Phew thank goodness that whole pseudo strep throat is gone.
My room was like a dark germ infested cave with a whole apothocary set up on my night stand.
But I’ve finally rejoined the world and in full force. I feel like the energizer bunny. I literally have been playing catch up for a week now but I’ve been very productive. I love feeling productive, I make all sorts of lists of things to do and get a ton of satisfaction crossing things off. What can I say, it’s the little things in life.
However, I’m a little tardy with this post. A couple weeks ago I received 2 beautiful boxes of Bauducco Panettone from the Foodbuzz Taste Makers Program.
Disclaimer: While I am receiving free products to review, I am not being paid to say nice things about any company. I am going to tell you my honest opinion about the food I receive whether it be good or bad. Honesty is the best policy, right?
One had chocolate chips and the other had golden raisins. My understanding of Panettone was that it was a dry egg type Italian bread with dried fruit and chocolate however, its actually very soft, pretty sweet and slightly overwhelmingly citrusy.
I thought long and hard what to do with the Panettone. I kept going back and forth between bread pudding and french toast. Though looking back now aren’t they essentially the same thing?
This is what happens to said loaf of bread when I take too long to decide what to make with it. I’ve been picking at it for a couple weeks. Oops.
To be honest the loaves were so big I could have done both but everything’s 20/20 in hindsight right?
I finally decided to go with bread pudding. I really love a good bread pudding but I’ve never attempted to make it myself but as I always say there is no time like the present. I knew I didn’t want to make a giant pan of bread pudding because 1.) I didn’t need that kind of temptation around 2.) I wasn’t sure how well bread pudding keeps which would mean I’d have to eat the whole pan in one sitting, enough said. So I decided to make 4 mini bread puddings.
Orange chocolate chip because orange and chocolate are awesome together and Rum Raisin because I didn’t really know what else to do with the raisin one –>old people flavor alert.
Since the bread was so soft I decided it only needed to set in the custard mixture for 30 or so minutes. Generally bread pudding is made with day old bread and soaked overnight so that it absorbs everything but I figured I’d wake up to a bowl of mush if I let mine sit that long.
They puffed up in the oven and and got nice and golden brown. I topped one of the orange chocolate chip puddings with an orangey sugar glaze. Mmmmm
While I was pretty happy with the end product I just couldn’t get over the lack of chocolate chips and funky citrus taste of the panettone . It definitely has a distinct taste and I’m pretty sure another type of bread would have made this a little better. I wasn’t a fan of the rum raisin flavor 1.) because it didn’t really taste like rum 2.) I’m very weird about raisins so I decided not to share that recipe.
You live and you learn.
Orange Chocolate Chip Panettone Bread Pudding:
Makes 4 small ramikins
1/2 Cup cubed Chocolate chip Panettone (can substitute challah or french bread)
1 Cup whole milk
1/2 Half and Half
2 eggs
1/3 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon orange zest
4 Tablespoons Chocolate Chips
Instructions:
Cube bread and place in ramikins. Add a tablespoon of chocolate chips to each ramikin.
In a bowl whisk eggs, milk, half and half, sugar and orange zest. Pour custard mixture over the bread and let sit for 30 minutes to over night. Cover each ramikin with tin foil and bake in a 350 degree oven in a 1/2 water bath for 30 minutes. Remove the tin foil and bake for 30 more minutes.
Off to do some super productive things….like think of more cheesy blog post titles (you know you loved it).
Orange you glad I’m back?
