Almond Pear Bread Pudding #BundtBakers

This Almond Pear Bread Pudding is a delightful twist on traditional pudding, made with thinly sliced crunchy pears and sweet almond croissants.

I’m just gonna put this out there. I don’t like pears. It’s not so much the flavor, which is nice, but the texture. Why would I eat gritty fruit when there is so much I can eat that isn’t gritty? When our Bundt Bakers host for this month proposed pears for our theme/ingredients, I groaned quietly to myself. Pears!

This was a job for The Flavour Thesaurus, (<affiliate link) a handy little book I got for Christmas last year. I flipped to Pears and there in the first paragraph, it said “Pear and Almond: A natural couple: classy and restrained. Save them from an excess of tastefulness by making an unctuous pear and almond croissant pudding.”

What a splendid idea! As you all probably know, almond croissants were originally created as a way for French bakers to offload day-old croissants by filling them with sweet almond paste, topping them with sliced almonds and syrup and baking them again. Which also makes them perfect for making bread pudding, a creation traditionally made from day old (or older) bread.

Here’s what I discovered after baking this almond pear bread pudding.
1. I like cooked pears!
2. Pears and almonds are a natural couple.
3. I should have chosen a different Bundt pan in which to bake it. The swirly pan seemed to trap all the buttered almond slices in the little edges. Next time, I’m going to use my classic Bundt pan with the nice even, open curves and I suggest you do the same.
4. My husband's colleagues love almond pear bread pudding. I send food in with him All The Time. This bread pudding was the first time he forwarded me two emails thanking me!

Ingredients
4 large almond croissants
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup or 200g sugar
1 cup or 240ml whole milk
1 cup or 240ml whipping cream
5 small Coscia pears – about 12 3/4 oz or 365g whole - or sub your favorite pear
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

To prepare pan:
Light coating of butter or shortening applied with pastry brush
4 tablespoons melted cooled butter
1/4 cup or 20g finely sliced almonds

Method
Slice the croissants in about 1 inch or 2 cm pieces.


In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your eggs and vanilla. Add in the cup of sugar and whisk again until the sugar starts to dissolve and the eggs lighten in color and get a bit frothy.

Add in the milk and cream and whisk again.

Add the sliced croissants to the egg bowl and push them down into the liquid.

Core and slice your pears thinly. Unless the peels are tough, there’s no need to remove them. A melon baller makes the coring much easier, if you have one.

Toss the sliced pears in a bowl with the 2 tablespoons of sugar, salt and Amaretto. Set aside.

Prepare your Bundt pan – preferably one without many nooks and crannies – by using a pastry brush to coat the inside with butter or vegetable shortening.

Drizzle the melted, cooled butter all over the pan and sprinkle in the thinly sliced almonds. Set aside.

Give the croissant bowl a gentle stir and add the pear slices to the top. Cover with cling film and put in the refrigerator for at least one hour to give the croissants more time to soak up the sweet egg mixture.

When your hour is about up, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Stir the pudding to mix in the pears. Spoon the pudding into the prepared pan. Butter the shiny side of a piece of foil and cover the Bundt pan tightly with it, buttered side down.

Put your prepared Bundt pan in a larger deep pan and fill the bottom pan halfway up with water.

Bake for 2 hours, checking occasionally and adding more water to the bottom pan, if necessary.

After 2 hours, remove from the oven and remove the foil. Return the Bundt pan to the oven, uncovered, without the pan underneath. Bake for another 30 minutes.

The almond pear bread pudding will puff up beautifully, high above the edge of the Bundt pan, but then will slowly sink back down as it cools.

Leave to cool for about 10 or 15 minutes on a wire rack. Use a non-stick surface safe spatula to loosen the bread pudding from the pan. If bits stick inside your pan, just scrape them off and sprinkle them back on top of the pudding.

Serve warm with a generous pour of thick cream. With a little more amaretto on the side, perhaps.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our host, Lauren of Sew You Think You Can Cook both for her behind-the-scenes work this month and for pushing me into realizing that I do like pears after all.

Check out all the other pear Bundts our Bundt Bakers are sharing this month:

• Almond Pear Bread Pudding from Food Lust People Love
• Fresh Pear Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze from The Queen of Scones
• Honey and Walnut Pear Bundt Cake from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• London Fog & Pear Bundt Cake from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Orange Pear Bundt Cake from Basic N Delicious
• Pear and Date Bundt Cake with Caramel Mascarpone Sauce from kidsandchic
• Pear and Hazelnut Bundt from Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Pear and Port Bundt Cake from Palatable Pasttime
• "Pear"fect Rum Raisin Cake from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Pear Pecan Coffee Bundt Cake from Patty's Cake
• Pear Spiced Bundt Cake from I Love Bundt Cakes
• Pear Streusel Crunch Cake from Noshing with the Nolands
• Pumpkin Pear Bundt Cake from Making Miracles
• Roasted Pear & Walnut Spice Cake Bundt from Brooklyn Homemaker
• Salted Caramel Pear Bundt Cake from Tartacadabra
• Spiced Pear Bundt from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Bundt Bakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the Bundt Bakers home page.

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Sticky Pecan Pie Bundt #BundtBakers

Pecan pie filling mixed in cake batter makes the best Sticky Pecan Pie Bundt, perfect for any family celebration.

This month’s Bundt Baker theme is Happy Fall, Ya’ll so I could have baked with apples or pumpkin or other fall produce but while I was in Houston recently, I was reminded that it’s pecan season as well. There’s a farmer’s market near our house where you can either buy fresh Texas pecans or bring the harvest from your own trees and pay 40 cents a pound to have them crack the pecans in their noisy electric machines.

Years ago, I remember my grandparents sitting at their kitchen table cracking and picking the shells off of Louisiana pecans and it was a long and challenging job. Forty cents seems a fair price to pay not to have to do the cracking part by hand!

My favorite thing to make with fresh pecans is my aunt’s pecan pie. It’s a must at Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you are feeding a crowd, make a party-sized version. But for any other occasion, do try this sticky pecan pie Bundt!

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups or 315g flour
1 1/2 cups or 300g sugar
1 cup or 240ml light corn syrup, plus a little extra to drizzle on - optional
1/2 cup, firmly packed, or 100g dark brown sugar
1/2 cup or 113g butter, melted and cooled
4 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups or 175g chopped pecans


Method
Preheat oven to 325°F or 163°C and prepare your 10-cup Bundt pan by brushing it with butter and dusting it with flour. Scatter a good handful of the chopped pecans in the bottom of the pan. Set it aside.

Put all of your ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Use your stand mixer or electric beaters to mix the ingredients until completely combined.

Turn the beaters to high and mix well for 1 minute.

Pour the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in your preheat oven for 55-60 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.

Run a wooden skewer around the edges of the pan and the flute in the middle to loosen the Bundt, then invert it onto the wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

If desired, drizzle a little more corn syrup on the Bundt as glaze.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our Bundt Bakers host this month, Teri from The Freshman Cook! Check out all the other fall bakes we have for you today!

• Apple, Pear and Honey Cider Bundt Cake by All That’s Left Are the Crumbs
• Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Salted Caramel Drizzle by Cookaholic Wife
• Bundt Cake de Chocolate Blanco y Moras by La Mejor Manera de Hacer
• Chestnut Cream Marbled Bundt Cake by I Love Bundt Cakes
• Chocolate Caramel Apple Cake by The Freshman Cook
• Ginger and Cinnamon Bundt Cake by Los Chatos Chefs
• Impossible Pumpkin Pie Bundt by Faith, Hope, Love, and Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Jack O'Lantern Cake by Palatable Pastime
• Persimmon Apple Bundt by Tea and Scones
• Poached Pear and Cranberry Bundt Cake with Maple Mascarpone Frosting by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake by Patty's Cake
• Pumpkin Pie Bundt by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Pumpkin Spice Cake with Caramel Drizzle by Living the Gourmet
• Robert E. Lee Bundt Cakeby The Queen of Scones
• Spiced Rum Pumpkin Bundt by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sticky Pecan Pie Bundt by Food Lust People Love

BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

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Brown Sugar Bacon Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

A perfect blend of savory and sweet, the hint of smoky saltiness in these brown Sugar Bacon Cookie complements the dark rich flavor of the brown sugar. But make no mistake, Brown Sugar Bacon Cookies are totally drop sugar cookies, baked to be enjoyed with a cold glass of milk.



If you’ve heard me say it once, you’ve heard me say it a thousand times. I love bacon. Also, I’m not much of a sweet eater. That doesn’t stop me making sweet recipes, of course. I have a core group of tasters that are always ready and willing to eat whatever I bring round or send to the office with my husband. If the goods get eaten, I’m happy.

I did bring some of these cookies out for a test run and I got a few skeptical looks when I said brown sugar AND bacon. It was a mixed crowd of thumbs up and down. But, you know what? I truly didn’t mind. I have since eaten the balance of that dozen singlehandedly. I think they are amazing.

Ingredients - for 3 dozen cookies
3 cups or 375g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 170g unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup or 60g strained bacon fat (see instructions below)
1 1/2 cups packed or 300g dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon bourbon
15 slices thin cut bacon, fried till crispy, then drained - 3/4 cup chopped bacon or 75g

To strain bacon fat, pull a paper towel apart so you have only one-ply.
Line a metal strainer with the paper towel and place the strainer into the top of a funnel, with the funnel in a sealable jar. You will need to prop the strainer handle up on something sturdy to get it balance securely.
Pour your warm (not hot!) bacon grease into the paper-lined strainer a little at a time, scraping your frying pan to get every bit of grease out. Leave to drain completely.
All of the browned bits stay in the paper towel and the bacon grease in the jar is clean, almost white.
This bacon fat keeps in the refrigerator, covered, for months. This works with beef or lamb drippings too, if you want to make your own tallow.

Method
With beaters or with your stand mixer, beat the butter, bacon fat and brown sugar together until fluffy.

Butter on the left. Strained bacon fat on the right.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions.

Add in the bourbon and mix again.

Turn the mixer off and sift the flour, soda and salt together into the bowl. Turn the mixer on sloooooowly to mix in the dry ingredients. Keep mixing until all is incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl down once or twice.

Reserve about 1/3 of the bacon pieces for poking into the top of each cookie, and stir the rest into the cookie dough.

Cover the bowl with cling film and chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Before you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180° and line your cookie sheet with baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Use a tablespoon or a cookie scoop to drop small balls of cookie dough a good distance apart to allow room for spreading.

Top each scoop with a couple of pieces of bacon and use a fork to just flatten the balls.

Bake in your preheated oven for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are slightly browned around the edges. If your oven heats unevenly, you might want to turn the pan around halfway through.

Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Repeat until all the brown sugar bacon cookies are baked.

Enjoy!

This month my Creative Cookie Exchange group is making drop cookies, which are exactly what they sound like. Drop cookies are made by dropping the dough on to a baking pan with a spoon or scoop and they are probably one of the easiest types of cookie to make. No fancy rolling or forming or slicing necessary. Drop cookies are usually pretty rustic looking too, especially if you are using a tablespoon.

Many thanks to our Creative Cookie Exchange member Holly from A Baker's House who handled our behind the scenes work this month. Check out all the lovely drop cookies we’ve been baking!

• Banana Walnut Cookies by Upstate Ramblings
• Brown Sugar Bacon Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Chip Cookies with Thyme Infused Browned Butter by The Spiced Life
• Chocolate-Toffee Crinkle Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Morning Glory Breakfast Cookies by A Shaggy Dough Story
• Old Fashioned Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Cookies by Oven Delights
• Peanut Butter and Banana Cookies by 2 Cookin Mamas
• Peanut Butter Graham Cookies (with Tallow!) by What Smells so Good?
• Pumpkin Spice Mocha Crinkle Cookies by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Reese's Pieces Cookies by A Baker's House
• Salted Caramel Nutella Cookies by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life. We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

Pin Brown Sugar Bacon Cookies! 

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Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding #FridayPieDay

Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding is a classic British dessert. It’s essentially a pie with two flakey sweet crusts, top and bottom, baked with an almond custard filling. 

Join me down the rabbit hole, where one book leads to another book, leads to another book.

Five years ago today, I wrote my first post on this blog, created initially to give me a place to join my two loves, cooking and writing. Over the years, as readership grew, it also became a place to connect with the world at large and make friends both in and outside the blogging community. My interest in food, culture and the history of recipes was fueled by my travels and the many countries I’ve called home. Also, I’m a sucker for any memoir that includes food or cooking as a focus.

Last year I came across the memoir, Brian Turner – A Yorkshire Lad, my life with recipes at a used book sale. I had never heard of Turner, apparently a world famous chef with his own restaurant and a successful career on television, but that didn’t stop me from buying the book. His early years were the best part of the story. I love reading about how others grew up and the poor Yorkshire lad who went off to London with just £20 in his pocket did not disappoint.

In the reading of that book, I came across another that seemed worth owning. Farmhouse Kitchen is based on the independent television series of the same name, presented by Dorothy Sleightholme on Yorkshire Television, starting in the early '70s. I found Farmhouse Kitchen online in a used book store and had it mailed to an address in the United States, knowing I wouldn’t get it till I went home in May.

Now I’m back in Dubai again and am finally having a chance to read it. It’s short on descriptions but long on recipes, one after another after another, for classic – read: old-fashioned, down home – British fare. Many use ingredients that were possibly common at the time but harder to come by now, like wood pigeon and lambs’ hearts. On the other hand, a lot of the recipes can be made with store cupboard ingredients. The Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding is one example.

I always keep ground almonds in my freezer because they are an excellent addition to many baked cakes or cookies. (Why the freezer? The cold keeps nuts from turning rancid in a warm kitchen.) The other ingredients, flour, eggs, butter, sugar, jam, everyone will have. But where did the recipe originate and why the unusual name? Mrs. Sleightholme offers no information whatsoever, nor does the contributor of the recipe, one Miss P. M. Cherry of Penkridge.

As an initially all-volunteer unit in the queen’s own army, Staffordshire Yeomanry has a long and illustrious history of defending the crown’s interests, dating back from 1794. The Wikipedia page is full of information about its roles over the years but not once does it mention the pudding that bears the same name.

Clearly more research was necessary which led me to this post on Book Cottages where I learned that the Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding recipe was possibly first developed "during the height of the Boer War, when wives would bake for their returning husbands a luxurious welcome home spread, comprising of the best cakes and sweetmeats they could possibly afford."

But still no mention of why the pudding was named such. Curiouser and curiouser. I had to keep digging. I must confess that I’m still none the wiser, but deep into the rabbit hole of recipe research and book buying, I’ve just ordered Good Things in England: A Practical Cookery Book for Everyday Use first published in 1932, with 853 recipes, some dating back to the 14th century. Once it arrives, I’ll be sure to report back if any light is shed on the origins of Staffordshire Yeomanry Pudding. If you happen to know more about it, please leave me a comment.

Meanwhile, if you’ve followed me down the rabbit hole thus far, you deserve some sweet pie! If you've been reading my blog since the beginning five years ago, I owe you much more, but pie and a great big Thank You will have to do.

Ingredients
For the sweet shortcrust pastry:
1 3/4 cup or 220g plain flour
1/2 cup or 113g butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

For the filling:
 1/2 cup or 113g butter
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/4 cup or 28g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1 egg white
2 tablespoons jam

Method
Add the flour and the cold butter, cut into pieces, into your food processor. Pulse several times, until the flour and butter are combined and look like big crumbs.

Add in the sugar and salt and pulse again.

 Add in the egg yolk and water.

Pulse again, scraping down the sides of the food processor in between pulses, until the dough just comes together.

Turn it out of the processor and wrap tightly with cling film. Pop the wrapped dough in the refrigerator to chill.

Start your oven preheating to 350°F or 180°C and make the filling.

In the bowl of your processor or with electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar together until they turn pale yellow.

Mix in the extract, salt and ground almonds. Add in the whole egg and one egg yolk and process until the mixture is well combined, scraping down the side of the processor occasionally.

Roll out 2/3 of the dough and fit it into your pie plate. Spoon in the jam and spread it around evenly on the bottom.

Pour the custard filling on top of the jam and smooth it out.

Roll the other piece of the dough out in a circle and top the filling with it. Push down around the edges to seal the two crusts together. Trim the crusts to end about one inch or 2 centimeters above the filling.

Fold the two crusts over together to seal the pie and form an edge and cut three slits in the top crust.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until the crust is golden and the custard inside is set.

Cool on a wire rack for at least 20-25 minutes before cutting and serving.

Enjoy!


My friend and creator of Friday Pie Day, Heather, over at All Roads Lead to the Kitchen has made another classic dessert with a funny name, but from the United States, shoofly pie! Head on over and pay her a visit.

I am pleased to join her on the last Friday of each month for pie and crust recipes, techniques, tools of the trade, and other inspiration.

For more information and recipes, please check out her #FridayPieDay page!

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Slow Cooker Cocoa Peanut Butter Oat Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Chewy, crunchy and more-ish, these no bake slow cooker cookies are made with cocoa, peanut butter and whole rolled oats. They will have you reaching for just one more, until they are gone.

Despite my participation in the last Creative Cookie Exchange no-bake challenge in 2014 when I made Kashata Squares from Uganda, I am a neophyte at no bake cookie making.

This time I got my head in the game and hunted high and low with two recipe goals in mind. 1. It should be easy. Some weeks I’m close to in over my head and no bake could not mean complicated. 2. It should be tasty. I was hoping for something with peanut butter. I’m not much of a sweet eater but I do love the sweet and salty combination that peanut butter brings to a cookie.

This recipe on Moms With Crockpots fits both bills. Of course, my slow cooker is not an official Crockpot®, which is a registered trademark, so while changing up the method somewhat, I also changed the name.

These guys couldn’t be easier. Set your slow cooker on high and make a dent in your to-do list.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups or 350g sugar
4 tablespoons baking cocoa
1/2 cup or 120ml milk, warmed slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter – melted and cooled
3 cups or 300g old fashioned rolled oats (Mine are called Scottish jumbo!)
1/2 cup or 140g crunchy peanut butter

Method
In the base of your slow cooker, before you turn it on, mix together the sugar, cocoa, milk, butter and vanilla. I say to warm the milk first (just 20 -30 seconds in the microwave will do) because, in my experience, cold milk makes melted butter seize up again. We don't want that.

Pour oats on top of the chocolatey syrupy mixture. Spoon peanut butter in the middle on top of the oats. Don't mix them in!

Place the lid on your slow cooker and cook on high for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the cocoa mixture reaches a good boil around the edges. Resist opening it to look before your timer buzzes. Lifting the lid releases a lot of heat and it takes a while for your slow cooker to get back up to temperature. The peanut butter isn’t going to sink in (at least mine didn’t) but you do want it to soften in the heat.

You can see that it's bubbling!

Stir well. I mean, really well. You want the peanut butter mixed thoroughly throughout.

Use a cookie scoop to place your cookies on a clean heat resistant surface covered in baking parchment.

I don’t know if my 2-tablespoon scoop is smaller than the original recipe but I got 31 full scoops and one half scoop, way more that the two dozen promised.

Allow cookies to set for a few hours and then store in a sealed container, layers divided by parchment. (Cut up the pieces your cookies cooled on and reuse.) If it’s hot where you live, you might want to chill your cookies. Mine set perfectly but the bottoms were still a little sticky.

Many thanks to Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories and Renee of Magnolia Days for doing our behind-the-scenes organizing this month. It’s much appreciated!

Just in time for the heat of summer, another round of no bake cookies! Forget turning the oven on, we’ve got you covered.

• Coconut Apricot Slice from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Energy Bars from Baking in Pyjamas
• No Bake Almond Joy Bars from 2 Cookin Mamas
• No Bake Apricot Coconut Oatmeal Cookies from A Shaggy Dough Story
• No Bake Cookie Butter S'mores Bites from Live...Bake...Love
• No-Bake Fruit Balls from Magnolia Days
• No Bake Nutella Cookies from flours and frostings
• Slow Cooker Cocoa Peanut Butter Oat Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet and Salty Popcorn Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life). We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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