Again with the custard theme. This is an excellent use for stale bread. Some recipes call for slices of bread to be buttered before you put them in. mmm, butter....

Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding
From Diana Rattray, on About.com

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups milk
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 slices bread (or 4 cups cubed bread)
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash nutmeg

PREPARATION:

Heat milk over low heat until hot, but not boiling.
In a bowl, combine eggs, sugar, and salt; stir well. Gradually stir about 1/4 of the hot milk to the egg mixture and stir in. Add remaining milk, stirring constantly. Stir in vanilla.
Place bread slices in a buttered baking dish, about 2-quart size.
Sprinkle raisins over bread. Pour the milk mixture over bread. Combine cinnamon and nutmeg; sprinkle over pudding mixture.
Bake, uncovered, at 300° for about 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. (Some recipes say 350 instead of 300 so the temperature is clearly not critical.)
Serve warm with custard or another sauce. Fruity sauces work well, as do alcohol-based ones if you want to get fancy. (mmm. grand marnier...) A friend also claims that chocolate sauce is v. good with this, and I'm skeptical although the connection to Nutella makes me keep an open mind.
Serves 6. (heh heh. More like 3, in my experience--but then, we were all hungry....)

Labels: Dessert, Rachel

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How to make Haystacks

2 c white sugar
1/2 c butter
1/2 c milk
1/2 c cocoa

Boil, stirring, for 5 minutes (or 3 minutes for gooey cookies).

Add

1 T vanilla
1/2 t salt
3 c oats
1 c coconut

Mix well. Drop by the teaspoon onto waxed paper. Cool. Eat. Eat more. Put in an airtight container before you eat yourself sick. Try not to lick out the pot while it's still hot--that stuff is sticky and can really burn. (These are evil-good, because they're easy to make and hard to stop eating.)

How to make disgusting, vile, horrifyingly, traumatically nasty Haystacks

substitute Splenda for as little as half of the sugar.

shudder

"Hmm. I'm almost out of sugar," I think. "But here's some Splenda. They talk up how good this stuff is for baking," I think. "How bad can it be?" I think.

You'd think I'd have learned from my brother's Tequila Suicide experience (I'll tell you about it some other time) that if you find yourself asking "How bad can it be?" you usually don't want to know the answer.

Labels: Dessert, Rachel

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