Rice Pudding and Poetry

"What is the matter with Mary Jane?

She's perfectly well and she hasn't a pain,

And it's lovely rice pudding for dinner again!

What is the matter with Mary Jane?"

My brothers and sisters and I grew up on the poems of A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh and wonderful books of poems such as Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young.  One of my favorites was called Rice Pudding, with the last stanza quoted above.  What was the matter with Mary Jane not absolutely loving rice pudding???

The pudding I made today was baked for three hours and the results were tremendous.  After mixing all the ingredients in a bowl, it was just a matter of going in every 20 minutes or so while it was baking and giving it a stir.  This ensured that the rice didn't all float to the top and a brown crust didn't form.  The recipe I used called for raisins but I opted for dried cranberries for a different twist. The pudding was creamy and sweet with just a hint of the nutmeg and cinnamon spices coming through.  Let me tell you Mary Jane, you don't know what your missing!

Baked Rice Pudding

1/3 cup long grain, uncooked rice

4 cups whole milk

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried raisins (or cranberries, or wouldn't dried cherries be good too??)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Butter a 1 1/2 quart baking dish.  Pour in all of the ingredients and mix well.  Place in oven for 3 hours, stirring with a fork for the first 2 1/2 hours every 20-30  minutes.  Leave alone during the last 30 minutes of cooking.  Let cool on a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature.

When Life Hands You Bread, Make Bread Pudding

A month ago or so, my sister had a disaster with an order she had placed at a bakery in Seattle. She had wanted nice square Pullman loaves of bread to make tea sandwiches for our niece's bridal shower. Instead, she got big, bulky loaves of brioche which wouldn't do at all. Because of this error, I was the lucky recipient of 3 of these loaves. Who am I to turn down wonderful, eggy, buttery brioche bread?I brought it home from Seattle and immediately cut it into cubes and stashed it in the freezer to deal with at a later date. I had thought of saving them for Thanksgiving stuffing and of course, bread pudding. Who doesn't love bread pudding? Well The Husband for one....but he can't be pleased all of the time. I find it to be such a wonderful combination of all things good; bread, raisins, custard, cinnamon. It's right up there and very similar to rice pudding on the comfort food scale. After making this dish, I decided to take up to another level and made a creme anglaise to pour over. Bread Pudding

4 cups bread cubes (bite size pieces)

2 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp melted and cooled butter

2 cups half and half, whole milk, or a combination of both

3/4 cup raisins (any dried fruit will work)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Butter a baking dish and set the dish into a larger roasting pan that has enough room to fill with hot water.

With an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar on high speed until thick and lemon colored (about 4-5 minutes so that when beater is raised the batter will ball back into the bowl in a slow ribbon.) Beat in the vanilla extract and cinnamon. Then beat in the melted and cooled butter and milk.Place the bread cubes and raisins in the baking dish. Carefully pour the prepared custard over the bread cubes until completely covered. Press down the bread cubes so they are covered with the custard.

Prepare the water bath by carefully pouring in enough hot water so that the water is halfway up the baking dish the pudding is in. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Can be served warm or cold with a dusting of confectioners sugar and a dollop of whipped cream, ice cream or creme anglaise.