A Cooking with Bacon Class...Featuring Maple Bacon Bread Pudding

 

Nothing says "Happy New Year" and "Happy Healthy Eating" and "This Is Going To Be The Year I Get Serious About Eating Healthy" like going to a Cooking with Bacon Class a few days after the New Years holiday. This is not the first such class I've taken. I first explored formal training in cooking with bacon (as opposed to being simply an enjoyer of this delicious piece of the pork) back when I started this blog two years ago. So I've had a long-standing appreciation of the swine.

This time around, I was joined by my foodie partner in crime and co-worker, Kaya, as we embarked on making four different dishes, with bacon highlighted as an essential ingredient. We took this class at Living Social and I imagine the two of us will venture back again soon before winter is over. This is Kaya on the right. She brings a certain Filipino Fantastic-ness to any experience.

As the instructor mentioned in class, sometimes it's best to start with dessert first. People fret over dessert (me being one of them) so why not get it out of the way early? And often it's one of those dishes that once it's prepared, you can just easily warm it up in the oven while you enjoy your main course.

I'll post another bacon-featured recipe later this week, but I imagine the other dishes will be made again at some point, and will appear back once my heart has been given a proper break from bacon-y goodness. Perhaps in a week or two. ;)

Maple Bacon Bread Pudding (serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 TB raisins
• 1 TB rum
• 3 TB warm water
• 3-4 strips maple-cured bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 6 cups stale French bread cubes
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 TB vanilla extract 
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 2/3 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Soak raisins in rum and water until softened. Drain and reserve raisins.

Cook the bacon in a small sauté pan until crispy. Set bacon aside and reserve bacon fat in a jar.

Toast the bread crumbs in an oven and once completed, place them into two ramekins, filling to just below the top of each.

Beat the egg and egg yolk together in a bowl. Then add maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and 1 TB of reserved bacon fat. Stir to combine. Then stir in milk.

Sprinkle raisins and bacon pieces over bread cubes, mixing them lightly into the ramekins.

Ladle the egg/milk mixture over each of breaded ramekins. Ensure that the liquid is evenly distributed, stirly lightly. Do not overfill, but ensure bread is lightly covered.

Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned and puffed. Let cool and they will settle.

Top with ice cream. Just because. :)