Bread Pudding with Sauce

This is a simple bread pudding recipe but what gives it that extra flair is the Carmel pudding sauce that you serve it with.

Bread Pudding
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cups white sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
3 cups of torn bread (I used bagels)

Directions :
In a saucepan, over medium heat, heat milk up until a film begins to form over the top. This is right before a boil. Combine butter with milk and stir until melted. Cool to lukewarm.

When milk is cooled, add sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix

Place bread in a lightly greased 10X13 inch pan. I have used many kinds of bread, and while they all taste good, I loved using blueberry or other slightly flavored bagel. The bread holds up better and gives you a more solid dessert.

Pour mixture over the bread and give a gentle stir to coat all the bread. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until set.

About 5 minutes before the bread pudding is done we make the caramel sauce. Depending on your taste you can use brown sugar, the caramel taste, or white sugar to give it a more vanilla taste.

Pudding Sauce

1 cup whole milk
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar (brown or white)
1 tsp vanilla (2 if you use white sugar)
1 Tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all together and bring to a boil for 3-4 minutes. Set aside and spoon over each slice of bread pudding. Serve hot

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Bubble Ring

In our house it's tradition to make this bubble ring on Christmas eve for everyone to enjoy while we open presents. While it used to take my mother in law 15 minutes of kneading, I can whip this up with my kitchen aid in less then 10 minutes. After scalding the milk, shortening and sugar, let cool to room temperature. To speed this up I fill my sink with cold water and set the pan in it while stirring the milk. It cools quickly this way. Add the cooled milk, yeast and water mixture plus 1 cup of flour, eggs and salt to your kitchen aid. Mix with whisk attachment. Add 2 more cups of four and switch blade to dough hook. Add the remaining 1 to 2 cups of flour until you have a soft dough. Let your kitchen aid knead it with the dough hook for about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the kitchen aid and let rise in a warm place for one hour or until double. After one hour, punch down and roll in to 2 inch balls. Dip in warm melted butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar. Place in a bunt pan and let rise a second time for about 30 minutes. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Bubble Ring

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup warm water
2 pkgs active dry yeast
4-5 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

Hot Wassail

One of our favorite traditions each year is to spend a day or two in a small town here in Oregon walking through the quaint little shops in their down town. It's as close to an old fashion Christmas as we have found. Carolers sing in the square, the shops have boughs around all their store fronts and charming Christmas lights and music playing in the shops. One particular shop always has Wassail hot and ready for anyone walking by. It was here that I first had Wassail and fell in love with this hot holiday drink. Spending a snowy cold day window shopping with my family and enjoying the sights and sounds and wonderful smells of Christmas is a tradition we love.

Wassail

Ingredients

• 2 quarts apple cider
• 1 1/2 cups orange juice
• 3/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 cinnamon sticks (3 inches)
• 1 dash ground cinnamon
• 1 dash ground cloves

In a large crock pot, mix all ingredients and warm for 3-4 hours. You can also warm this in a large 60 cup coffee maker. Discard cinnamon sticks. Serve hot in mugs.

Pumpkin Pecan Square

This year I bought a lot of extras for the holiday season. Instead of just getting the exact amounts on my list I threw in a few extra items here and there. This led me to a pantry full of goodies that I didn't know what to do with. With my can of pumpkin in hand and a cup full of pecans needing to be used, I searched high and low for an amazing pumpkin type dessert I could whip up quickly for my family. This dessert is so easy, and tastes like it took all day to make.

Pumpkin Pecan Squares

1 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar
1 can pure pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
2 Lg eggs
2 1/4 pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar
Whipped Cream

Mix crust and place in bottom of a 13x9 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Mix up pumpkin, sugar, milk, eggs and spices. After the crust has pre-baked add mixture to the crust and continue to bake for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes add chopped pecans and brown sugar to the top. Continue baking for 15 minutes.

Let cool and serve with whipped cream.