It's Hotter Than Hades and I'm Making Bread Pudding...?

I love bread pudding, really I do but somehow, making bread pudding today, when it was 28C outside, felt wrong. Now I know that I shouldn't complain, it's probably blizzarding in Calgary but I hate the heat and I really hate the humidity and today was full of both. And full of bread pudding. The pudding was part of custard day at school which was a little trying. Due to the amount of groups we have and the limited ovens, it is a trial to have a bunch of different teams who finish their dishes at different times trying to use the same ovens. This is especially true when there are six sheet pans all full of ramekins of custard and full with water. You see, because the custards need to bake in water (or if you're fancy-like, in a bain marie) we have to pour boiling water into the sheet pans once we have placed them in the oven and so if your groups' tray is at the back of the oven and it's ready before the tray at the front of the oven, it's like jenga with boiling water, scorching hot pans and ramekins full of lava-hot custard -- so not a fun day today. I told the chef that the kitchen had bad ju-ju and she agreed even though she called it bad ga-ga -- she's adorable. However, since we made bread pudding, creme brulee and creme caramel, I did learn a lot and will definitely be making the bread pudding again. I was asked almost immediately by Collin Murray how hard it was to make -- he asked as he was eating and had to repeat himself because his mouth was full and I didn't understand him. Honestly, it was really that good.

The bread pudding was also really easy to make. We started by making a custard base, milk, cream and sugar brought to a simmer and then added slowly, while whisking, to a bowl of tons of eggs (Dad, we used 16 yolks and egg whole eggs just for the custard base and there are seven other teams, a couple who had to make their custard twice so the chickens are really working overtime this week!). After we finished whisking, we added vanilla extract and then strained the mixture because the chalazae (the little bits of white in an egg) don't break down and would be quite ugly if they poked out of a creme caramel. While the custard was cooling, we cubed day-old French bread and toasted it with a little butter and sugar and then popped it into the custard to soak up all the custard-y goodness for about 40 minutes. Then, we sprinkled some rum-soaked raisins on the bottom of a gratin dish and filled 'em up with custard-soaked bread and baked the little lovelies for about 40 minutes at about 300. As I said, they were really really good and will definitely be made again in my house.


So now since I am full of bread pudding and hot because of the scorching temperatures I'm feeling a little tired to write y'all a big ol' blog. So for today, a short and sweet one will have to suffice but stay tuned, you know I will be back tomorrow with a much more in-depth report.

I forgot that I promised a torrone picture from yesterday's candy nightmare -- isn't it pretty? It is also very tasty...and gluten free.