Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding

Until last Christmas, I had never bought a panettone and, for some reason, I decided to buy three.  I am still not quite sure what came over me.  I had only ever eaten panettone twice before - once in 1982 during an Italian language class, and about 4 years ago at a cafe in Leederville when I didn't feel like toast.  I don't mind the taste of panettone, but I generally prefer my bread to be plain and unfruity.  Panettone originated in Milano, and is eaten throughout the year in Italy, but especially at Christmas.  In Perth, we only see panettone in the shops at Easter and Christmas so perhaps I was suddenly overcome with temporary siege mentality and felt the need to stock up.  I have had no idea what to do with them so, since Christmas, I've had two large panettone boxes taking up room in my pantry and one de-packaged panettone in my freezer, waiting for inspiration to strike. 

My only inspiration to date has been to use it in bread and butter pudding.  You may be thinking why on earth would I be baking a bread and butter pudding in the middle of summer.  Well, apart from needing to reduce the occupant:panettone ratio in my household, I thought my northern hemisphere readers would enjoy a winter's dessert.  And for my southern hemisphere readers, it is possible to eat bread and butter pudding cold.  Yes, cold, and it is actually quite nice. 

Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding

1 x 900g panettone
zest of 1 orange
150g unsalted butter, and a little extra for greasing
2 tsp vanilla paste
600m whipping cream
600ml full cream milk
5 eggs
150g caster sugar

Grease a 1.5 litre baking or casserole dish with unsalted butter.  Cut the panettone into thick slices (mine were about 2cm) and remove the crusts.

Place the butter, orange zest, and one teaspoon of the vanilla paste into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter is melted.

Brush both sides of the panettone with the melted butter and arrange in the casserole dish.

Heat the cream, milk and the remaining vanilla paste until just below boiling point.  Using a mixer, beat the eggs and the caster sugar until thick.  Add the cream/milk to the egg mixture and mix on a very slow speed until combined.  Pour over the bread and leave for at least one hour until the bread has absorbed the custard.

Heat the oven to 150 degrees celsius and bake for 45 minutes.  Ideally, you should put the dish in a bain marie.  I didn't, as the casserole dish I used was too big.  The custard did curdle a little bit, but this did not affect the taste.

This is the kind of pudding you eat on a cold, dark winter's night as it does warm the cockles. The panettone adds an extra dimension of sweetness, and hits those sugar cravings whether eaten hot or cold.  Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Any ideas on what to do with my remaining panettone would be gratefully received!

Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding Recipe

I live in a city where it doesn't rain much.  When it does rain, people look up and think 'what is this wet stuff falling from the sky?' and then immediately forget how to drive.  Perth has had an unusual amount of rain this year in the sense that we've almost met average monthly averages.  As it is still wet and cold here, there is still room on the dinner menu for a comforting, wintery dessert. This is another gem from the family archive, which came to us via a neighbour after my mother had a car accident.  Mum was on her way to pick me up from primary school, and another car drove through a stop sign and into the side of her car.  Fortunately, no broken bones but she was badly bruised and shaken.  Our neighbour came over that evening with four servings of chocolate self-saucing pudding with whipped cream.  It was such a thoughtful gesture.  I took the bowls back the next day and copied down the recipe, and here it is in my 11 year old hand-writing (complete with spelling mistakes):

The measurements in the original recipe are in imperial, so I have converted them to metric, and made a few other tweaks.

Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding

60g unsalted butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup self raising flour
2 level dessertspoons of cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk

Sauce
1/2 cup caster sugar mixed with 2 level dessertspoons of sifted cocoa powder
1 and 1/2 cups of hot water

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Cream the butter and sugar well, then add the unbeaten egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.  Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and add this to the mixture alternatively with the milk.  Mix until smooth.  Pour the mixture into a greased ovenproof dish, and sprinkle over the sugar-cocoa mixture.  Don't worry about whether there are any lumps of caster sugar as these will dissolve when the hot water is added.

Gently pour over the hot water.

 Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

This is great on a cold winter's night served with whipped cream, but is even better eaten cold the next day. Take my word for it, there's nothing tastier than a bit of congealed chocolate sauce.

Individual Apple Charlotte Recipe

What was it about the 1990s and coulis?  Every restaurant dessert used to come with either raspberry, mango or apricot coulis.  These days, the coulis has been replaced by the curd - lemon, passionfruit, and even mandarin - dotted around the plate.  Food definitely has trends and in ten years' time we will wonder why we were all so obsessed with cupcakes and macarons.  I'm not quite sure what marked the start of the cupcake trend, but the macaron obsession started after the release of the movie "Marie Antoinette" in which most of the characters seemed to exist on a diet of dainty, pastel coloured macarons and champagne. 

It's interesting how popular culture, fashion and interior design influence food.  Apricot, peach and pink were big 1990s colours, and they appeared on the plate and in people's houses.  I know as, until 3 days ago, I used to have an apricotish pinkish kitchen.  May I say for the record that the kitchen came with the house, and was not the result of any deliberate colour choices by me.  I now have a new kitchen in white, white, glorious white. 

As a farewell to my former kitchen which is now sitting in a skip bin outside my house, and a homage to the 1990s obsession with the colour apricot, here is a really simple 1990s recipe for individual apple charlottes with apricot sauce. They are easy to prepare and look great on the plate.  The apricot sauce is not a coulis as it does not contain sugar or vanilla extract, but it does the trick when you're in a rush.

Individual Apple Charlottes

12 slices white bread
200g unsalted butter
4 granny smith apples
60g caster sugar
large pinch of cinnamon
4 cloves
1 large can of apricot halves in natural juice

You will need four dariole moulds.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius. 

Remove the crusts from the bread and roll each slice until completely flat.  Use a dariole mould to cut four discs of bread, which will be used to line the base. 

Next, using the dariole mould as a guide, cut four slightly larger tops.  It is important that the top of each apple charlotte is larger than the top of the dariole mould as the bread tops shrink during cooking.  With the remaining bread, cut four evenly sized strips and then cut each strip in half. 

Melt 150g of the butter.  Dip the bread bases into the butter and press into the dariole moulds. 

Dip the strips into the butter and then line the dariole moulds with the strips, overlapping as you go.  Trim off any excess bread.

Peel and core the apples, and then cut into very thin slices.  Melt the remaining butter with the sugar, then add the apple, cinnamon and cloves.  Cook the apples over a high heat until they are soft and dry.  It is important that all the liquid has evaporated, otherwise the bread will swell during cooking and the apple will burst out over the top of the moulds.

When the apple mixture is ready, remove the cloves, and then pack tightly into the moulds.  Dip the four bread tops in butter and then press gently over the apple.  Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Meanwhile, blend the apricots and juice until smooth.  When the apple charlottes are cooked, turn them out onto a plate and surround with apricot sauce.

For an extra 1990s touch, gently pour whipping cream around the edge of the sauce and, using a skewer, swirl the cream into the apricot sauce.  Ah, it takes me back!