This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays treat is Golden Almond Fruitcake. Melissa Murphy’s love of almonds seems pretty apparent. Throughout the book they are sprinkled in recipes, such as chocolate chip cookies and sticky buns, where you would typically find other kinds of nuts like walnuts or pecans, but this is a whole cake celebrating the nut with almond in four different forms: marzipan, whole almonds, almond flour, and almond extract. Melissa introduction to the recipe includes the anecdote that this recipe won the 2006 Marzipandemonium contest sponsored by the Almond Board of California. I’d like to know where to find out how to become a judge for that contest – sounds yummy!
Oh, fruitcake. It really has the reputation of being a totally inedible sweet, dense brick. I think what deters me from it are the little chunks of candied “fruit.” Luckily, this recipe uses regular dried fruit, which proved to be a great way to clear out some pantry reserves (I constantly have leftovers from various baking projects); I used apples, cherries, and apricots. The recipe gives a choice between using brandy or juice for the cake and glaze, and I used brandy, which made for a pretty boozy cake (this was two SMS Sundays in a row that had me opening a bottle of alcohol before 9:00 am). It was one of those recipes that was pretty simple, but between chopping the marzipan, fruit, and nuts and making almond flour, it took me a little more time than I thought it would. I have also been making mini loaves as opposed to whole loaves a lot lately, and forgot that large cakes always bake the full amount of time specified, if not longer. The result? It was a nice moist loaf cake, with tantalizing goodies in every bite. My one complaint was that the small amount of cardamom (1/2 teaspoon) masked some of the lovely almond flavor; I would definitely skip that ingredient if I were to make this cake again.
This recipe received a 7.5 for Deliciousness and a 3 for Effort, giving it an EDR 2.5. Many thanks to Karin of Sugar and Spice for selecting this holiday treat. You can find the recipe here on Karin’s site, along with her very special reasons for choosing this recipe -such a sweet and thoughtful story. To see what the other bakers thought, drop by the SMS blogroll.
I’ve posted these types of frozen treat duos on here before: a healthy-ish fruit one and a more decadent creamy concoction. Today we have a Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Sorbet and Pumpkin Ice Cream. I meant to post these before Thanksgiving, but I never got around to it. Since I am actually not making anything at all today I figured I might as well do something food-related and post them now. (It really feels strange to not use my kitchen at all on a day off. And not only did I not make anything, I sat on the couch and watched second-tier reality shows for two hours and did not even knit while doing so. True holiday sluggishness – fabulous!) Besides, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has stockpiled a few extra cranberries and pumpkin.
As soon as I saw the recipe for Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Sorbet in the November issue of Bon Appétit, I knew it would have a date with my ice cream maker as soon as I could get my hands on some cranberries – which, luckily, I did just a couple days later. It was sometime in early October when cranberries are still scarce. Last year the cranberry urge hit a little too early and Josh drove to at least five stores to find them for me – one of the many reasons we’re happy to finally be a two car household. If you’re looking for a delectable yet light dessert and enjoy sweet/tart combinations, I highly recommend this sorbet. And the pumpkin ice cream? Everything you’d expect. I’ve always liked pumpkin pie cold with whipped cream, so this is perfect for a pumpkin pie craving. Or on top of another dessert. You can find the recipe for Pumpkin Ice cream here on David Lebovitz’s site.
Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Sorbet from the November 2009 issue of Bon Appétit (Printable Recipe)
1 12-ounce package fresh or frozen cranberries2 ½ cups water2 cups sugar½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise¼ cup fresh lemon juiceCombine cranberries, 2 1/2 cups water, sugar, and coarse salt in large heavy saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean. Add bean to mixture and bring to boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low; simmer until cranberries pop and are soft, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Remove vanilla bean from cranberry mixture. Working in batches, puree cranberry mixture in blender or food processor. Strain into large bowl; discard solids. Stir in lemon juice. Refrigerate cranberry mixture until well chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight. Transfer cranberry mixture to ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer sorbet to container; cover and freeze. Notes: the second time I made this, I forgot the lemon juice and it’s still delicious. In fact, I’m enjoying some right now. Both times I’ve made the sorbet, I’ve thought two cups of sugar sounded like a lot, even though cranberries are a very tart fruit. I’ve been too scared to reduce the sugar, but it could probably do with a quarter cup less. Also, if you don’t want to use a precious vanilla bean, a large tablespoon of vanilla paste will certainly work.
The final Tuesdays With Dorie treat for the month of November is an All In One Holiday Bundt Cake. It’s a cake that encompasses all holiday goodness in one cake: apples, pecans, cranberries, pumpkin, and ginger. I like the concept of making a dessert or dish with a lot of enticing ingredients, possibly on the side of excess, and hoping it works out. In fact, the same day I made this cake, I went out to dinner and there was a chicken breast with caramelized brussels sprouts, chestnuts, fall apples, and chestnut- potato puree on the menu – all things I like, but a lot on one plate. I ordered it, and the combination was fantastic, just like this cake!
This cake rated an 8 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3.2. Many thanks to Britin of The Nitty Britty for selecting this fun, seasonal cake. You can find the recipe here on Britin’s site and visit the TWD blogroll to see what everyone else baked this week.
This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays treat is Raised Waffles with Warm Brown Sugar Bananas. This week on the Sweet Melissa Sundays P&Q section, a lot of people mentioned they do not own waffle makers. We have two (and no blender), since Josh and I each happened to own one before we moved in together and we never use them – so I can see why people don’t bother to get them. I enjoy waffles, but if I’m making a sweet breakfast, I generally gravitate towards things of the muffin/coffee cake variety since they keep well and provide breakfast for a few days. Oh, and one of the waffle irons happens to be a Hello Kitty one. I loved Hello Kitty when I was a child. I used to save my allowance to buy trinkets at the “Hello Kitty store,” which was a actually just a regular toy store with a small Sanrio section (if you’ve ever been to one of those enormous Sanrio stores, you’d laugh what I considered a Hello Kitty store). My mom and I saw this waffle maker at Target just before Christmas several years back, and thanks to one of my brothers needing a last minute gift for me, I received it! The recipe specifically stated to use a regular waffle maker, not Belgian, so this was the more practical choice of the two for this recipe (yes, I said practical when talking about a Hello Kitty waffle maker). 
I don’t specifically recall ever having a yeasted waffle, but this recipe was based on Marion Cunningham’s recipe, and my dad often cooked from her Breakfast Book when I was young, so I suspect some of the waffles I ate growing up had yeast. These are pretty simple to make, just mix all the ingredients except eggs and baking soda the night before, let batter sit overnight, then whisk in the last two ingredients when you’re ready for breakfast, plus make the banana sauce. The end result was puffy waffles, with a nice bit of chewiness from the yeast – breakfast bliss. Eloise’s dream of having a cat for breakfast came true when I gave her a waffle piece, without the sauce of course. The brown sugar bananas were delicious, though I do think a sauce containing butter, rum, brown sugar, and maple syrup is breakfast debauchery.
We rate this recipe an 8 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3.2. Many thanks to Lauren of Fried Pickles and Ice Cream for selecting this recipe and reminding me how yummy waffles are. You can find the recipe here on Lauren’s site and see what the rest of the bakers thought via the SMS blogroll.
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie treat is Sugar-Topped Molasses Cookies. Since I had ever-so-much to say about the chestnut cake last week, I will keep this one short and sweet. Besides, since we have been allowed to post out of order this month, I have seen these on many blogs (I think I may be one of the last TWD bakers to make them) and I think everyone knows how good they are now. Spicy, molassesy, and crunchy from the sugar – an excellent treat to fill your cookie jar during the cool months.
This recipe rated a 7.5 for Deliciousness and 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 2.75. Many thanks to Pamela of Cookies with Boys for choosing a great seasonal cookie. Drop by Pamela’s site to read her TWD post and for the recipe, which she kindly posted last week, and stay for the adorable photos of her boys and some nice healthy recipes. And to see what the other TWD bakers made this week, visit the TWD blogroll.
Today is National Bundt Day, which I was made aware of by Mary the Food Librarian and Bundt Queen of the food blog world. She celebrated with a thirty day blogfest called “I like Big Bundts,” posting a new Bundt cake each day – a seriously impressive feat! In addition to her 30 days of Bundts, Mary also selected this Classic Banana Bundt Cake for Tuesdays With Dorie, which we liked so much (and it’s so simple), I’ve already made a second time. 
Since I enjoy Bundt cakes (not to mention music puns), I made a Bundt cake in honor of the “holiday.” My lazy side thinks Bundt cakes are really the ideal cake: since they are so pretty from being baked in ridged pans so you don’t have to fuss around with decorations and just require a simple glaze, if anything, for frosting. I wasn’t sure what kind of cake to make, but Josh’s mom called yesterday to let me know she had a lot of extra lemons from her tree. I’m not sure exactly what type of lemon they are, but they taste on the Meyer side of sweetness and are delicious, so we were happy to go pick them up to turn them into cake. Besides, lemon is a nice antidote to all the chocolate and autumnal desserts we’ve had recently. The recipe came from the Cook’s Illustrated website, but if you don’t have a subscription to their site, Google “Cook’s Illustrated Lemon Bundt Cake” and you’ll find it easily. This cake rated an 8 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3.2.
This week the Sweet Melissa Sundays group made its second attempt at candy-making with Butter Toffee Crunch. I had initially planned on making a quarter recipe, as the original yields three pounds and it’s a little early to be making Christmas gifts. However, I ended up making three quarters of a recipe, in three different batches, because my first two failed! I have groused about making caramel before, and though I am starting to get a little better at making candy, things just didn’t work out for me yesterday. The first batch burned (I could smell it before the candy thermometer was close to the requisite 280 degrees), and then I took the second batch off too soon in fear of it scorching. The third and final batch might have been a little underdone as well, but after three attempts I was calling it a day. My mom is a first grade teacher and at Christmas time she always receives lots of gifts from students, including candy. I remember one year there was some highly addictive toffee; the final product reminds me of that toffee and it is actually disappearing pretty fast.
This recipe rated an 8 for Deliciousness and a 3.5 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 2.28. Many thanks to Kaitlin of Kait’s Plate for challenging me in the kitchen this weekend. Like me, Kait also participates in Tuesdays With Dorie, but I wasn’t acquainted with her blog until Sweet Melissa Sundays started and I really enjoy it! You can find the recipe here on Kait’s site and see how the other bakers fared by visiting the SMS blogroll. 
I made another delicious chocolate/brown sugar concoction this weekend, and since there is very little chance I will get around to actually writing a full post about it, I thought I’d mention it now. I was browsing through my reader on Friday evening and I saw Thomas Keller’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, from the new Ad Hoc at Home cookbook, on Pink Stripes. I took Wendy’s advice and made the cookies that night! These I don’t know if they surpass the New York Times recipe as my favorite, since it’s been a while (too long) since I’ve made those, but these are excellent cookies! My cookies did not spread as much as I thought they should, so I'm not sure where I went wrong in that regard. They turned out crisp on the outside and soft in the center, almost as if they contain a gooey chocolate filling rather than chips. It had been a while since I’d used molasses sugar, and I’d forgotten what a wonderful depth of flavor it adds to cookies. Unlike the NYT cookies, they do not require a rest in the refrigerator, so you get instant CCC gratification – awesome! I did refrigerate some and bake them today, though, and I think those ones turned out exceptionally good. These cookies scored a 9.5 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving them an EDR of 4.75. You can find the recipe here, and I definitely encourage anyone craving chocolate chips cookies to make them.
Last week I needed some gingersnaps to make gingersnap crumble for my Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe. One of the Tuesdays With Dorie recipes this month would have fit the bill just fine, and I would have, for pretty much the first time, baked ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, I am not always so practical when it comes to baking. I’d had my eye on the gingersnap recipe from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich for a while and decided this was a good excuse to try them. I figured that a cookbook that focuses on “ingredient-driven” recipes would probably have a superb ginger cookie recipe and it did not disappoint at all. The cookies contain three kinds of ginger, and manage to be wonderfully flavorful without being aggressively spicy. Baked on the lower end of the baking time (10 minutes), they turn out perfectly thin yet slightly chewy. I thought I was going to have to freeze some, but we could absolutely not stop eating them. Initially we rated them a 9 for Deliciousness, but in the ginger cookie category I think they deserve a 10. These cookies are also easy to make, so they get a 2 for Effort, giving them an EDR of either 4.5 or 5 – excellent score either way.
My Gingersnaps, from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich
Printable Recipe2 cups (9 ounces) all-purpose flour2 teaspoons baking soda2 teaspoons ground ginger1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon½ teaspoon allspice¼ teaspoon salt8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and just warm¼ cup unsulphured or full-flavored molasses½ cup sugar1/3 cup (2.3 ounces) firmly packed brown sugar or light moscovado sugar2 tablespoons finely minced or grated fresh ginger root1 large egg¾ cup (4 ounces) ginger chips or crystallized ginger, cut into 1/4-inch diceAbout ½ cup Demura or turbinado or ¼ cup granulated sugar for rollingPosition the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and salt and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Set aside.Combine the warm butter, molasses, both sugars, fresh ginger, and egg in a large bowl (or in a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment) and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and ginger chips and stir until incorporated. The dough will be soft. I gave it a brief (hour or so) chill.Form the dough into 1-inch balls (1/2 ounce of dough for each). Roll balls in the sugar and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake, rotating the sheets from back to front and top to bottom about halfway through the baking, for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until they puff up and crack on the surface and then begin to deflate in the oven. (I know it may be more time-consuming, but I always bake cookies one sheet at a time on the center rack, I find they are more consistent that way, but it could just be my oven.) For chewier cookies, remove them from the oven when at least half or more of the cookies have begun to deflate; for crunchier edges with chewy centers, bake a minute or so longer.Slide the parchment sheets of cookies onto cooling racks or use and offset spatula to transfer the cookies, and cool completely. Stored in airtight container, gingersnaps keep for several days.
And since I’m on the subject of Pure Dessert, I made these Nibby Buckwheat Butter Cookies from that book back at the beginning of October(!) to go with the TWD Split Level Pudding and never got around to posting them. You know how when someone pronounces something you made “interesting” and you’re not sure how to take it? I would not be offended at all if I heard that about these. They had a lot going on for a small cookie: a nutty flavor and sandy texture from the buckwheat, with a bittersweet essence and crunch from the cacao nibs. I had to keep trying them to decide if I liked them, and ultimately I did. I don’t know if I’d make them again, but both buckwheat and cacao nibs are fairly new ingredients to me and I enjoyed working with them; I look forward to utilizing them in other recipes. Nibby Buckwheat Butter Cookies from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich
Printable recipe1 ¼ cups (5.6 ounces) all-purpose flour¾ cup (3 ounces) buckwheat flour½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened¾ cup sugar¼ teaspoon salt1/3 cup cacao nibs1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extractWhisk the all-purpose and buckwheat flours together in a medium bowl. In a separate medium bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer), beat the butter, sugar, and salt together for about a minute with either a spoon or electric mixer. Mix in the nibs and vanilla. Add the flours and mix just until incorporated (I felt a spoon worked well for this part). Scrape the dough into a mass, if necessary knead it with your hands a few times until smooth. Place the dough on a flat surface and shape into a 12 by 2-inch long. Wrap the log and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.When ready to bake, position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.Cut the cold dough log into ¼-inch thick slices. Place the cookies at least 1 ½ inches from each other on the baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are just beginning to color at the edges, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking. Cool the cookies in the pans on a rack, or slide the liners off to free up the pans; let cookies cool completely.
Last week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake, but due to the relaxed posting schedule this month, I made it this week instead. I had a lot of fun previewing this month’s recipes last week; I can’t wait to try them all. For those who have not baked the chestnut cake yet, this cake is a bit of a Project. A lot of weeks when the recipes involve multiple steps, I will write things like, “there were multiple components, but none of them were difficult” or “you can spread the baking out over two days.” I actually found this cake on the higher end of the difficult and time-consuming side, though I am not above admitting that my inability to read that the eggs were to be separated did not help the process (luckily I realized it before I’d added in the flour and chestnut puree). Neither did forgetting to line the baking pan with parchment paper. The cake was very dense and impossible to remove from the pan. I had baked a half recipe in an 8x8 pan (which it filled quite well) and was planning on cutting it vertically, so I did that while the cake was still in the pan and managed to coax both halves out – luckily it’s a pretty sturdy cake.
This recipe did not specify to make the caramel in a skillet (it said saucepan), but the instructions for Dorie’s Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart did, and it worked well for me (in that I didn’t burn the caramel), so I went ahead and used one this time. The sugar did crystallize quite a bit, which was easily resolved with a glug of corn syrup and brushing the pan with water. Overall, another successful caramel attempt – woo! The chocolate ganache called for a mixture of milk chocolate and bittersweet; since I do not like milk chocolate, I split the difference and used semisweet, which tasted great. I refrigerated the ganache overnight, and then left it out for over an hour to spread it on the cake, but it was pretty solid. I eventually ended up whipping it with a little more cream to loosen it up, which worked well and it coated the cake nicely. The final step was the chocolate glaze, which thankfully came together quite easily. The instructions said to wait for the glaze to set until it was “thick but pourable” and mine was after about an hour. And wow, what a nice finish to the cake!
Oh, and as you can probably infer from the pictures, I used hazelnuts rather than chestnuts, which I could not find for less than $11.49 per jar, for the filling and top. I decided I need to start being more judicious in my baking expenditures, particularly when it involves an ingredient I’m not that excited about and there are suitable substitutions in my pantry. I did use vanilla chestnut puree for the actual cake portion, and I’m happy I did, as it gave the cake a lovely sweet nutty flavor. I also burned a chestnut scented candle while I put the cake together. I think the candle was probably more expensive than the actual chestnuts, but it’s lasted a long time.
This recipe rated a 9.5 for Deliciousness and a 5 for Effort, giving it an EDR 1.9. I have to say, that though it was time-consuming, it was also a very satisfying dessert to make. And eat. Many thanks to Katya of Second Dinner for selecting this cake. You can find the recipe here on Katya’s site and visit the TWD blogroll to see what the other bakers made this week. The recipe for the Cran-Apple Crisp, which is this week’s official recipe, is available here on The Repressed Pastry Chef.
This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays Treat is Pear Cranberry Muffins with Gingersnap Crumble. There have not been any pears in my kitchen in months. We used to get a CSA (community supported agriculture) produce box delivered to our house every other week and pretty much every delivery last fall/winter contained pears. Neither of us is particularly fond of eating pears plain (I tried), so I consistently turned them into desserts, which we enjoyed, so it was nice baking with them again. (We stopped getting the CSA box because it stressed me out. I enjoyed the nice seasonal produce and the surprises each week, but it was hard to eat everything before it went bad – Josh did not eat any of the fruit – and we have access to plenty of great grocery stores and farmer’s markets, so it wasn’t necessarily a huge convenience having it delivered. I’m happy I can now select fruit we will both eat before it is macerated in sugar, as well as guiltlessly eat broccoli four times a week if I want to and occasionally buy asparagus in the middle of the fall.)
Okay, muffins. I managed to get eleven muffins out of a half recipe, which seems like a lot. The muffin section of the Sweet Melissa book has a base recipe and this was the group’s second attempt at sweet muffins. Last time my batter was very thick, which I fixed by adding a couple extra tablespoons of milk, so I knew to start with a little extra milk this time. The recipe calls for both whole milk and heavy cream, but I just used milk and it seemed to work fine. I also subbed in nonfat yogurt for half of the butter and used just under half whole wheat flour in both the muffins and the crumble topping. I don’t usually experiment with leaveners, but in the Problems & Questions Section of the Sweet Melissa site, Hanaa mentioned she used a combination of baking powder and soda with great results, so I went ahead and tried it; I also took her suggestion of adding a little ginger to the muffins. I also tried a new gingersnap recipe, from Pure Dessert, which was wonderful (I promise to post the recipe soon) and made excellent crumb topping. I loved the gingersnap crumble and am already plotting to make another baked good with it.
I bought these measuring cups at Anthropologie a while back. They’re cute, but not very accurate for measuring most ingredients, as they are a little on the large side (I tested and am showing a picture of the cups containing ingredients pre-measured in my reliable measuring cups, you can see there’s a lot of space on top). But they are perfect for when you want to err on the generous side, like fruit for your muffins or cheese for your lasagna. The recipe called for half a cup of cranberries and for my half recipe I used the large quarter cup, plus some, and next time I think I might add a few more.
Wow, were these muffins were delicious! Cranberries and ginger are two of my favorite baking flavors, and they joined forces beautifully. The muffins were perfectly tender and bursting with flavor, so yummy! They received an 8.5 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, giving them an EDR of 3.4. Many thanks to Jennifer of Maple N' Cornbread for choosing these awesome muffins and giving us an excuse to have our breakfast include cookies. You can find the recipe on Jennifer’s site and see what the other bakers thought by visiting the SMS blogroll.
November is a special month for Tuesdays With Dorie: we are permitted to post the recipes any Tuesday we want, as some of the desserts are suitable for Thanksgiving. As evident from my inability to post anything for weeks other than baking group desserts, I need as much structure as possible in my baking/blogging right now, so I thought I would stick with the schedule and post the recipes in the order they were selected, just in case I accidentally forgot about one at the end or something. But then I got busy this weekend and there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to fit in an elaborate layer cake by Tuesday, so I decided to swap the Chestnut Cake scheduled for today, with the less time-consuming Cran-Apple Crisp(s) slated for next Tuesday. (And confession: I was initially hoping to do a double-header this week and also make the one recipe I haven’t completed since I joined Tuesdays With Dorie one year ago. Oh well.)
The cranberries I purchased were much more red and robust than the ones I bought to make sorbet a few weeks ago (I couldn’t resist, I was just so happy to see cranberries) and the apples I sampled were crispy with just a hint of tartness, so I have high hopes for the flavor of this dessert, which is still cooling. Oh, Josh just came up with a huge bowl of crisp smothered in ice cream and it’s yummy. I made a half recipe in a 7-inch pie pan – I find this size pan perfect for half recipes and also portion control, since it’s not small-looking at all – and it baked up nicely in forty minutes. The only thing I did not halve was the coconut in the topping: I quartered that so the flavor wouldn’t dominate too much. I’m not sure about coconut and cranberries together. This crisp rated a 7.5 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3.75. Many thanks to Em of the Repressed Pastry Chef for selecting this great dessert. The recipe will be on her site next Tuesday, and stop by the Tuesdays With Dorie site to see what everyone else chose to bake this week.
One of the things that kept me busy over the weekend was attending Northern California Weimaraner Rescue’s annual Weim Gala. Josh and I attended last year as prospective dog owners and it was fun, though not as relaxing, to attend it with our own dog this year. Eloise was even in the Parade of Rescued Weims, which is the closest she’ll ever come to being in a dog show (seriously, I’m beginning to see why the Weimaraner owners in “Best in Show” were so snippy – it’s hard to control your frenzied animal at a big event). Anyway, it was a beautiful afternoon in wine country and we managed to refrain from coming back with another dog.
This week’s Sweet Melissa Sunday treat is Sweet Almond Bread Pudding with Raspberry Sauce. If the name of the dessert contains both raspberry and almond, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll enjoy it. In fact, this recipe was on my short list when I first got the book and started baking with the group. However, when it was my turn to choose a recipe, I was anxious to try making jam, and besides, it was July and bread pudding was not very appealing. The recipe recommended stale brioche for the bread, but I decided to buy French bread since I knew we’d enjoy eating the part of the loaf not used for pudding (I scaled the recipe down to one quarter). 
This recipe was quick to put together, and I thought the custard baked up beautifully. I wish I could remember the exact baking time for the three little ramekins I made, but I had a bit of an oven mishap (meaning I accidentally turned it off rather than a burner on my stove when I put the pudding in), so it’s hard to say. It was pretty late by the time I got around to making the raspberry sauce, so I skipped processing and straining it; luckily neither of us minded the sauce being a little seedy and chunky. I thought the contrast of sweet cream, crunchy almonds, and tart raspberries was perfect, a stellar bread pudding recipe.
This bread pudding received a solid 8 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 4. Many thanks to Candace of Candy Girl for selecting this recipe at just the right time of year – really, it’s excellent Autumn comfort food. You can find the recipe here on Candace’s site and see what the rest of the bakers thought by visiting the SMS blogroll.
