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. :)

Walnut Streusel Bread

Last week, I bid farewell to a colleague I have worked with on our department's anti-bullying initiatives since June. She is going on to a fabulus opportunity, but she will be greatly missed by our groups. For our final editorial board meeting, I organized a farewell breakfast, contributing this walnut streusel bread. This is the second quickbread I've made in a month and I still find that my oven takes a bit longer than instructed for it to finish baking. But I've included the regular cooking instructions, just adjust accordingly per your oven.

Walnut Streusel Bread (serves 16...very tiny people)

Ingredients:

Streusel

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 TB all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• Dash of salt
• 2 TB butter, melted
• 2 TB chopped walnuts

Bread

• 9 oz all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 TB butter, softened
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup fat-free buttermilk
• Baking spray with flour (such as Baker's Joy)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare streusel, combine first five streusel ingredients in a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons melted butter, stirring until well combined. Stir in nuts. Set aside.

To prepare bread, weigh or lightly spoon 9 ounces flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Combine 5 tablespoons butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium-high speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition; beat in vanilla.

Beating at low speed, add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat just until combined. Scrape half of batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with baking spray; sprinkle with half of streusel mixture. Spread remaining batter over streusel; swirl. Sprinkle remaining streusel on top of batter.

Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging.

Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

Maple Stout Bread

Fall is here. The weather is turning cooler in DC, and my mind is swimming with visions of comfort food I will be making over the next few months. One thing that I don't make very often are breakfast loaves or breads. I had some Guinness beer that I wanted to use, so I found this great recipe in my Cooking Light magazine for a Maple Stout bread. I'm not the best at baking and I was a bit skeptical when seeing this bake that I had done something wrong (the middle was taking a lot longer to cook). But, it ended up great and a co-worker even commented that it was just the right level of soft because there's nothing worse than a dry breakfast bread. So if I can do this, so can you!

Maple Stout Bread

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (or 7.88 oz)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 TB butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup stout beer, like Guinness
• 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
• 5 TB maple syrup, divided
• Baking spray with flour
• 5 TB powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Place butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine beer, sour cream, and 1/4 cup syrup, stirring well with a whisk. Beating at low speed, add flour mixture and beer mixture alternately to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat just until combined.

Scrape batter into a 9x5 inch loaf pan coated with baking spray. Bake for 45 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs clining. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

Place powdered sugar in a smal bowl. Add remaining 1 TB syrup, stir until smooth. Drizzle glaze over cooled bread; let stand until set, if desired.