Triple Chocolate Bread Pudding

It's not just because I bake bread and desserts for a restaurant that I find myself making a lot of bread pudding. It's because right now there is no dessert I'd rather eat than bread pudding.

I go through phases like this- flan for awhile, then chocolate pudding, then rice pudding and now bread pudding. (Notice any trends in my dessert obsessions? Apparently I don't like to chew.)

I first made this recipe for Masters Week because one of the caterings we did was for a company that actually brought their own chef. I'm not sure how that situation worked, but this chef was named Nick Stellino. One night the dinner entertainment for the clients was a cooking demo by Mr. Stellino, and he requested a specific dessert be served- his Bread Pudding with Two Chocolates. And it was my job to make it.

I was nervous about how it would turn out with our iffy oven, but I followed his recipe and the bread pudding turned out to be DIVINE. So divine that instead of bringing leftovers back to the restaurant, the servers and cooks ate the rest of it on site. I've made it for the restaurant several times since.

It's dense, moist and chocolatey (as all good things in this world are.) If you want to go nuts on your guests, make additional of the chocolate sauce required for the recipe and serve the pudding in a pool of chocolate sauce. With strawberries or raspberries.

Chocolate Sauce:

1/2 cup heavy cream

6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons corn syrup

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place heavy cream, chocolate and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat on low until cream bubbles and chocolate starts to melt. Remove from heat and whisk until all melted and smooth. Whisk in corn syrup, salt and vanilla.

Bread Pudding with Two Chocolates:

Chocolate Sauce (recipe above)

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups milk

2 cups cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

10 cups day-old bread, cut into 2-in pieces

1 cup dark chocolate, chopped

1 cup white chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter a deep baking dish or individual ramekins.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, yolks and sugar with a whisk or electric mixer until it forms a thick yellow custard. Add the milk, cream and vanilla and beat for several minutes more.

Add the bread to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix well. Press down the bread often to make sure it's absorbing as much of the liquid as possible. Add the chocolate sauce, white chocolate and dark chocolate and stir so that the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Let the pudding rest at room temperature for 15 minutes, then place in the oven, reducing the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for 35-40 minutes. It's done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Beware of hitting a dark chocolate spot and thinking it's not done when it is. If you're using small containers, the bake time will be shorter.

MMM!! Serve hot or at room temperature with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, shaved chocolate, fruit- whatever suits your fancy. This dessert would go great after an italian meal that has lots of fresh basil and rustic bread. Preferably served outdoors under bistro lights or lanterns. With wine. (Or maybe milk.) Okay, now I need to have a party.

White Chocolate Cake with Chai Frosting

This is my second attempt at a Chai-flavored Cake.

I used Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe for White Chocolate Whisper Cake from The Cake Bible for the layers. I knew I wanted to used chai latte mix for the frosting, and I was inspired by this blog to add french vanilla instant pudding mix too. It changed the texture a bit- made thicker and it seemed to cling to itself. This was plus, as so many frostings just want to creep down the sides of your cake.

Rose is pretty much a scientist when it comes to cakes- all her recipes are very exact and must be followed exactly or they won't work. The Cake Bible is a great resource, but alas there are no pictures. I find it hard to work from a book with absolutely no pictures. Is this bad?

Grease and flour (or line with parchment paper) 2 9-in cake pans. As you can see, my cake has three layers. This is because I tripled the recipe and made two cakes with three layers each.

Preheat to 350.

Ingredients:

6 oz white chocolate

3/4 t salt

1 T plus 1 1/2 t baking powder

1 cup plus 3 T sugar

3 cups cake flour, sifted

1 1/2 t vanilla

1 c milk, divided

4 1/2 large egg whites

9 T unsalted butter, softened

Melt the white chocolate (in either the microwave or in a double boiler- careful not to burn) and set aside.

Whisk together 1/4 cup milk, egg whites and vanilla. In your mixer bowl, sift together the sugar, cake flur, baking powder and salt. Mix on low for 30 seconds.

Add the butter and the remaining 3/4 cup milk. Mix on low until all the ingredients are moistened. Then, mix on medium for a minute and a half to develop the batter's structure.

Gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition and scraping down the bowl.

Add the melted chocolate and beat to incorporate.

Divide the batter into your two pans and smooth the surface. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a cake tested inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool on racks in pans for 10 minutes before inverting cakes onto the racks to cool completely. If the tops are overly rounded, you might want to let them cool right side up so that the bottom isn't put under stress, which may cause splitting.

Frosting:

1 lb unsalted butter

Most of a small package of instant french vanilla pudding

1/2-1 cup chai latte mix (start with less and adjust along with the powdered sugar for taste and consistency)

2-4 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter. Slowly add the pudding mix, then the chai and finally the powdered sugar. Adjust as your taste requires.

Next time, I think I will infuse the chai flavors into a plain white or vanilla cake by soaking tea bags in the milk, and then use white chocolate frosting. I think in general I prefer spicy cakes with light, creamy frostings playing a supporting role, rather than this cake, where the frosting took center stage.

Strawberry Cake II

Isn't this just the picture of lovliness?

...standing in stark contrast to this despicable mess.

I had such high hopes for this cake. The layers were gorgeous. I wanted to take my time and make the cake pretty and dainty and tasty. It is strawberry cake layers from Sky High with White Chocolate frosting. Then I got greedy and thought, Chocolate Ganache! Homemade Strawberry Jam! This will be the cake to end all cakes!

Thats when it started going downhill, because you see, I layered the jam between the chocolate and the white chocolate cream cheese, and the layers slid everywhere. It was all I could do to keep them together. And then I ran out of frosting. And I kept trying to make it prettier, and everything I added made it a little worse. I've concluded that this could've been avoided by either not including the jam, or by putting the jam on the bottom, next to the cake so it could be absorbed a little bit. This cake could've been gorgeous. It tasted gorgeous.

This recipe makes a lot of cake. Three thick Layers, even with 6 cupcakes-worth removed. Also, I added a few drops red food coloring to enhance the pink color.

Strawberry Cake adapted from Sky High

Ingredients:

4.5 cups cake flour

3 cups sugar

5 1/4 t baking powder

2/4 t salt

3 sticks butter, softened

1.5 cups pureed strawberries (you can use fresh or frozen. If frozen, then thaw in a bowl and puree with the juices)

8 eggs whites

2/3 cup milk

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

Preheat to 350. Line 3 9-in round cake pans with parchment paper. You could also use square pans for this recipe.

In the bowl of a mixer, blend the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix until blended, then raising the speed to medium high and beating til fluffy. The book promised that the batter would look like strawberry ice cream at this point, and they were right on!

Combine the egg whites and milk, and slowly add to the ice cream batter, scraping down the bowl sometimes, until they are fully incorporated. Do not over mix.

Divide the batter among your batter receptacles and bake for about a half hour, until a knife or a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting. (Best to turn out the pans after 15 minutes and cool on racks.)

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting adapted from Sky High

Ingredients:

2 8-oz blocks of cream cheese (calls for cold from the fridge so the frosting doesn't get too soft.)

1 stick butter

6 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled

4 cups confectioner's sugar

The original recipe didn't call for butter....but I like butter so I added some. It was also wary about over heating the frosting in the mixing process by over beating. I paid no attention to this and beat the fluffy mercilessly into the frosting. This resulting softness could have contributed to the cake sliding fiasco.

Mix the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the white chocolate and beat until fully mixed. Slowly add the confectioner's sugar.

Now you can freeze the strawberry layers if you want, to make the cake frosting process go smoother. You can also apply strawberry jam and melted chocolate to the cake, in that order, before laying frosting between the layers. I would not recommend glopping white chocolate ganache, and then white chocolate ganache mixed with jam haphazardly onto the top of the cake in an effort to save its looks.

People seemed to like the cake a lot, and the cupcakes were delicious, but very sweet. I think I'm done with strawberry cake for awhile.

Raspberry White Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

I had to think of a quick cake to make for the restaurant last week, and this is what I came up with. It's very good, but next time I will use fresh or frozen raspberries instead of the jam.

The cake is a variation of the Blueberry Buttermilk cake I made previously, found originally on Smitten Kitchen.

I doubled the original recipe, swirled in Raspberry Jam, and added white chocolate.

Raspberry White Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

2 cup AP Flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 stick butter, softened

1 1/3 cup sugar, plus 1 1/2 t sugar, divided

1 t vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup well shaken buttermilk

1 cup fresh raspberries, or 1/4-1/2 cup raspberry jam

1/2-1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with the rack in the middle. Line the bottom of a 9 or 10-in round cake pan with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Cream the butter and the 1 1/3 cup sugar in your mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs.

Gradually add the flour mixture and buttermilk, alternating and beginning and ending with the flour.

Set aside aside 1/2 cup of the batter and mix it with the raspberry jam. Mix the remaining batter with 1/2-1 cup white chocolate chips. Pour the white chocolate batter into the cake pan, then swirl in the raspberry mixture.

Bake for about 40 minutes, and check first by pressing the middle of the cake with your finger. If it bounces back, check with a knife. (if you check too soon with a knife, the cake could fall). If the knife comes our clean, you're done!

Let the cake cool and remove from the pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired, and serve. Enjoy!

Black and White Checkerboard Cake

My Grandmother gave me a set of checkerboard pans for Christmas; a set of three 9-in pans with a plastic insert that allows me to pour alternating circles of flavors and create this impressive checkerboard cake. And I wanted an impressive cake to bring to the restaurant along with my old standby, the Hummingbird Cake.

I used a recipe from Sky High Cakes called "Black and White Park Avenue Cake" and it features layers of white and dark chocolate with White Chocolate Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache. The recipes uses buttermilk, which I always take as a good sign, and mixes the ingredients in a way I haven't encountered before...dry...butter...wet...then eggs.

My batter didn't rise very much, and it was SUPER messy and very difficult to ration the batter to have enough for each circle, so my layers came out sort of lopsided, but the end result was fantastic.

Ingredients:

3 cups cake flour

2 cups sugar

4 1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

4 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

2 t vanilla extract

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

2 oz white chocolate, melted and cooled

Chocolate Ganache, for filling.

Preheat Oven to 350, butter and line 3 8 or 9-in pans with parchment rounds.

Place sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. Blend on low for 30 seconds. Add the softened butter and one cup of buttermilk; beat until just combined and evenly moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, remaining 1/4 cup buttermilk and vanilla. Add to the batter in 2 or 3 additions, scraping down sides of the bowl. Beat until just mixed.

For the dark chocolate batter, whisk 1 cup of the batter into the melted chocolate, then gently whisk in another 3 cups.

For the white chocolate, whisk 1 cup of batter in to the melted chocolate, then gently mix that into the rest of the batter.

Use your cake divider and a pastry bag to fill the pans. You will need two layers with 2 circles of chocolate and one with 2 circles of white chocolate.

Bake for about 25 minutes (mine was less). Allow cakes to cool a bit in the pans and then turn onto wire racks to cool completely.

Make your Chocolate Ganache by heating a half cup of heavy cream and mixing in 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate. Let sit for a minute to melt, then whisk until smooth.

White Chocolate Buttercream

(I changed this a little bit from the book.)

4 egg whites

4 oz good quality white chocolate

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

3 sticks unsalted butter

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler, being careful not to scald it. Set aside to cool.

Combine sugar and water in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Heat until the sugar reachs 238 degrees on a candy thermometer, or what I do is wait until just before it starts turning dark. A few minutes into boiling your sugar, start whipping your egg whites on high speed.

When the sugar is hot enough and the eggs are at medium-to high volume (soft peaks), slowly pour a steady stream of boiling sugar into the egg whites, still whipping on high. Whip for at least 5 minutes on medium-high, until the bowl has cooled to near room temperature.

Reduce the speed to medium low and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time. The mixture may appear to curdle at some point, but keep whipping and it will come together. When it is smooth, add the melted white chocolate and mix well.

Assemble the layers so the checkerboard pattern can form. Spread chocolate ganache on top of the first and second layers, then freeze for 15 minutes to set. Frost the cake using the white chocolate buttercream, and add chocolate disk decorations, if desired.

Enjoy the oohs and aaahs!

It was the best of times....it was the worst of times....

This is the best chocolate cake I've ever had. Ever, ever, ever.

This cake is also the hugest pain in the butt ever...I should know, I've made it three times this week. Hidden inside it's beautiful dark layers are streaks of white chocolate mousse, and therein lies the rub. It tastes phenomenal, but I am sick and tired of cakes with creative fillings that just slide apart and make your life miserable!!

I even froze it for over 30 min before frosting and it still insisted on sliding around and ruining the chocolate sour cream frosting, and in the car on the way to the Restaurant the top two layer removed themselves from the bottom layer. Barf. Next time I will double the amount of white chocolate in the mousse and run through my freezing routine to allow it to stiffen more.

BUT...seriously guys, this cake is amazing. I would eat it every day for breakfast. The secret ingredient is....brace yourself...mayonnaise. I've disgusted several people with that information (while they had the cake in their mouths.) But it's just that that makes so moist and rich! So....good luck with it.

The Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake from Sky High.

Preheat the oven to 350, butter the bottom of three 9 in cake pans and cut 3 parchment paper circles. Line the bottoms of the pans and butter the papers, too.

TAKE NOTE: Normally, I would completely ignore the parchment paper step. It just seems excessive. HOWEVER, with this cake, it is a MUST. The first time I made the cake I left it out and the cake came out in clumps. With the parchment though, no problems.

Ingredients for the cake:

2 1/4 cups AP flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/4 t baking soda

1 1/4 baking powder

1 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

2 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1 cup milk

1 1/4 cups hot, strongly brewed coffee

2 eggs

1 cup best-quality mayonnaise

1 1/2 t vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups sugar

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and powder, salt and cinnamon; set aside.

Put the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl and heat the milk to a simmer. Pour the hot coffee and milk over the chocolate and let sit to melt. Whisk until smooth.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the eggs, vanilla and mayonnaise until well blended. Gradually beat in sugar. Add the dry ingredients and the mocha mixture in two or three additions; beat til smooth and well blended.

Divide the batter among the three cake pans and bake for 25-28 minutes (until tester poked in middle comes out clean)

Let cakes cool on racks.

White Chocolate Mousse

6-8 oz white chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

1 egg white

1 T sugar

Melt the white chocolate with 1/4 cup of the heavy cream in a double boiler, whisk until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

When cool, beat the remaining 3/4 cups cream until soft peaks form. In a clean bowl, whip tje egg white with the sugar until stiff peaks form.

Fold the beaten egg into the white chocolate cream, then fold in the whipped cream until just blended.

UPDATE:

I changed the amount of white chocolate to 6-8 oz, which makes a stiffer mousse. It's very important to chill the stuff until its stiff enough, so I'd recommend making the night before you plan to make the cake just so you don't have to stress out about it.

Sour Cream Chocolate Icing

12 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 stick unsalted butter

2 T light corn syrup

1/4 cup half and half

1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature

Melt the chocolate with the butter and corn syrup in a double boiler over barely simmering water or in a heavy pan over very low heat. Remove from heat and whisk til smooth.

Whisk in the half and half and sour cream. Use while soft.

To Assemble:

Fill the layers with the chocolate mousse, leaving a 1/4 in border on each other layers. (and then I say, freeze the thing.)

Spread the chocolate sour cream icing all over the cake (first making a crumb coat and refrigerating if desired, about 30 min.)

Decorate with melted white chocolate, if desired.

MMMMM. SO GOOD.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

The original recipe used an almond-vanilla wafer crust, but I decided I couldn't go wrong making a chocolate cookie crust. Also, I read the reviews, and while most people loved the cheesecake, they also recommended doubling the recipe, which I did. I baked it in a 10-in springform pan.

And while the original recipe called for a sour cream topping, I was having none of it. I made mine with leftover white chocolate and some raspberry juice, though next time I would use waaaay more white chocolate and raspberry and make the topping beautiful like marbled paper...I fear that as it is, it looks like somebody bled all over the top.

(the dream-like fuzziness of the picture below was caused by steam escaping from below the bowl of melting chocolate)

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Adapted from Bon Appetit, February, 1994 (As I made it, crust, doubled and topping).

Crust

1.5 c chocolate cookie crumbs

.5-1 stick melted butter

(pulse the cookies in a food processor, slowly adding the butter, or just just crumbs and butter together. Press into bottom of springform pan. Refrigerate)

Filling

8-oz white chocolate, chopped (they suggust Lindt) (forgive me, Bon Appetit, I used Tollhouse and regular old baking chocolate.)

4 8-oz packages (2 lbs) cream cheese, softened.

1-1/3 cup sugar

4 t vanilla extract

1.5 t grated lemon zest

4 large eggs

1.5 cup frozen (mostly thawed) or fresh raspberries

Directions:

Preheat to 350.

Melt white chocolate in double boiler, stirring often, until smooth. Remove from over the water when melted.

Using a mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, vanille and lemon peel. Beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just combined. Beat in white chocolate.

Pour half the filling into the springform pan. Sprinkle the raspberries all over the top. Add the rest of the filling on top of the raspberries.

Bake until the edges are set, but the center still jiggles. It was about an 1 hr 10 minutes for me. The directions also say to cool 10-20 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and gently press down the edges with your fingers.

(my mini test cheesecake so I can taste it before heading to the restaurant. I ate half before it was even cooled)

Then you can go on and mix 8-oz sour cream, 3 T sugar and 1/2 t vanilla, spread over the top and bake for another 5 min,

OR

you can make white chocolate ganache, pour it over the cheesecake and then swirl in raspberry juice or raspberry jam. (I would recommend a ratio of 1:1.5 -cream:white chocolate)

Either way, let the thing chill and cool overnight (or for 3 hours if you are pressed for time as I was.)

No Bake Cookies n Cream Cheesecake

This cheesecake sets a little looser than regular cheesecake, so next time I might use the whole packet of gelatin (I think it's supposed to be 1 T). But it's AWESOME if you're pressed for time- just make it the night before you need it.

There's no getting up in the middle of the night to take it out of the oven, and then again later in the night to put it in the fridge. (this is my usual routine with cheesecakes.) Just mix, pop it into the fridge, and wake up to cheesecake.

(Below: Dissolving the gelatin in a water bath)

Cookies n Cream Cheesecake recipe adapted from Cheesecake by Pamela Clark

Ingredients:

10-oz oreos (or more, if you're me)

2 t gelatin

3 T water

13 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1-1/2 cup heavy cream

6 oz white chocolate, melted. (I used the microwave for this one. Just nuke in 20 second intervals, stirring between each)

Okay, Let's talk about the crust. The recipe is actually for 8 individual cheesecakes made in sections of PVC pipes...but lacking those I made it in a 9-in springform. In the PVC pipes, you just stick a whole oreo at the bottom for the crust. I preformed my usual butter and crumbs crust, but because it wasn't baked, just chilled, the crust stuck to the bottom of the pan badly. So I would either spray your pan first or figure out some other crust. Maybe spray the bottom then mix the crumbs with some melted chocolate. Worth some experimentation.

Step 1. Chop oreos into quarters. Save some for topping the cheesecake.

Step 2. Sprinkle gelatin over the water in a heatproof cup. Heat in a pan of simmering water until gelatin dissolves. Cool 5 min.

Step 3. Beat cream cheese, vanilla and sugar in a bowl until smooth, then beat in cream. Stir in white chocolate, gelatin and chopped cookies.

Step 4. Pour into prepared pan with crust, refrigerate overnight.

Step 5. (optional) Melt chocolate and pour in interesting swirls over the top.

I do love cookies n cream anything.