Individual Berry Bread Pudding and the Winner!

10.1.10

Upside down version. Isn't it adorable?

Happy October! Today marks the first day of October. Not sure why I'm so excited. Well, it's only 3 months away until the end of year 2010!

If you remember the organic giveaway last time, yesterday September 30th was a deadline and today we have a winner! 10 out of 31 commentors participated in the giveaway with a "make the world a better place" concept. I used random.org to randomly generate the number. The maximum number is 10 and the lucky number is 8.

Kate from Kate's Kitchen is the lucky person who will receive a bag of an Arrow Mill organic waffle & pancake mix sponsored by Mambosprouts, an online community providing coupons, recipes, and healthy green living information, and also a hand picked Washington organic product from me.

Kate is helping the world  and environment by going green. Here's Kate's quote.

"We've done a lot to go green: recyclable bags, cf light bulbs, set back thermostat, driving to work together as often as possible, composting, recycling..."

Thank you everyone for participating in this giveaway. I'm so glad to hear and know we help make the world better in some way.

Today, I'd like to share an individual berry bread pudding. It's adorable and great for any party. Have I told you it's easy and affordable to make too! This bread pudding is inspired by a bread pudding at Water Bar, in San Francisco. It looks totally different as you can see but at least it inspired me to make some bread pudding right? I could use Nature's Pride bread and submit the entry to FoodBuzz if only I got a coupon sooner and it was easy to access in WA. I went to 3 local grocery stores and couldn't find ones. None of them carried Nature's Pride Brand. Oh well, life moves on.

Bread pudding at Waterbar -my inspiration

I decided to use French bread. Some recipes call for Chellah bread for the chewy texture. If you don't have it, that's totally fine. Any kind of bread would work really. I have researched it and combined a few recipes to make my own. It turned out well and tasted "me want some more". It's a little tangy from the berries but has a sweet taste cutting through from the custard/pudding resulting in a perfect dessert. It's one of my foodgasm moments. This can also be kept in a fridge for a few days. When you are ready to eat, pop it in the microwave for 1 min and voila! Or eat it cold if you prefer.

Individual Berry Bread Pudding
Yield: 2

Ingredients:
2 cups French baguette, cut in 1 inch cube
1.5 cups mix of raspberry, blueberry, and black berry
1/2 cup sugar, divided (or adjust it to your sweetness)
1/2 vanilla pod, halved and scraped
2 eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream
powdered sugar for garnish
fresh berries for garnish

Hot water
Ramekins
Baking tray or casserole dish

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F.
• Heat a small saucepan over medium high heat. Add berries and 1/4 cup of sugar. Bring it to boil or until sugar dissolves and berries become smoochy but still has chucks. Remove from heat and let it cool.
• Grease ramekins with butter or butter spray
• Add bread into berry mixture and let it soak the sauce
• Place the bread into each ramekin til full (see photo)
• Beat eggs with 1/4 cup of sugar until blended. Add cream and vanilla. Continue beating until well combined.
• Place prepared ramekins in a baking tray and pour hot water to 1/4 way of ramekins (see photo)
• Pour egg mixture into each ramekin equally.
• Bake it for 30-35 mins
• Dust it with powdered sugar before serving.
• You can eat it as is or make it an upside down (see the first photo)
• Enjoy!

French bread

Fresh berries

Berry mixture

Prepared bread

Get in a hot tub

A little burn but I like it crispy

Top with fresh berries and dust it with powdered sugar