I know that this looks like bread pudding, but it’s not. Generally, bread puddings have a higher milk-to-egg ratio than french toast does and while I do make a good bread pudding, it’s just not my favorite thing to eat. So this, for all that it looks like bread pudding, is actually french toast is disguised as a pudding. Believe it or not, there is a difference between the two and the difference is consistency.

For this month’s Is my blog burning? event, Derrick from Obsession with Food chose stale bread as the theme ingredient. Now, this would make an exceptional theme for Iron Chef America because it would really challenge the chefs to try and come up with something different. How many different kinds of bread pudding could they make?

Actually, there are many things that you can do with leftover bread, but to take advantage of its naturally sponge-like qualities, I did something bread pudding like and baked some individual french toasts. They’re vey simple to make and an actually be done with fresh bread as well. You just tear up (or slice up) a few pieces of bread, toss them in some eggy batter and bake. The tops of the toasts get nice and crisp while the interior remains moist. I used whole wheat bread and left the crusts on, since it was a soft, sandwich loaf. The whole wheat gave it an extra layer of flavor and kept the dish tasting like breakfast-fare. You can certainly use a different kind of bread, if you like.

You can serve them directly from the ramekins, but you will probably want to place them on a plate, as the maple syrup you are going to use to drizzle over them just imight try to drip down the sides. The toasts can be prepared in advance and refrigerated overnight, though they make take a bit longer to bake in the morning. The test that they’re done, simply insert a sharp knife into the center of one of the toasts. When it comes out (reasonably) clean, they’re ready to eat.

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Everybody is interested in whole grain everything these days. While I am interested in having plenty of whole grains in my diet, I’m not that interested in having things that are enriched with whole grains, like a cereal that has 5% whole wheat flour or something. I like my grains to be either soft and white or totally wheaty. This isn’t to say that I don’t often mix flours for texture and flavor in my breads, because I do. I just don’t call it something it’s not.

These rolls are exactly what they say they are: 100% whole wheat flour buns. I started off the dough with little direction. I didn’t know whether I wanted to do dinner rolls or a loaf of bread. At some point (most likely while I looked at the ground beef in my refrigerator), I thought “this would make a great hamburger bun.” And so it does.

These buns have a great texture, a slightly crisp crust that softens as it cools and a moist, light interior. The rolls are satisfyingly flavorful, with just enough sugar to cover any hint of bitterness that whole wheat doughs can sometimes have and not make the bread sweet. The plainness of the roll makes it very useful. It soaked up the hamburger juices beautifully, but would make a great cold sandwich roll, too. It can also be used to simply sop up marinara sauce or topped with butter and jam.

Store leftovers in an airtight container or a plastic bag. They’ll be good for at least day or two longer.

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Looking at the picture of Rorie’s recently baked marble bundt cake inspired me to pull out my copy of Alice Medrich’s Chocolate and the Art of Low Fat Desserts to make the very same recipe. I won’t go on about how much I love this cookbook (again), but I will say that this is an excellent cake and all the better because it’s actually quite low in fat!

As with all of Medrich’s desserts, the recipe is very precise. She doesn’t leave any room for error, but that is the best way to ensure consistency over and over again. My only real complaint about the recipe is that it takes a lot of bowls. You need a bowl for the flour, a bowl for the butter, a bowl for the chocolate and a bowl for the yogurt. I’m not such a huge fan of doing the dishes, but I can’t seem to reduce that number when I’m making this. The only bowl that could be eliminated is the one which holds the yogurt, but I would actually prefer to have it in a bowl than to have to hold the yogurt in a measuring cup while I make the batter.

Once I have my million (meaning five) bowls out on the counter, measuring tools, ingredients and pan, I mix up the batter and pop it into the oven. I am not a big fan of swirling cakes as I am always concerned that I will somehow over-swirl the batter, eliminating the gorgeous contrast of black and white in the cake. The best way to avoid this is by dropping the batter in large dollops into the ban and running your knife through the batter only once. If you really like to keep your chocolate and vanilla separate, you can simply add all the chocolate batter on top of all of the vanilla batter and eliminate the swirl all together - two cakes in one!

The finished cake is moist and a bit heavy, satisfyingly like a pound cake. Instead of the unctuous butteryness of a pound cake, though, the flavor is light and has the tiniest hint of tang from the yogurt, but only if you know it’s there. The chocolate is chocolaty, the vanilla is clear and, together, they make a great dessert.

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I have mentioned before that I am wary of bran muffins, because more often than not they just aren’t that good. They are overly bran-y, with a coarse, rough texture or they are practically dripping with oil, which neither improves the look or the taste of the muffin. I want bran muffins to be healthy and hearty, the sort of thing that you want to grab on your way out the door in the morning are still feel good about having done so at lunch.

This recipe is adapted from Sweet and Natural Baking, a book that uses natural sugars by concentrating fruit juice. I just use maple syrup when trying their recipes. These muffins also happen to be eggless and, since they were almost vegan already, I went ahead and used soy milk in mine. I liked the slight hint of vanilla from the soy milk and there was no soy-taste at all because of the fairly strong flavors in the muffin. You can definitely use plain milk, skim or whole, to make these.

The muffins are just sweet enough have a soft texture with a nice, wholesome flavor that is a combination of maple syrup and cinnamon. Since I didn’t use muffin liners, the edges of the muffins were slightly crisp when they were just out of the oven. They don’t have a coarse texture from too much wheat bran and they aren’t oily in the least. They are actually quite low in fat. The only thing about these muffins is that they really are best on the day that they are made. The second day, even if wrapped, they will be on the dry side. If you’re planning to make them are than a day ahead, you’ll probably have to slather them with butter or jam. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.

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Generally, I like my pancakes on the plain side. I go for buttermilk pancakes most of the time and, though I’ve been known to have a flavor or two, the thing that I most often add is blueberries. That being said, a little variation now and then is a good thing - hence the reason that I decided to cram so much flavor into these.

These pancakes are really a basic, plain pancake with a lot of stuff added to them. I added banana, shredded coconut and chopped macadamia nuts as a sort of tropical combination. The shredded coconut actually works really well in the pancakes and, though you could certainly use coconut milk in place of the regular milk, I think that the coconut flavor might overpower the others at that point.

I debated for a while about whether I should use butter or oil in these pancakes, especially since I have macadamia nut oil at home. At first I thought that using the mac nut oil would blend the flavors further, but it turns out that I prefered to have a bit of buttery flavor in the pancakes. The mac nut oil is extremely buttery for a vegetable oil, but the flavor was a little overpowering; the pancakes tasted a bit greasy. If you do decide to use a strong oil, I would recommending using only on tablespoon.

Back to the pancakes, though. The coconut and banana played off each other very well, and both of the flavors melded right into the pancake. The nuts are entirely optional. I like these with and without nuts, so add them according to your own preference for having crunchy bits in your pancakes. These don’t really need syrup, since they taste great on their own, but I’m not one to argue against maple syrup.

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Snickerdoodles are sugar cookies that are coated in cinnamon sugar. They usually have a cracked appearance and I have had ones that are both crisp and chewy. There is an added bonus to the cookies in that they have a fun name to say. Snickerdoodle

Snickerdoodles are probably the single least offensive cookie that there is - which is to say that they will appeal to everyone. There are people who don’t like chocolate, nuts, raisins, etc. and these cookies don’t have any of those things. They are buttery and sugary, though not really overly sweet as the sugar is tempered by the cinnamon and vanilla flavors. I have no doubt that, while they might not be the first cookie offered up by people who are asked about their favorite type, they will always be among the first to go at a party.

My theory on the popularity of this cookie is, I think, validated by the recipe I used. This recipe is Mrs. Snigg’s Snickerdoodles from AllRecipes. It has over 1200 positive ratings and 1000 positive reviews. Almost everyone gave it 5/5 stars. How could I not make them?

As I suspected, this batch of cookies was excellent. They had a perfect balance of flavors and were addictive enough to make you reach for a second. My personal preference is for a slightly crisper cookie, so if you go with the high end of the baking time, you will get a crisper cookie, while the low end will get you a chewier one. Regardless of which way you prefer your cookies, they will be delicious.

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