{"id":171,"date":"2011-10-04T02:37:58","date_gmt":"2011-10-04T02:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/?p=171"},"modified":"2014-10-11T18:31:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T18:31:51","slug":"pudding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/?p=171","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgic Bread Pudding: Re-living my childhood days"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Stories by Enid Blyton, Rubber trees, Sweetened yogurt, Cadbury’s Five star\u00ae, Agra peda, Vikram aur Vetal series on Doordarshan, Fraggle Rock, Rose milk, Bread pudding. What do they have in common? To me, each one of them is intertwined with my childhood memories. Each one unleashes a strong wave of nostalgia; and, I ride on those waves back to my childhood days.<\/p>\n

Bread pudding from my mother’s kitchen brings back many homely memories from my childhood days. I can conjure up the recipe in her own handwriting in her big recipe book. She used to let me leaf through the pages of her book occasionally. Accompanying the recipe was a picture of the pudding that she had cut and pasted on the book. After looking at that picture, I\u2019d invariably request her to make the pudding at home. The Bread pudding was my all time favorite dessert in those days. She used to treat us to home made bread pudding very frequently those days.<\/p>\n

The Bread pudding was a quintessential part of Syrian Christian wedding receptions in my part of Kerala during my childhood. Alas, it was eventually replaced by ice creams. The other day, when I talked to my mom over the phone, she mentioned the dessert and my taste buds started screaming out loud for Bread pudding. As I live too far from my hometown to rush back home to indulge in the pleasures of the home made dessert, I decided to try to recreate the magic at home.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the recipe for Bread pudding straight from my mother\u2019s kitchen:<\/p>\n

Prep time: 45 minutes<\/strong>
\nServes 6-8<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0White bread: 3 slices (sans the crust)<\/p>\n

To prepare the custard:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Whole milk: 2 cups
\n3.\u00a0Eggs: 3
\nGranulated sugar: 6 tablespoons
\n4.\u00a0Vanilla extract: 4 drops<\/p>\n

For the topping:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Condensed milk: \u00bc can
\n6.\u00a0Pineapple squash\/topping: 3 table spoons
\n7.\u00a0Unsalted almonds, cashew nuts or macadamia nuts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Remove the crust from the bread pieces.
\n2.\u00a0Boil the milk
\n3.\u00a0Beat the ingredients in #3 together.
\n4.\u00a0Blend the boiled milk with #3
\n5.\u00a0Cut the bread into small cubes and blend it together with Vanilla extract and the mixture from Step 4 (preferably in a blender) to a smooth consistency.
\n6.\u00a0Grease the insides of a heat withstanding container (like Pyrex\u00ae). Fill 2\/3rds of the container with the bread mixture from Step 5. Steam the mixture for 20-30 minutes until set (a tooth pick inserted into the pudding comes out clean).
\n7.\u00a0Spread the condensed milk over the pudding and refrigerate it for 2-3 hours.
\n8.\u00a0Top the pudding with pineapple topping and serve.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Helpful tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The ingredients I used were Central market organic vitamin D enriched whole milk, Sara Lee\u00ae Iron Kids special recipe white bread, Central market organic cage free large brown eggs, Borden\u00ae low fat sweetened condensed milk, McCormick\u00ae pure vanilla extract and Smuckers\u00ae pineapple topping. The taste came out to be very similar to my mother\u2019s home made pudding.
\n2.\u00a0If you like caramel topping, you can heat 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar in a pan. When it gets melted properly and becomes brownish, pour 200 mL of water and stir it continuously. When it reaches a medium consistency, remove from the stove. Pour the caramel into the greased container prior to adding the bread mixture.
\n3.\u00a0If you like your pudding to have a thicker consistency, you can add more pieces of white bread. I used 6 slices of bread (keeping the measurement of the rest of the ingredients same).
\n4.\u00a0My mother still loves to steam the pudding in the old fashioned way. I steam cooked the pudding this time. You can bake the pudding in the oven as well. I will try baking the pudding next time and will modify the recipe accordingly.
\n5.\u00a0You can serve the Bread pudding warm or cold. I love it cold.
\n6.\u00a0You can blend nuts (unsalted cashews, almonds or macadamia nuts) during Step 5 or sprinkle them over the pudding.
\n7.\u00a0All the recipes that I have come across the internet for Bread pudding recommend that the bread pieces be layered at the bottom of the custard. Personally, I like my pudding to have a \u201cpudding like\u201d consistency; not a \u201cTiramisu like\u201d consistency. So, if you do not like the pudding like consistency, then, instead of blending the bread pieces with the custard, layer them on the bottom of the pan and then, spread the custard on top, prior to steaming or baking.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the treat! I\u2019d love to hear back from you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stories by Enid Blyton, Rubber trees, Sweetened yogurt, Cadbury’s Five star\u00ae, Agra peda, Vikram aur Vetal series on Doordarshan, Fraggle Rock, Rose milk, Bread pudding. What do they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10,13,11,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fridayblogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}