BB: Croissant Bread Pudding

Oh I'm so behind in all my posting!  I was thrilled to see Peggy from the Pantry Revisited select this as one of our December Barefoot Bloggers dishes! 

I unfortunately can't seem to find any pictures that I took of this bread pudding... and am now wondering if I ever took any.  In any case, this was DELISH.  Very moist -- the croissants just soaked everything up -- and just felt like the holidays.  This dish was simple to make too, although I started making this rather too late one night and didn't realize it needs to bake for about 1.5 hours.  Note to self for next time :)


BAREFOOT CONTESSA'S CROISSANT BREAD PUDDING

Ingredients

• 3 extra-large whole eggs
• 8 extra-large egg yolks
• 5 cups half-and-half
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 6 croissants, preferably stale, sliced horizontally
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla. Set the custard mixture aside. Slice the croissants in half horizontally. In a 10 by 15 by 2 1/2-inch oval baking dish, distribute the bottoms of the sliced croissants, then add the raisins, then the tops of the croissants (brown side up), being sure the raisins are between the layers of croissants or they will burn while baking. Pour the custard over the croissants and allow to soak for 10 minutes, pressing down gently.

Place the pan in a larger one filled with 1-inch of hot water. Cover the larger pan with aluminum foil, tenting the foil so it doesn't touch the pudding. Cut a few holes in the foil to allow steam to escape. Bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 40 to 45 more minutes or until the pudding puffs up and the custard is set. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Dish in the District: Martin's Tavern

I am a self-diagnosed brunch addict (much to Mr. J's chagrin because he hates brunch).  I'm always in search of new brunch places, particularly for when out-of-town friends are visiting (if any Washingtonians have any suggestions, please provide!).  Fairly recently, I tried out Billy Martin's Tavern in Georgetown on two occasions for brunch.  Martin's Tavern is a tried and true restaurant located at the corner of Wisconsin and N Streets and celebrated its 75th anniversary last year.  Known for being steeped in DC history and being a Georgetown staple, I had been meaning to try it for quite awhile.  Particularly well-known are their booths -- my favorite spot to sit -- although a bit on the tight side, these dark brown wooden booths have seen much history.  My favorite booth is Booth #3 -- where JFK proposed to Jackie Kennedy -- I love telling that story to any guests in town!

Martin's Tavern serves up a good, hardy breakfast (plus an assortment of lunch options for those of you who don't want eggs after 10 am), for reasonable (for Georgetown...and DC) prices.  Often crowded, arrive early-ish or reserve a spot -- plus seating outdoors during the warmer months!

The first time I came to Martin's Tavern, I had their corned beef hash with poached eggs (mmmm, drool), but this time around, I wanted something a little bit more...decadent.  I had eyed this cheese covered, creamy rarebit sauce slathered dish the last time I was there, and decided to go for it -- the HOT BROWN (see above) ... Sliced roasted turkey on toast smothered in their homemade rarebit sauce topped with sliced tomato, parmesan cheese and bacon ... all broiled together in a skillet.  (For you foodie-philes, hot browns are open faced sandwiches that originated at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky in 1926.  It was created to serve as an alternative to ham and egg late night suppers... thank you Wiki).

If you're a poached egg fan, this is the place for you, with at least five different poached egg possibilities.  Although it's not listed on the website, there is an additional brunch menu, that includes a eggs benedict with avocado (one of my faves) and I believe crab meat (oh the Marylander in me...).  Don't like poached eggs?  No worries, most of the egg dishes allow you to pick how you want your eggs cooked.

My friends got some pretty delicious dishes too.  Check out the "Tavern Treat" -- Sautéed jumbo lump crabmeat and sliced mushrooms over an English muffin and topped with Hollandaise sauce served with french fries" and the french toast.


And no brunch would be complete without the proper beverage.  I happily tried a pomegranate mimosa -- instead of OJ, pom juice with champagne.  Not only a beautiful color, but fabulous tasting.  Hope that you found brunch here as tasty I did.

Billy Martin's Tavern
1264 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20007

Brunch at a Pizzeria? Oh yes - Red Rocks Pizzeria

You + Me + Bottomless Mimosas + Pizza AND Brunch + Sun = Happy Sunday...

I seem to be on quite the DC pizza kick these days... It seems that everywhere I turn, there is a new place serving up pizza and I am quite happy to HAVE to go try all of them (yes, twist my arm...). Ironically though, my friend K and I ended up at Red Rocks in Columbia Heights to check out their BRUNCH. We heard rave reviews from a friend about their brunch (and bottomless mimosas...) -- plus, it was a gorgeous spring day here in DC, so a place with a sizeable patio for outdoor dining can't be beat.

We were happy to find a spot outside in the sun. We were both starving by this point (K from a good workout...me, I was just hungry). The service was very prompt and pleasant... despite our hunger and the quick service, it took awhile to pick out something to eat because everything on the menu looked great. And although I came for brunch and often can't resist brunch (I'm a savory brunch fan, and the prosciutto and mozzarella omelet was calling my name), I caught a whiff of someone's pizza and was done for.

RedRocks offers a wide variety of pizza options, with eighteen total (9 "pizze rosse" and 9 "pizze blanche"). I was tempted by many of them (I love my toppings), but decided instead to just go traditional and get the Margherita (tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and sea salt). K went for the brunch and had the "scrambled delight" (scrambled eggs with Italian sausage, mushrooms, parmesan, served with breakfast potatoes and toast). And two bottomless mimosas please.


Overall, the food was tasty and satisfying. The pizzas are thin crust (as I like them), not soggy, and very flavorful. I would have preferred to have a bit more mozzarella and basil on my pizza, but was pleased with the flavor. K enjoyed the egg part of her scrambled delight, but the potatoes were not as pleasing. K admitted to not being a breakfast potato kind of girl, but I surely am...and these weren't particularly noteworthy. I tend to like my potatoes a little bit crispier, these were almost too...doughy? And covered in an orange sauce that made them a bit too salty. The mimosas were quite tasty, although some batches were a little bit light on the champagne.


All in all, it was a beautiful day to be out and I was happy that we went to RedRocks. I would go back to try more pizzas and perhaps try out an omelet or two.

Tyler Florence Fridays: Coconut Bread with Pineapple Butter

Last week, I came across “Tyler Florence Fridays,” a blog set up by Deb of Kahakai Kitchen, Megan of My Baking Adventures, and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies, to bring together foodies who love Tyler Florence and love his equally tasty food. Every week, TFF participants cook up (or bake up) one of Tyler’s recipes from either his cookbooks or online recipes from one of his Food Network shows. TFF then posts, every Friday (as per the name!), a round-up of everyone’s dishes for the week. Just a way for us to sample Tyler’s recipes without having to try every single one of them and to find ones that we want to try and make ourselves!

I have a number of Tyler’s cookbooks and thought that TFF was the perfect opportunity and reason for me to break them out. So for my first week in “Tyler Florence Fridays,” I decided to go with something from one of my favorite meals – brunch! And so I tried Tyler's Coconut Bread with Sweet Pineapple Butter.

I love to bake and in this recipe, Tyler references trips to Sydney, Australia, one of my favorite places in the world. In particular, he talks about a breakfast place in Darlinghurst called bills. Bill Granger is the chef at bills and he is a chef that I’ve always wanted to sample his food – when in Australia, I often found myself in the cookbook section of the bookstore, paging through one of Bill’s cookbooks… In any case, bills serves up a coconut bread similar to the one here in Tyler’s cookbook, so I decided I had to try it. (Plus, Mr. J nearly salivated on the book when he heard about it).

So here it is, from Tyler’s “Real Kitchen” cookbook: Coconut Bread with Sweet Pineapple Butter.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing pan
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
1 1/2 cups of unsweetened coconut milk
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut, toasted

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 275. Grease bottom and sides of a 9x5 inch loaf pan with butter. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In another large bowl, whisk together melted butter with the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Pour in the coconut milk and whisk together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold everything together with a spatula until you have a smooth batter. Gently fold in the shredded coconut until evenly distributed. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and set it on a cookie sheet. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the bread. Rotate the pan periodically to ensure even browning. Cool the bread in the pan for 20 minutes or so; then when cool enough to handle, remove the coconut bread to a cutting board and let it cool completely before slicing.

Thoughts/Results:

The coconut bread turned out nicely... It was admittedly a bit dry, a littel bit more dry than I would have preferred (I didn't get to make the actual pineapple butter that Tyler suggested as an accompaniment, although I think that would have given it a great flavor complement and make the bread less dry... I made a version of pineapple butter but it didn't set up very well!). But the flavors of the bread were great. The coconut is not overpowering -- more subtle hints of the coconut. The lemon zest actually comes across fairly strong, so next time, I would probably cut back a little on the lemon zest. I think that this would also be fabulous with chocolate chips (but really, almost anything is better with chocolate chips!) mixed into the batter.

The bread was a big hit with Mr. J. He brought some to work and although it crumbled quite a bit before he made it to work, he devoured it. The bread keeps well for at least a week (we took Tyler's suggestion and wrapped it up tightly and placed it in a plastic bag).

Cheers! Thanks to TFF for having me as part of this group! (I actually made a second Tyler Florence dish this past week, but will wait to post til next week :))

The ORIGINAL Bob's Big Boy

(Our trip to California continued...)

Yes, you read that right - the ORIGINAL Bob's Big Boy. You've seen it featured on the Food Network... perhaps you've been to other Bob's Big Boys (the Route 95 corridor perhaps?)... perhaps you've seen Big Boy featured in movies. While visiting Burbank, we couldn't resist a breakfast at the original Bob's Big Boy and a chance to take a photo with an over-life size Big Boy.

We came into a half-full Big Boy -- it was New Years Day so my guess is that everyone was either (a) moving very slowly from celebrating the new year or (b) traveling to Pasadena for the annual Rose Parade/Rose Bowl (which btw, we checked out the Rose Parade for ourselves later!). One step into Bob's Big Boy and it felt like we traveled back in time to the 1970s. Lots of golden colors - browns, yellows, and oranges -- the long diner bar complete with orange vinyl stools with booths lining the window walls.

We were seated in a booth and immediately dove into the menu.

After reading the short bio about this location (opened in 1949), we attempted to make our breakfast picks with our stomachs were rumbling from the time difference. Two of our party went straight for the "chicken fried steak" -- I mean, how could you go wrong? (My fork and knife ventured over to their plates...several times...throughout the meal...couldn't help it).

I am a sucker for corned beef hash (I think it is a continuing love from my childhood) so went for an egg platter with corned beef hash.

My dad, ever the one to go for sweet breakfast items, got the super strawberry waffle meal complete with a jumbo belgian waffle covered in strawberries, biscuits, and a side of sausage.

The whole feel of the restaurant reminded me of an East Coast diner... but California style. The plates were big and indulging, just the way a diner breakfast should be. The service was friendly, the coffee ever flowing, and we nearly had to roll ourselves out of Bob's. We posed with Big Boy on the way out (our bellies quite extended like his) and settled back into the car with a bit of a food coma as we journeyed to the Rose Parade.

Bob's Big Boy

4211 Riverside Drive

Burbank, CA 91505

(818) 843-9334

Inaugural Pecan Praline French Toast Casserole

A chilly, but very exciting weekend here in DC. To celebrate the Inaugural Weekend, we indulged in a few eats... In particular, we decided to cook up a belly-warming breakfast of french toast casserole topped with pecan pralines and a side of turkey sausage. Yum. In order to serve only a few people, we cut Paula Deen's recipe in half (but went full force with the pecan praline topping!). Even if you are going to go with a half recipe, I would suggest using about 3/4 of the "liquids" on the bread -- the half version was a little bit dry, but still delicious! (Her recipe also suggests a raspberry syrup, but we thought this was sweet and tasty enough as is):

Pecan Praline French Toast Casserole (Below is the half version):

Ingredients:

10 slices of French bread (cut from a loaf)

Butter, for pan

4 large eggs

1 cup half-and-half

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Dash salt

1) Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch thick each. (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs).

2) Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices.

3) In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly.

4) Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices.

5) Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

6) The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

7) Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 45 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.

Praline Topping:

Ingredients:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Spread over bread as directed above.

Eat hot and enjoy!!

On the second day of Hawaii, my true love gave to me... malasadas!

On the second day of Hawaii, my true love gave to me... malasadas!

My family and I had traveled to Hawaii for years before discovering the magical breakfast item known as the malasada. If you haven't heard of it, then you're in for a real treat (and a new love in your life). A malasada is essentially a Portuguese donut. Not to be confused with the ubiquitous Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kremes (which don't get me wrong, I love those donuts too... I mean, we specifically drove to Portland from Hood River to eat at Voodoo Donut... but that's a story for another time), malasadas are served piping hot and somehow manage to be airy and doughy at the same time.

Malasadas were first made by inhabitants of Sao Miguel Island in the Azores. Deep-fried in oil and coated with sugar, they were traditionally made to use up all the "bad stuff" (fat and sugar!) in the house before Lent. They're often eaten on Mardi Gras -- Mardi Gras is also "Malasada Day" in Hawaii.

I don't even recall exactly how we came across the malasada, but all I do know is that every time we are in Oahu now, we find ourselves promptly on the doorstep of Leonard's Bakery at 933 Kapahulu Avenue. The lines are often long, but they move quickly...and are worth it. Step up to the counter, contemplate to yourself -- sugared or cinnamon? Filling or no filling? Everyone has a personal favorite. My dad loves the traditional, plain sugared malasada. My mom could go for the cinnamon. Me, I love the fillings... I'm not a jelly-donut person, but there's something about those tropical cream fillings that Leonard's pipes into their malasadas that makes me want to come back every month to try a different filling. When last there, I had the mango filled malasada... I am awaiting to try the lilikoi (one of my favorite tropical fruits!) malasada. (I just heard from my parents who just came back from Hawaii that this month's "fillings" are strawberry and pumpkin... mmm, pumpkin).

We've tried other malasada bakeries around Oahu, but none of them quite live up to Leonard's. I'm sure it is just a personal preference, but all the other places were too doughy or too cakey or too yeasty. We've also tried to seek out malasadas elsewhere, widely doing google searches for malasada offerings nearby or in places we've visited. My dad eventually found a place in Los Angeles that occasionally will sell them (you have to call to make sure), but he was rather disappointed with the results. My parents tried to find them in Macau, thinking that these Portuguese donuts may be found in a former Portuguese colony. No luck. We tried to find them in Brazil, thinking again about the Portuguese history... although no "malasadas" were found, we did learn on the last day of a pastry called the "solhnos" (my spelling is probably quite off...).

In any case, I suppose I'll just have to go back to Hawaii. Darn.