When You Want Bread Pudding, Give It The Raspberry!

25 years is a long time to be in any business, and it's especially tough in the restaurant industry. But that's what Kneader's Bakery and Cafe has achieved. Now to celebrate, they've introduced a new cookbook with some of their most celebrated recipes. Among them, Raspberry Bread Pudding, which has been a staple at Kneaders for over two decades. Founder of the chain, Colleen Worthington, stopped by Tonia's Kitchen, to talk about the new cookbook, and the bread pudding. She says it's best with their scratch-made Country White Bread. Colleen also told Tonia she recommends serving the bread pudding hot topped with lots of cold Vanilla Sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 qt Heavy Cream
• 3 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 loaves Kneaders Country White Bread, sliced

RASPBERRY MIXTURE

• 5 c raspberries
• 1 c sugar
• 1/2 c apple juice

KNEADERS VANILLA SAUCE INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/3 c butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 5 tbsp flour
• 3 c heavy cream
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 c sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Whisk together cream, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract in a large bowl by hand.
3. Cut sliced bread into quarters. Mix cut bread with custard mixture, making sure all bread gets separated and evenly moistened. Allow the bread to soak for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
4. In a medium bowl, combine raspberries, sugar and apple juice. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
5. Pour 3/4 of bread mixture into a 9″x13″ baking dish. Pour raspberry filling over bread mixture and spread evenly.
6. Top with remaining bread mixture. Place in oven and bake for 40 minutes.
7. While bread pudding is baking, prepare your favorite vanilla sauce recipe.
8. Remove bread pudding from oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm and top with vanilla sauce.

DIRECTIONS FOR VANILLA SAUCE

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat and add flour.
2. Stir constantly for 10 minutes until the flour has a nutty aroma.
3. Stir in salt, cream and sugar. Bring to a boil and still constantly until the mixture thickens.
4. Remove from heat and add vanilla, chill until cold.

A Peachy Keen Dessert!

 

And the reason it is just peachy is on so many levels. Belinda Smith-Sullivan, who wrote the new cookbook Just Peachy (see what I did there :)) stopped by Tonia's Kitchen to talk about her book and a recipe for Raspberry Peach Crumble. Belinda says it's perfect for entertaining because the crumble is so quick. One Belinda's keys to this dish is mixing the fruit crumble mix with cardamom, which has been increasingly popular. She told Tonia that cardamom goes perfectly with peaches,  and that a number of people are doing that very thing. As for the crumble itself, Belinda combines butter, flour and brown and white sugars. Try it and you'll agree, it's just peachy.

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt½ cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Filling

6–8 peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced

1 pint raspberries

½ lemon, juiced

¼ cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugars, cinnamon, salt and butter. Using clean hands, rub together ingredients until mixture sticks together in small clumps.

Into a deep pie dish, arrange peaches and raspberries. Sprinkle with lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch and toss thoroughly. Spread the topping evenly over the fruit.

Bake in preheated oven until golden brown and juices are bubbling up through the topping, 45–50 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature