Crusts and Crumbs: December 2010

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding

So this delectable dish is what I decided to make for the church dinner tomorrow. Because December just calls for a ridiculous amount of sweet potatoes. I tweaked this recipe for Pumpkin Bread Pudding and was so pleased with how it turned out! It calls for pumpkin bread, but I had some leftover Cream Cheese Pound Cake that was turning rather dry, so I decided to use that. I also didn't have any pumpkin, so I used sweet potatoes instead. I also added some pumpkin pie spice, since I wasn't using pumpkin bread. Yuuuuuummy! The pound cake got nice and soft, but not soggy, and the custard formed a wonderful sauce underneath the crust, that just begs to be poured all over the top.

It was the perfect balance of sweet and spicy, creamy and crusty, with a delicate underlying flavor of sweet potato. You could add whipped cream, but with that custard sauce, I just didn't think it needed it.

Here's my tweaked recipe.

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 tbs vanilla
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/2 cups pureed sweet potatoes
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Cream Cheese Pound Cake, cubed and dried, recipe here

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Combine the cream, milk, and vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer.

Whisk together the yolks, sugar, maple syrup, pumpkin pie spice, and sweet potato puree in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the hot cream mixture until combined.

Scatter the pound cake cubes in a buttered 9 by 13-inch baking glass baking dish. Pour the custard over the bread, pressing down on the bread to totally submerge it in the custard. Let sit for 15 minutes to allow the bread to soak up some of the custard.

Place the pan in a larger roasting pan and pour hot tap water into the roasting pan until it comes half way up the sides of the glass dish. Bake until the sides are slightly puffed and the center jiggles slightly, about 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and water bath and cool on a baking rack for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve warm, spooning custard over top.

Change.

Understand, I don’t intend to stop posting recipes completely. I still love cooking, and sharing that love with others. But I’ve also always enjoyed writing, and have recently rediscovered that dusty love. I feel like digging it out of the attic, and giving it a bit of a polish. I’ve been inspired by other bloggers, by their
daily grit and grind that they share with the world. By their faith and tenacity as they plod through life. I feel like taking advantage of the flexibility of a blog, and writing what I feel like, when I feel like it. The crusts and the crumbs of my life. A recipe today, a remodel post tomorrow, a reflection on parenting next week. I face a wide open space, waiting to be
filled with whatever I desire. And I like that challenge.

Me.

Much of my writing will never even see the light. It will never make it past the parchment of my mind, where it is scribbled in invisible ink for me alone. But some of it does. That bit is what is written here. Humbly posted for the world to see, if it cares, or to ignore if it doesn’t.
I’m not a spotlight kind of girl. I’m shy, and quiet, and a bit reserved. Oh, I like a good razzing between friends, and a spirited board game with the best of them. I love hosting friends and family and cherishing moments together.
But at my soul, in my heart of hearts, I’m a quiet evening with my man, fire blazing, hands wrapped around a warm cup of tea kind of girl. That’s when I’m most blissful.
So, I don’t write for a spotlight, imagined or otherwise. I don’t write for others. I write for me. If not a single person (besides my soul mate-we’re bonded as one, so he counts as me) reads this blog, I’d be just as satisfied in writing it as if a thousand had read it.Which is good, because a thousand people definitely
won’t be reading this. No, I write because there is an itch in my soul. An urge, somewhere deep inside of my being, to craft my thoughts into words and inscribe them, preserve them, and make meaning from them. It brings me peace to take the whirling dervish in my mind and put him to rest.