Savory Rosemary Gruyere Bread Pudding

Back when the Food Channel still had cooking shows, I remember watching an episode of Emeril Live where he made savory cheesecakes.  And I thought, "we need to tell the Cheesecake Factory, they're sitting on a gold mine".  While I have still never seen one in person, I started questioning all of my dessert beliefs: can I eat this earlier in the meal, before I hate myself?  Can't I find a way to avoid a diabetes-inducing amount of sugar and still have a delicious baked good?  And, most importantly, can I find a way to put more bacon in this?

And now, you can.  As I was staring down about $5 of unused, questionable rosemary bread from the farmer's market, The idea struck me like a stale loaf of bread to the dome.  This was not to be another farmer's market total loss.  So I sliced the bread up into large cubes in anticipation of my further pleasure.

What ensued was, quite possibly, one of the most delicious things I have ever made.  Crispy, rich, smoky, and with that pine forest smell from the rosemary both baked into the bread and freshly added to the dish, you could easily get lost in this "pudding", which I would describe as either the best stuffing you've ever had, or a meal that combines the best of breakfast, dinner, and dessert.

I will confess that I lifted a few components of this recipe from a fellow blogger here, but then went and updated with a better process and a few ingredients, not the least of which is bacon.  I highly recommend you do two things - use stale bread (slice it up one day before it's too hard to slice, then cube it and leave it in a bowl to dry), and let the custard mixture soak into the bread for at least 8 hours.


Rosemary-Gruyere Bread Pudding

• 5 cups of cubed, stale Rosemary or French bread, crusts removed
• 1 tablespoon butter, plus more for greasing pan
• 3/4 cup chopped sweet yellow onion such as Vidalia
• 1/4 cup of chopped shallots, or 1 large
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, about 2 cloves
• 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 healthy pinch of black pepper
• 2 thick-cut slices bacon, preferably applewood smoked
• 1.5 cups of milk (I used 2%)
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 4 eggs, beaten lightly
• 1 cup of coarsely grated Gruyere cheese, separated in half

A few days to a few hours before, cube the bread into 1" cubes and place in a bowl to dry.  Toast bread cubes just before using to remove remaining moisture and brown slightly, and place in a large bowl.  In a medium bowl, beat eggs and add in milk and cream.

Toasted bread cubes, next to the egg custard soak.  Treat this as you would a delicious pan perdu, or French toast

In a large saute pan, melt butter and cook onion and shallots over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 3-5 minutes.  Add some of the salt partway through to pull out some moisture.  Now add rosemary and garlic and stir in for 1 minute.  Remove all from pan, and cook bacon until slightly crispy.  Drain on paper towels, then chop bacon into 1/4" pieces.

Into a large bowl, place toasted bread cubes, vegetable mixture, bacon pieces, egg - milk custard mixture, and half of the cheese.  Toss well to combine but don't stir so aggressively that you break up the bread cubes.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 1-8 hours.

Before the long rest and soak

After an 8 hour rest in the fridge.  Totally soaked up the egg mixture, fat and happy and ready for the oven

When ready to cook, grease an appropriate casserole with butter, and heat oven to 350 F.  Lightly spoon in bread pudding mixture into the dish (do not pack this in tightly, it will get mushy), and place in oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.  After 40 minutes, top with remaining grated cheese, and return to oven for 10-15 minutes longer, until browned and melted.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes and serve.

Served simply, where the bread pudding can be the star

Zuccotto

I haven't forgotten about you, folks - I've been busy cooking!  This time it's an obscure Italian dessert that has been a hit at two pot luck events, called a zuccotto.  This is a large multi-layer domed cake, often made with ice cream, but commonly made with just different cake layers and flavored whipped creams.  I have no idea where I found the original recipe, all I have is an old scribbled down document that I haven't been able to trace back to anything in particular.  I kind of prefer it that way, and have made adjustments since anyway.

The first time I made this I had no idea what to expect, so I brought it in without tasting, set it down at my department event, and walked away for about two minutes.  When I came back, this gigantic cake was completely gone.  So this time I tried a piece before serving, and now I see what the excitement was about.  Not too sweet, incredibly moist, fantastic flavors and very colorful.  Everyone had great things to say.

I'm going to teach you how to make your very own, which I don't recommend for just a small family gathering.  Only make this if you have a lot of people coming over - preferably ones you want to impress.  You're going to make your own whipped cream, and you may even bake a cake.  But the real fun of this one is the assembly, which is unlike anything I've ever seen before.

Zuccotto

• 1 16 ounce pound cake (home made or store bought)
• 1 devils food cake mix (or store bought chocolate pound cake)
• ½ cup strawberry jam
• ¼ cup Amaretto, or Luxardo Maraschino (preferred)
• 1 6-ounce bag miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup slivered almonds, slightly toasted

Equipment needed:

• Bowl that is 9 inches across and 4-6 inches deep.
• Good serrated knife, or an electric knife (recommended)
• Handheld electric mixer, or a stand mixer

If making cakes yourself, prepare per recipe instructions on box.  I recommend you buy the pound cake, and make the devil's food cake.  For devil's food cake mix, pour half of mix into a greased and floured ovenproof 6 inch diameter bowl - I used a Pyrex mixing bowl, and filled about halfway full to allow for rising.  Bake the remainder in muffin cups - note that these will cook MUCH faster than the large bowl version.  If you don’t have an ovenproof bowl, get one.  Because of size differences you need to approximate the times listed on box for the bowl-shaped variant, but use a toothpick for testing and you'll be fine.  A toothpick inserted should pull out clean, so check regularly to avoid overbaking and drying it out.  For the record, the small bowl cake took about 10-15 minutes longer than the package directions said for the most stout of cake shapes it described.  Unfortunately, it seems the Duncan Hines folks didn't expect people to be baking their products into bizarre geometries, so I had to sort this out on my own.

Cool the cake(s) for 20 minutes, then turn out on baking racks to continue cooling.  Slice the pound cake into ¼ inch thick pieces, trying to be as consistent as possible.  Now line a 3 quart mixing bowl with plastic wrap.  Layer the lined bowl with slices of pound cake, overlapping slightly to create a pound cake bowl inside the mixing bowl.

Only an electric knife would let you get this many evenly sliced pieces.  I love mine.

Mix strawberry jam and almond or cherry liqueur (not the extract).  A note - I used Luxardo, an excellent liqueur used to make the real Maraschino cherries (recipe to follow soon).  This has a very sweet taste with notes of both almonds and cherries, and I thought it was an excellent substitution for Amaretto.  Whatever you use, mix in a 1:2 ratio with your jam of choice, and brush over inside of pound cake bowl.

Brush the jam and liqueur in the layered pound cake.  Careful not to get the jam on the outside of the cake, or it will ruin the exterior appearance

In another mixing bowl beat whipping cream, sugar and almond extract until stiff peaks form. Fold in chocolate chips and almonds. Spread evenly over bottom and sides of pound cake bowl, using a spatula or back of large spoon to smooth.

Fold the mini chocolate chips and almond slices into the whipped cream, gently

Spread a good layer of the almond infused whipped cream inside of the lacquered pound cake

Place bowl baked chocolate cake gently in the center of whipped cream lined bowl. If using store bought chocolate pound cake just cut to fit center. Fill in gaps by cutting scraps from remaining cake. Be gentle when adding the cake so as not to redistribute the whipped cream layer.

The devil's food bowl cake, before I inverted, trimmed the bottom, and nestled into the whipped cream.

Like a glove!

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate cake overnight.  Put some pressure on with the tension of the plastic wrap, to help apply a downward force that will compress the cake and press the pound cake out to the shape of the bowl.

To serve, place serving plate on top of bowl. Turn bowl over and remove plastic wrap. Garnish by placing strawberries around cake and place one on top, cut in a fan shape. To make fan shape strawberry, just make 4-5 slices ¾ of the way through from top to base. With both hands holding strawberry gently spread so it creates a fan shape.

The final cake, turned out of the bowl.

Here's what you have waiting for you - two cakes in one, with a few delicious extra layers of fruity, nutty awesomeness in between

You may have noticed a gargantuan quantity of pound cake at the beginning of this recipe.  If you find yourself with too much cake, hopefully you have made the extra cupcake-sized devil's food cakes, and have some leftover whipped cream.  I was able to make a medium-sized and small-sized zuccotto to send off with friends in addition to this huge version, which was a great way to use up everything I made.