This is a recipe I noticed while browsing Artusi's book. I will not exlain the reason I signled it out you will have to guess it.

Introducing this recipe, Pellegrino Artusi explains (the translation is mine, 'cause I obviously have the book in Italian).

Since I found it in the ancient and beautiful city of flowers, and since nobody had given it a name, I will dare call it Florence cake [dolce Firenze]; if, for its modest characther it will not honor the illustrious city, it will ask to be forgiven saying "Welcome me as a family dish and because I can make your mouth sweeter with little expense".

100 grams sugar
60 grams good white bread
40 grams raisins
3 eggs
Butter as much as needed [sic!]
Half a liter of milk
Lemon rind

Cut the bread in thin slices and toast it lightly on both sides, spread butter on both sides of the bread and place them (in one layer, slightly overlapped) in a shallow bowl, nice enough to be used for serving and which can be put in the oven.
Distribute the raisins and the lemon rind (grated or cut in zests).
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, than add the milk. Pour gently the mixture on the bread.
Bake in low heat.

The recipe leaves me cold. Raisins, sugar, & white bread --
But, I've been intrigued by, and tempted to buy this book for a couple of months now.
I just haven't pulled the trigger on it yet because I know my limitations as a cook. I probably would be frustrated by the vagueness of the recipes.
However, as a historical read, I may buy it anyway.

It's a fun read. And probably the British ST members will hear more bells ringing about this recipe ^___=.

mmmm, Yummy. Bread pudding! I'll try it first his way. After that, who's to stop me from using whole-grain bread and a sprinkle of cinnamon, and maybe a hint of dark rum if I feel like it?? Don't know about the proportions, but then I don't measure much anyway.

Exactly! Bread pudding . Just add a sprinkle of sugar on top and you have the perfect British dessert. And he had found it in Florence...

HA Alice!!! GOOD ONE!!! The Italians invented the best of British food.... (I will forward this to my mother who believes that the DeMedici family taught all of France how to cook, if they hadn't, the fork would not have yet arrived in Paris.....)I am going to make this in October, it appeals to my " cuddle by the fire place with something sweet" needs

diana

I love good bread pudding. The problem for me is that 'good' means NO RAISINS.
So, when I see it on the menu, I ask if it has raisins. Only one in a dozen times do I get lucky and find a restaurant that makes it without raisins.
The best bread pudding I ever had was in a restaurant in Atlanta. I think it was a place called "Aunt Pittypats", but I'm not sure.
It was made with day old cinnamon rolls and rum !!!!!!

Another bread pudding variant is Queen Pudding, which seems slightly fancier because you separate the eggs & so end up with a little crunchy egg white on top over a thin layer of jam. Still incredibly simple. I haven't used this recipe, but it sounds about like the one I used to make.

And then there's what used to be called "Jim Crow" , a favorite childhood dessert of my centenarian mentor: put some molasses on the bottom of an individual shallow baking dish; butter a very thin piece of bread and place it on top; nap it with some more molasses,spreading to cover the corners, and bake until bubbly. When you take it out it will caramelize/crisp a bit, so how long and how hot to cook it depends on your tastes and your teeth. She likes it with a little light cream.

quote:

Originally posted by Deborah:
It was made with day old cinnamon rolls and rum !!!!!!

Deborah, don't say those things while I am working and unable to grab some sweets for merenda, please!

What a coincidence! My 16 yr old son asked for our favorite Bread Pudding just yesterday:

Chocolate Bread Pudding

1/2 loaf unsliced homemade-type bread (I use what ever Italian bread is laying around from the past weekend), cut into 1 inch squares (about 4-5 cups)
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1-1/2 cups whole milk
12 ozs semisweet chocolate chips
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsps vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put bread cubes in a large bowl.
In a medium-sized sauce pan, bring cream and milk just to a boil; turn off heat and stir in chocolate pieces until melted.
Pour over bread and let sit for 15 minutes +/-, so bread absorbs the liquid.
Beat eggs and sugar with flavorings. Pour over bread, tossing gently.
Dump bread mixture into large greased 2 quart pan. Cover with aluminum foil.
Bake for 45 minutes, or until edges are firm, but the center is still soft and moist. The pudding should seem underbaked.

Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Even better cold the next day...like fudge.

Geralyn

All this talking about bread & butter pudding with chocolate made me think about torta paesana. This torta is traditional in northern Italy and it's a traditional way of producing a cheap cake and reuse stale bread. I mean, just like bread & butter pudding! Each family and each area has its own specific recipes, this is the one used in Canton Ticino (Switzerland, not Italy) and was written by a mamber of the it.hobby.cucina newsgroup a long time ago. It's very smilar to the one done in my family. Also, the bread must be a compact white bread, with no fats added and dried until hard. Abslutely, don't use tuscan bread or any bread with a too "holey" texture. Unless the crust is extremely thin, remove it. Also, this is a pretty fat-free cake.

350 grams stale bread cut in slices
1 liter whole milk
170 grams of sugar
1 egg
40 gams of cocoa powder
150 gramd of pine nuts or half pine nuts and half almonds cut in pieces
the juice and yellow rind of 1/2 a lemon
150 grams of raisins, softened in a little grappa of cognac (plus the liquor itself)
A little butter
A little breadcrumbs

Cut the bread in slices and cover it with the hot milk. Let rest until the bread is thoroughly softened and the mixture has cooled down, than use your hands to squash it. Add all the other ingredients except the butter and breadcrumbs and mix well with a spoon or your hand. Don't use a mixer of any sort or the mixture will result too smooth and uniform: it must retain some texture! Smear a pie dish with the butter, than cover it uniformously with the breadcrumbs, than pour in the bread mixture that must be about 2 1/2 inches deep, or just slightly less. Cook in the oven at 200°C for an hour and a half. It will seem tht the crust is almost burned on the surface, and the inside will be heavy and moist, very thick. It's the way it must be. Let it cool and serve it with no decoration.

In my family the cake is done in a slightly different way. We substitute about 1/3 of the bread with hard, dry, almost fatless bisquits like "petit", don't add the lemon rind and juice and substitute half of the raisins with half or one diced apple or pear.

Another excellent bread pudding variant is one my daughter-in-law makes -- using day old brioche, and using cream instead of milk. You can almost hear your arteries clog as you scoop out your second helping.

Thanks for starting this thread, Alice. It's been a chilly and foggy week here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and time to make a nice homey dessert.

I have had someone giving me a wonderful recipe for bread pudding with maple syrup used to soak the bread. However, as I did not write it down, I cant' possibly remember how it really was (and I lost the e-mail of the person mentioning the recipe). Anyone with a good suggestion?

Letizia-

I found this: Vermont Maple Bread Pudding with Walnut Praline on epicurious.com. I didn't post the recipe b/c of copyright concerns, but it is free to search for it online. It seems to be along the ideas of what you mentioned and received very good reviews....hope it helps!

OK, so I had a few things wrong...
First, it wasn't Aunt Pittypat's, It was Pittypat's Porch.
Second, it wasn't rum, it was Kentucky Bourbon.
Third, the recipe calls for raisins, but you could take them out. (I will probably need to take out some of the liquid as well, won't I?)
Here is the recipe:

Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

Bread Pudding
1 ½ lb. Day Old Cinnamon Rolls (approximately 4)
2 Cups Milk
2 Cups Cream
4 Eggs
1 ½ Cups Granulated Sugar
2 Tbs. Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Golden Raisins
Crumble cinnamon rolls into a bowl.
In another bowl beat together 4 eggs, milk, cream, sugar and vanilla extract. Stir mixture in with cinnamon rolls. Stir in raisins. Let sit for one hour.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F). Grease a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking dish with 1 to 2 tablespoons butter.
Pour into baking dish, place on middle rack of the oven and bake until browned and set. About 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
Bourbon Sauce
8 oz. Butter
8 oz. Cream
4 oz. Kentucky Bourbon
1 lb. Brown Sugar
Mix ingredients together in saucepan. Bring to a simmer then let cool. Serve warm over pudding.

Ah Pitty Pat's Porch. What a place. When I was a kid (we lived in Atlanta when mom worked for Jimmy Carter)I LOVED going there. I will probably never return as I don't want to ruin the memories but I can say that I got hooked on Buffalo Wings at that place. I also tried the bread pudding that Deborah gives and now I can't wait to try it. Now the search for bourbon!

Thanks, Deborah.

I was going to make my chocolate version today, but instead, I'll be making your Cinnamon Roll recipe. Just have to substitute week-old maple cinnamon bread for the rolls, and we already have all of the ingredients.

Geralyn

thanks Katecoleman
it sounds very similar indeed. I'll certainly try the maple pudding out at the first cold days!

quote:

Originally posted by Cristina: Now the search for bourbon!

Ahem....I'm returning to KY in November.... let me know if I can help!

We have put DOlce Firenze on the menu at Dino due to this topic. We found many a recipe in our researches of the dish. As somethimes happens, we took a non traditional approach and ours is a chocolate and dried cherry version with an espresso cream topping. It amazes me how many people have told us that they have had bread pudding in Firenze or Toscana but, as I am not a dessert eater, I have never noticed it. In any case, thanks for the idea!

Yes, Deborah, Pittypat's Porch! I've eaten there too. But my memories of bread pudding comes from one of the New Orleans restaurants, can't even remember which one. Antoine's?

But unfortunately I then decided to make bread pudding. It was delicious, but once I was unavoidably confronted with the richness of the ingredients, it took a bit of the glow off.

Oh well, maybe I'll make it this fall anyway. But why bourbon sauce? Why not just drizzle the liquor over it before serving?

M

quote:

I just haven't pulled the trigger on it yet because I know my limitations as a cook. I probably would be frustrated by the vagueness of the recipes.
However, as a historical read, I may buy it anyway.

Deborah, buy Kyle Phillips' translation. He gives editor's notes and helps with the quanities and instructions. It's a great resource. I have really enjoyed mine...reading it and cooking from it!

Dean, Another reason to get to DC as soon as possible!!

Marian, Why Burbon sauce...because you can seriously increase the fat and calorie content, of course.

Valerie, thanks for the tip on the book.

Dean: well, it's been a pleasure! ^___^