per side. Remove and place on baking sheet approximately 1 inch apart. Lightly brush pretzels with the egg glaze. Sprinkle with topping of your choice.
8. Bake until pretzels are puffed and browned, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack. 
9. Devour by themselves or with dip of your choice!

-xo Emily

Recipe modified from The Baker's Dozen Cookbook

Blueberry Mug Cakes

Simple was key for this week though as Hayden and I are prepping to go away for the weekend. 

Makes 2 mug-cakes

ingredients

2 tablespoons butter, softened

2 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup of blueberries (I used frozen)

Powdered sugar for dusting

instructions

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients (except blueberries and powdered sugar) and whisk until batter is smooth. 

Gently fold in blueberries.

Pour batter into mugs, making sure that there is enough room for them to rise, they double in height. 

I used our largest mugs (approx. 16 oz/grande size).

Microwave on high for 90 seconds to 2 minutes, or until done. Microwave cooking times can vary widely, it is best to watch the cooking process. It could be done in 60 seconds. 

Let cakes cool and top with honey or dusting of powdered sugar. 

Devour! 

Garlic Knots

My Garlic Knots - coming soon to a Northern California Super Bowl party :)

I've seen a few different recipes in the past for garlic knots... 

but I didn't bother doing the logical thing by trying to find the ones I may or may not have pinned.

Here is a picture of some I pinned to be on the up and up. However I'm crazy and created my own recipe.

You'll Thank Me Later - Garlic Knots

I made my dough in a bread maker but you can do it by hand too. This recipe makes approximately 3 dozen medium sized knots. 

Prep time: 2 1/2 - 3 hrs (depends on rise time of dough)  Bake time: 15-20 min

Dough:

• 1 1/2 cups of water

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

• 2 teaspoons of salt

• 2 teaspoons of sugar

• 4 cups of flour (I used white all purpose)

• 1/2 tablespoon of rosemary

• 1/2 tablespoon of basil

• 4 teaspoons of fast rise or bread machine yeast

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons of butter, melted

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

• 3 cloves of garlic, minced or grated

• 1/2 tablespoon of parsley(I used dried)

• salt, your preference to taste

Directions:

1. Measure all dough ingredients and place in bread pan, in the order listed. Select dough setting and start machine. I believe my dough setting has 2 rises not all bread machines are made this way - you want 2 rises for extra puffy dough.

2. Once the last rise is almost done - mince spices and melt butter.

3. Combine and stir all topping ingredients together in a small bowl.

4. Once dough is done - lightly flour a surface large enough to roll out your dough to cut. I rolled out my dough to be about 1/4 inch thickness and cut it in 1 inch strips, vertically and then each strip into thirds. They ended up being approximately 7 inches in length before tying.

5. Cover cookie dough sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Then fold over the knots and tie them. Place knots about an inch apart, I fit a dozen on a 9x13 pan.

6. Then brush or pour some of topping mixture on knots, saving at least half for the finish. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top and bottom. (I rotated mid-way through to get them evenly browned)

7. Pour remaining topping mixture over the knots. Plate & devour!

Warning: These are highly addictive!!

Now you Pintertest it!