Gingerbread Bread Pudding

I love me some gingerbread. Normally, I make several batches throughout the holiday season, as well as the occasional gingerbread man and decorated gingerbread house. This year, I decided to add a twist and combine two of my favorite things, and make Gingerbread Bread Pudding!

I got the idea from Bobby Flay’s pumpkin bread pudding (which I would also like to try someday), but I tweaked the recipe a decent amount, not the least of which was making use of gingerbread, and using mixes that Betty Crocker sells, for added convenience!

But before we get to the recipe, let’s take a quick time-out to explore the origins of that wonderful treat known as “Gingerbread”!!

Gingerbread as a term can actually be applied to a great many baked goods. The only things they have in common are ginger, and a propensity for using molasses or honey in place of granulated sugar. Originally, the term gingerbread didn’t even mean a sweet confection flavored with ginger, but rather any bread with ginger sprinkled on top – which was most loaves, because ginger was used as an early preservative and was also believed to ward of colds and upset stomachs.

Gingerbread has a long history. Originally from the Middle East, where ginger was first used as a preservative, it was brought to Europe in 992 AD by Gregory of Nicopolis, a monk. There are many different variations, including treacle and parkin (England), lebkuchen (Germany), licitar (Croatia), pepperkaker (Norway), and pierniczki (Poland).  In Poland, Torun gingerbread (Toruński Piernik) has been produced ever since the Middle Ages. Gingerbread became so popular in Europe that there were gingerbread fairs held at various times throughout the year, the most famous being in Nuremberg, Germany.

Gingerbread also has a long history of being molded into shapes. Originally, gingerbread dough was pressed into molds, although later it took on the shapes we are more familiar with: gingerbread houses and gingerbread men. Gingerbread house-making has its origin in Germany, where it is called lebkuchenhaeusle.  It caught on after the Brothers Grimm popularized what is arguably the most famous gingerbread house of all time: the Witch’s house in Hansel and Gretel, and German immigrants brought this tradition of gingerbread house-making to the US.   The first documented instance of a gingerbread man actually dates back to Elizabeth I of England, who used to have them baked and decorated in the likenesses of her guests, in an effort to awe them.

The widespread association of gingerbread with Christmas had to wait until the mid 19^th century, when Queen Victoria’s German-born husband, Prince Albert, imported the tradition of gingerbread making (along with the tradition of Christmas trees) to England.

In making this pudding, I decided to keep it simple and start off with the boxed mix of gingerbread. It’s easy, and it has the traditional taste of gingerbread that I was looking for, without a lot of the fuss of a from-scratch recipe. But if you have a favorite gingerbread recipe, this bread pudding recipe can certainly be adapted, just skim down the post until you get to the part where I talk about chopping up and toasting the gingerbread cubes.

For this recipe, I made 2 boxes of gingerbread, according to the directions on the box, and baked them in 2-8” square disposable cake pans, because that’s what I had on hand. The box gives directions for multiple size pans, so you can look on the box to find the directions that fit the pans you are using. One thing I would make sure, though, is not to combined both boxes into one plan, like I did for the gingerbread cake balls, because having smaller, thinner cakes makes the toasting process a lot easier than one big thick cake.

So, make, bake and cool 2 boxes of gingerbread cake.

Then cube up both cakes into cubes that are maybe a half inch wide by whatever the depth is of your cake (hence why it is better to have 2 thinner cakes than one fat one).

Spread the cubes out on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and toast for about 10 minutes at 350. You’re not making croutons, you’re just trying to dry them out a tad, so don’t make my initial mistake and bake until they are rocks. You can see the toasted to the left, and the untoasted to the right. Put these cubes into a 9”x13” pan once they are cool.

Then, you make the custard: egg yolks, heavy cream, milk and vanilla. Whisk it until it is well-combined, and then slowly pour it over the gingerbread cubes. Gently press the cubes into the custard a little bit, and let it soak in for about 15-20 minutes.

Then, you bake it for 50 minutes to an hour. Gingerbread pudding is best warm, but if you try to dig into it at this stage, it will probably be runny and fall apart. My advice is to let it cool fully, cover it, and refrigerate it for a few hours or overnight.

Then, when you are ready to serve it, cut it, and zap it in the microwave piece by piece. My microwave took about a minute or so to get to the right temp, wait until you can hear it sizzle! Put some good quality vanilla bean ice cream over it, and enjoy!

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure about this pudding while I was making it. I over-toasted the bread cubes, I didn’t feel like there was enough custard, I forgot to add sugar to the custard period, and I felt that the top of the bread pudding was too hard. But, I gave it a break overnight and came back the next day, microwaved a piece, and man! It was good!! I didn’t miss the sugar, and in fact, I think the whole thing would be too sweet with it, so I am permanently leaving it out of the recipe from now on. I am toying with the idea of increasing the amount of custard by 50% (3C heavy cream, 1.5C milk, 2 extra yolks and a bit more vanilla), because I think I ended up with more cubes of gingerbread than the original recipe was supposed to accommodate, so keep that in mind if you want to try this recipe, although I haven’t tried that. But even as-is in the amounts specified below, this gingerbread bread pudding is delicious, relatively easy, and definitely a different twist on an old favorite!!

Bobby Flay also has a caramel apple sauce that he puts over his pumpkin bread pudding that I think would be equally delicious on this gingerbread pudding. I didn’t have time to try it, but the recipe is at the above link.

Gingerbread Bread Pudding
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 14oz boxes of gingerbread mix (Betty Crocker) plus ingredients specified on the box (water, eggs)
• 2 C heavy cream
• 1 C milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 6 yolks

Directions

1. Make and bake 2 boxes of gingerbread according to the directions on the box
2. Cool completely
3. Cube gingerbread into ½” cubes, place on a cookie sheet, and toast for 10 minutes at 350F.
4. Cool cubes completely and spread in a 9”x13” pan
5. Assemble custard: whisk yolks, cream, milk and vanilla in a bowl until smooth
6. Pour over the cubes
7. Push cubes slightly into custard, and let soak for 15-20 minutes
8. Bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes
9. Serve warm (see above) or cool completely, cover and store
10. When serving, place pieces of gingerbread pudding in microwave, cook for ~1 minute (until warmed through and slightly steaming) and top with vanilla ice cream

Easy Pistachio Chip Cookies

This is my first Christmas cookie posting of the 2010 Christmas Baking season, and I'm starting out with a brand-new cookie recipe that is super-easy but big on taste!


My Christmas cookie baking is fairly constant from year to year in terms of variety, but I try to roll out at least one new variety per year, to test. Sometimes, the new ones make the cut and transition to perennial Christmas cookie staple...and sometimes they don't. These pistachio cookies definitely make the cut, for both their taste and ease of assembly. Let's face it, when you are making many different kinds of cookies, convenience definitely becomes an important factor. I tore the original recipe out of a Betty Crocker mini cookie magazine, but it is also available online here.  The original recipe calls for cranberries, but I modified it, because I prefer chocolate!



These cookies start by using a Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix pouch as a base. I rarely use a cookie mix as a base, but there are some cookies where it works beautifully, and this is one of them. Can you use from-scratch drop sugar cookie dough? Sure you can, with the understanding that you will sacrifice some of the convenience. The choice is yours. Me? I say why fix what ain't broke, and I just use the mix. 

So, begin by combining all the dry ingredients in a bowl. This includes the cookie mix, a box of pistachio instant pudding, and a little extra flour.

Then, you add in some melted butter (yet more convenience!) and eggs. Because the butter is melted, you should have no problem making these cookies with nothing more than a wooden spoon, no need to whip out the stand mixer for this one! If your butter just came out of the microwave, add it first and mix it into the dry ingredients for a few strokes before you add the eggs, so you can avoid the heat of the butter cooking the eggs.

Once this is well-combined, stir in some salted, dry-roasted pistachios and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Try to make sure the pistachios are lightly salted, unsalted nuts will taste too bland in the final cookie.

Now, you use the #60 scoop, and scoop cookies out onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Slightly flatten the tops, and bake until the bottoms are starting to brown.

The first batch I baked, I forgot to flatten. It wasn't tragic. You can see the difference in the flattened vs not flattened look below. But if you forget to flatten, bump up the baking time a little, since the cookies are a little thicker.

These cookies are definitely going into my permanent Christmas cookie rotation, I love all things pistachio-flavored. They were easy and super tasty. If your tastes run away from chocolate, you can always do what the original recipe calls for, and use dried cranberries and maybe even white chips instead of the dark chips.


Easy Pistachio Chip Cookies
(Printable recipe)

Ingredients

• 1 pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
• 1 box (4-servings) pistachio instant pudding mix
• 1/4 C flour
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 C dry roasted, salted pistachios, chopped
• 1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Combine cookie mix, pudding mix and flour in a bowl, mix to combine dry ingredients
3. Add melted butter and eggs, mixing well to combine (can do by hand)
4. Stir in the nuts and chips
5. Using a #60 scoop, drop onto parchment-lined cookie sheet. Slightly flatten tops
6. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until bottoms are browning
7. Cool on sheet for 2 minutes before removing to wire rack

Gluten-Free Boston Cream Cupcakes

My friend Dana, who is gluten intolerant, had a birthday picnic last month.  So, I decided to bake some gluten-free treats that turned out rather well, so I thought I’d share them: gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and gluten free Boston Cream Cupcakes.

Unlike the cookies, which were from scratch, I decided to try the Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Yellow Cake Mix as a base for the cupcakes.  I hit upon the idea of Boston Cream cupcakes because I had read mixed reviews of the BC boxed mix, so I wanted to be able to dress up the cupcakes a bit, just in case.  And, happily, I discovered that both Jell-o instant pudding mixes and BC tub frostings are gluten-free, which took a lot of guesswork out of the filling and frosting.  Jell-o pudding mixes list “modified food starch” under the ingredients, and this is corn starch unless otherwise stated, Kraft is very diligent about listing allergens.  This opens up a ton of possibilities for flavors and fillings. Obviously, if someone is also casein intolerant, other arrangements for fillings would have to be made. I’m definitely not an expert on non-dairy fillings, but I’ve heard (although I haven’t tried it for myself) that the non-instant pudding works better with soy and almond milk than the instant.

Before trying the cupcakes, I searched around to find other people who had already tried the mix, to see if anyone had tweaked the box directions to get a better result, and I hit upon a fabulous resource, A Gluten-Free Guide, which has all manner of gluten-free info, recipes, restaurant lists, food reviews, etc. On this site was posted a review of the BC gluten-free yellow cake box mix, along with tweaks that the author said vastly improved the cupcakes’ taste and texture (backed up by reviews posted on the site). It called for adding, amongst other things, instant pudding and orange juice directly to the mix. So, I decided to give it a try, and they turned out better than I had even hoped.  However, and I can not stress this enough, pudding flavor does make a difference in taste, and if you can find it, I definitely recommend the French Vanilla pudding over the regular vanilla, for both the cake and the filling.


You are basically ignoring the directions on the cake mix package, and following the instructions below, as suggested by A Gluten-Free Guide. This recipe yields anywhere from 16-22 cupcakes, depending on how high you fill the liners:

Ingredients


Cupcakes

• 1 box BC Gluten-free cupcakes, yellow
• 1 pkg Jell-o instant French Vanilla Pudding
• 1/3 C granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs plus 1 egg white
• ½ C vegetable oil
• ¾ C no pulp OJ
• 1 tbls vanilla

Filling

• 1 pkg Jell-o instant French Vanilla pudding
• 1 C heavy cream
• ½ C milk

• Betty Crocker chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate frosting in a tub

Directions for cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Mix the wet ingredients in a medium sized bowl.  In a large bowl sift together the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients  and   beat   on  medium speed until completely combined
3. Line  a muffin tin with cupcake liners.  Fill 2/3 of the way full.
4. Bake for about 23-25 minutes, until the cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  (this will depend on how high you fill the liners, so keep an eye on them and look for that golden color.
5. Cool on rack until completely cooled. The cupcakes can be made the day before and stored, covered (once they cool, you don’t want condensation) overnight at room temp, and filled the morning you intend to serve them.

Directions for filling

1. Combine Jell-o, heavy cream, and milk in a bowl. 
2. Beat on high, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently. I typically do this with a hand mixer, but you can also do this with the whisk attachment of a stand mixer. Beat until mixture is thick and holds semi.stiff peaks.  Don’t beat until it starts to separate, unless you want some French Vanilla-flavored butter.
3. Put the pudding in a plastic ziplock bag with one corner snipped off. This is going to be an easy pastry bag that can be just thrown away when you are done.

Directions for Assembling:

It is hard to see, but that piece is cone-shaped

Filling

1. Taking a knife, gently cut into the cupcake at an angle, about 2/3 of the way into the cupcake, and cut all the way around the cupcake to remove a cone-shaped piece. 
2. Cut off the point of the cone piece, leaving a cake lid that can be put back over the hole you just made. This lid should be no more than ½” thick, the thinner, the better.
3. Then, using your pastry bag filled with the pudding, fill the hole in the cupcake almost to the top, and then press you cake “lid” down over the filling. As you can see from the picture, I over-filled many of my cupcakes, ideally the lid should be flush with the rest of the surface of the cupcake.
4. Take the tub of chocolate frosting, remove the cover and foil, and microwave in the container for 10-15 seconds, until it is slightly liquidy and runs off of a spoon. Spoon the frosting over each cupcake and let it set
5. Store in the fridge.

Filled and hopefully flush with the surface

I have to say, that even without the cream filling, these cupcakes were quite tasty plain, and had a texture close to what you would expect from wheat-containing cupcakes. So close, in fact, that I don’t know if one would be able to tell the difference between them if they weren’t really looking for it.

Frosted! And upside down. I don't know why, but I can't seem to fix it!

 These plain cupcakes could serve as the base for any number of filling/frosting combinations. The cupcakes could be filled in the way that I demonstrated here, which I recommend for a thicker filling, or they could be filled Hostess Cupcake-style with a metal pastry tip inserted into the top for thinner fillings. I think these cupcakes would be delicious with a fruit jam filling inserted (raspberry or strawberry), and then a vanilla icing on top. And, it goes without saying that the filling and assembly methods here can also be used to make Boston Cream cupcakes out of the BC gluten-containing boxed mixes.

Banana Pudding, Bumped Up

Not really. It’s better, and easier. The original Nilla banana pudding recipe is an actual cooked pudding dish. Bah. Too much work! And just using boxed pudding according to box directions is okay I suppose...but it lacks something – unless you tweak it just a bit. This dish is a snap, and I’ve never yet met a person who didn’t love this, and I’ve fed this to a lot of people!

You will need:

• 2 boxes of Jell-o French Vanilla Instant Pudding
• 2 C heavy cream
• 1 ½ C milk
• 1 box of Nilla wafers
• A bunch of bananas
• Cool Whip

The choice of pudding is crucial here. French Vanilla, not regular vanilla. If you’ve tasted both, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t tried the French Vanilla, get it. Sometimes it can be hard to locate, not every store carries it, but it is worth the effort, believe me.  If all else fails, you can get it here. I use this pudding for cream puffs and as a base for napoleon filling as well. Yes, Jell-o makes a “banana crème” pudding as well – but trust me and go with the French Vanilla. Synthetic banana flavor is not the taste we’re looking for.


I generally make this the morning I am serving it, so that the cookies don’t get soggy.  Find a bowl, something large and with a lid. You can see the plastic bowl I used below. Put it aside, that is the bowl you will be assembling the dish in.

I tend to make pudding with a hand mixer, but you can also use the whisk attachment on a stand mixer. Combine both pudding boxes with the milk and heavy cream (light cream and whipping cream just don’t give quite the same flavor, so go ahead and splurge). Beat on high, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until the pudding is thickened like so. With the heavy cream in there, it won’t take long to get to the whipped stage. If you continue whipping cream into the break stage (when it starts to look dry), and it will turn into butter, so keep that in mind.

Put one layer of Nilla wafers down into the assembly bowl, one cookie thick.

Then, spread pudding on top. The thickness is up to you and the depth of your bowl. Your bowl should be deep enough to get 2 layers, so plan accordingly when you put the pudding down, you want to have enough for the second layer, which will probably have a bigger diameter than the first layer. You might not want to just use half your pudding, however, because that might be so high that you can’t fit 2 layers. Judge by eye, depending on the bowl height.

Then, put down a layer of sliced bananas. I normally slice them right as I am putting them down, so they don’t sit exposed to the air for too long.

And then half of the Cool Whip, sealing the edges around the bowl to keep the bananas from the air. Then, repeat: Nilla, pudding, bananas and ending again with Cool Whip.

Cover and refrigerate for several hours.  Voila! Banana pudding. Not  very labor intensive, but a big pay-off in terms of taste. The heavy cream, French Vanilla pudding, and Cool Whip make a world of difference in the taste! Enjoy!