I recently had the chocolate bread pudding at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen and totally fell in love with it. I found this recipe on the net and am hoping that it closely recplicates what I had for dessert. I’ll eventually make it and update what I think of it.

Serves 4

Bread Pudding
14 oz heavy cream
8 oz semi sweet chocolate
1 egg
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 oz milk
1/16 cup chocolate pieces
3 cups of day old French bread cut into pieces

Crust:
4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 oz chocolate ganach
1 oz white chocolate ganach

Step One: Bring cream, milk, and 1/4 cup of sugar to a simmer. Add this to the semi sweet chocolate to melt the chocolate then combine above mixture to eggs, whisking in a little at a time.

Step Two: Combine above mixture with cubed bread then fold in your chocolate pieces then place in baking pan. Top with sugar and bake 250 degrees for approximately 1 hour.

This recipe came from a co-worker. She made it once for a potluck or maybe it was a breakfast treat. Since then we (or at least I) look forward to when she’ll bring it again. But since I liked it so much, I had asked her for a copy of the recipe. I’ve made it several times for other friends and my family. Least to say, everyone has loved it. And I get constant requests for me to make it. As a matter of fact, I’m going to make it today and finally decided to record the recipe here so I’m not constantly checking all my email addresses remembering which one I put it on so I could access the recipe remotely. Now to the good part……

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Serving Size : 12

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
dash salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream together butter and 1 cup sugar. Beat in eggs until well blended. Stir in sour cream.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture and beat until smooth.

Combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon, nutmeg and the nuts.

Pour about a third of the batter into a well greased bundt pan, sprinkle with a third of the nut mixture.

Add another third of the batter and another third of the nut mixture.

Then layer the remaining batter and the remaining nut mixture. With a spatula, swish lightly through top of cake so dry mixture becomes mixed into cake.

Bake at 350 degrees 40-45 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes in pan, then remove to cool completely on wire rack.

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**Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 326 Calories; 16g Fat (42.5% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 43g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 65mg Cholesterol; 246mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 3 Fat; 1 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

** Nutritional information was calculated by my recipe program, Mastercook Deluxe v.8

Peach season is here and we were lucky to get a small batch of sweet, juicy peaches. In some ways I’m happy this year wasn’t a ‘bumper crop’ because I’ve been too busy to can, bake, jam, and anything else you can think of to do with peaches. Although I think a few people at work are probably wondering what happened to my peaches, because a few years ago the tree exploded with peaches and we had hard time using and giving away the peaches. Since the peaches were bigger this year than normal and quite juicey, I decided to make some peach cobbler today. I have a fairly easy recipe that doesn’t require you to roll out biscuit dough. I think the hardest part of the cobbler recipe is peeling and slicing the peaches because I was getting peach juice everywhere .

I also decided that I wanted to try and make some peach ice cream. My ice cream machine is a fairly new purchase (1 year old, but I only use it during the summer) and I didn’t have the opportunity to make peach ice cream last year. One of the reasons I wanted to start making my own ice cream was so I could control what goes into it. Over the past few years, I’ve become lactose intolerant and by making my own ice cream, I can create it lactose reduced. I can’t make it completely lactose free because I still like to use heavy cream in it (it makes for a smoother end result). I’ve also noticed that if I use certain brands of organic whole milk, I have an easier time digesting it. I prefer to use just pasteurized heavy cream (i’ve only been able to find this at Trader Joe’s) istead of the ultra-pasteurized you normally find at the neighborhood supermarket. I’ve actually noticed a consistancy difference between the two. I think by using just the pasteurized heavy cream, you end of with a smoother ice cream that is more along the lines of a premium brand of ice cream.

Peach Ice Cream
1 1/2 cups peeled and diced ripe peaches
3 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 cup sugar, divided in 1/2
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream (preferably not the ultra pasteurized)
1 ts vanilla extract

In a small bowl combine the diced peaches, lemon juice and 1/2 cup of the sugar. Stir gently and allow the peaches to macerate in the juice for 2 hours.

In a medium bowl, combine remaining sugar and milk. Whisk to combine until sugar is dissolved. Stir in heavy cream, vanilla and any juice that has accumulated in the peaches. Freeze in ice cream maker, following manufacturer’s directions. Add diced peaches during the last 5 minutes of freezing in ice cream maker.

Easy Peach Cobbler
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup flour
2 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 cup milk
5 cups peeled peaches, sliced thin (6 to 7 medium peaches)
1 tb fresh lemon juice
dash cinnamon and/or nutmeg (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Pour melted butter into a 13×9 in baking pan. (I prefer to use glass like pyrex)

In a medium bowl combine flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine. Add milk and stir until just combined. Pour over melted butter but DO NOT stir them together.

In a saucepan combine peaches, 1 cup sugar and lemon juice. Heat over high heat and bring just to a simmer. Pour all over the batter but DO NOT stir them together. Sprinkle with cinnamon and/or nutmeg.

Bake in oven 35 - 45 minute or until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or it can be served cold.

I thought I would start off with my course, dessert. This makes very yummy chocolate cake, with a nice taste of Kahlua. The first time I made this, I tried to invert it out of the pan a little too early. I would suggest letting it cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before trying to invert onto your serving plate. Dusting the cake with powdered sugar is optional, but it makes for an excellant presentation. I still want to try drizzling it with some chocolate ganache, for an even more sinful dessert.

1 box Moist Deluxe Devil’s Food Cake
1 small box instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Kahlua
1/2cup chocolate chips — optional
powdered sugar
butter or oil for greasing pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl.

Pour into a greased, 12-cup Bundt pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with crumbs clinging to it, about 45 minutes.

Cool in pan and serve on a platter with powdered sugar lightly sifted over the top.