Crock Pot Bread Pudding with Kahlua Sauce

Bread pudding is such a rich, decadent, and sumptuous treat that it's hard to believe the ingredients are so simple.  I consider bread pudding to be a comfort food.  The sight of the chunks of browned bread along with the scents of vanilla and cinnamon make me think of warm kitchens, good food, and good times. 

I've seen this casserole called crock pot French toast.  Oh heck no!  We southern girls know that this is bread pudding!

Mix this up and put it on to cook before heading to work for a yummy dessert.  Or, if you want to something take for a crowd-pleasing pot luck dinner, put it on to cook at night, turn the crock on low, and in the morning you'll have bread pudding ready to serve.  The Kahlua sauce keeps well in the refrigerator and reheats easily.  Make extra sauce if you like it served over ice cream. 

Bread Pudding

1/2 loaf bread with pieces torn into chunks (the more stale it is, the better)

6 eggs

2 cups milk 

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 tablespoons brown sugar (or 1 tablespoon white sugar and 1 tablespoon maple syrup)

1/2 cup pecan pieces (or raisins, if you prefer)

In large bowl mix eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in bread.  Allow to sit or rest for 15 minutes.  Pour half of mixture into greased crock pot.  Add half of pecans.  Pour remaining mixture into crock pot and top with remaining pecans.  Turn crock pot on low and allow to cook for 6 hours, minimum. Approximately 15-20 minutes before serving, remove the lid from the crock pot and turn crock on high.  This will "brown" the top of the bread pudding.  When ready to serve, scoop out and top with Kahlua sauce (recipe below).  

Kahlua Sauce 

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk 

1/2 stick of butter 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup Kahlua

In medium saucepan combine sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla.  Heat over medium heat, stirring continuously, until mixture begins to steam and bubbles form.  Add Kahlua, stirring rapidly, and heat through again to near boiling point.  Remove from heat and continue to stir rapidly until no bubbles remain in sauce.  Serve over warm bread pudding.  

For an extra treat, top bread pudding with a dollop of ice cream, then top all with the Kahlua sauce. It is divine!

Lemon Cake/Bars - 2 ingredients

I discovered these yummy lemon bars on Pinterest and they have become a favorite in our household.  I found the original lemon bar recipe HERE.  It is so easy to make, and with only two ingredients you can't go wrong.  It's also relatively fat free, and the taste is divine! 

These would be awesome for a bake sale or luncheon.  If you are a fan of lemon bars, these are very lemony and light.  

LEMON BARS

1 box angel food cake 

2 cans lemon pie filling 

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix dry cake mix and lemon pie filling.  Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  Dust with powdered sugar or your favorite glaze or icing recipe.  

That's it!  Now bake away!

(This is a repost of prior post that got posted by mistake on the wrong day.  Ooops!)

Broke Food - German Pancake

German pancake, Big Egg, Missionary Pancake, Dutch baby... these are all names for this simple, scrumptious, and filling recipe. It seems that every ethnicity has a version of this recipe, and they all contain the same basic 4 ingredients.  This is very is easy to whip together, and makes a yummy breakfast or even dessert.  

When baking, this resembles a cross between a pancake and souffle.  It puffs up and rises during baking, but then when removed from the oven flattens into a shape that can be cut.  

This can be eaten sliced like a pizza and sprinkled with powdered sugar or served with fresh fruit.  Our favorite way to eat it is with syrup, as it is not a sweet bread and has a very light texture when eaten with syrup or honey.  

Here's the recipe I use.  

German Pancake

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine (prefer butter but margarine is OK)

3 eggs whipped until frothy*

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk 

Place butter in a 8 or 9 inch pie pan and place into a cold oven.  Turn oven to 400 degrees.  This allows the butter to melt in the pan and for the pan to heat up, as well.  

Whip eggs until frothy (see note below).  Add in milk and flour, and mix until smooth.  Remove pan from oven and pour batter into hot buttered pan.  Place back in the oven and cook at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  

Remove and slice into sections.  Serve with syrup, honey, powdered sugar, or fresh fruit in syrup.  

*NOTE:  An easy way to do this is to just place all the ingredients into either a blender or food processor and process for about 30 seconds.  You want a frothy, bubbly consistency to the batter.  Then pour into the hot buttered pan and cook as above. 

The Awesomeness of Community Cookbooks

I have a love affair with community cookbooks.  What is a community cookbook?  These are usually cookbooks put together as fundraisers for churches, boy scouts, PTA groups, or made for families and friends to share and sold locally in a community.  They contain some great, down-home recipes that are easily made from ingredients already in your cupboard and usually don't list some weird ingredient that is only going to be used for this particular recipe and costs more than all remaining ingredients put together. (Who keeps fermented Yak milk around anyway?)

These recipes are hearty, often feed a lot of people, are pleasing to the eye and palate, and are shared by folks who know how to get a meal on the table.  Some of my very favorite, tried-and-true recipes are from these books and range from appetizers, salads, and main courses to cakes, cookies, and just some generally fun stuff like Karo syrup finger paint for kids.  

Anyone who knows me knows I love these, and with the internet being so popular, they are harder and harder to find.  I always look for them if I go to garage sales or estate sales and have quite a collection. After a while, you begin to recognize names in the cookbooks and know the recipe associated with that name is going to be a winner.  The photo above shows some of my favorites, but I have many more.  I treasure my collection and hope to share some of the recipes from these books (with credit to the cook, of course), along with some of my own recipes in the near future.