Making Pumpkin Bread Pudding out of Failed Pumpkin Bread

Sometimes there are those recipes that don't quite go the way you think they will.  I started out with one of those yesterday. 

I started out with what looked like a delicious recipe for Pumpkin Gingerbread.  Easy enough, right?  Well I wanted to make it healthy of course, so I made two subsitutions.  #1 I subbed in Splenda for half the sugar.  I don't think it made a very big difference and if I were going to do it again, I would still sub some Splenda in.  #2 was more important: I subbed in whole wheat flour for half of the white flour.  In retrospect, when working with something as moist and dense as pumpkin, adding in a dense flour like whole wheat was not wise.  I digress.

I also didn't read all of the reviews on the bottom of the recipe.  Had I done that, I would have known to let the bread cook for an hour AND 30 minutes, instead of just an hour like the recipe suggested. So rewind to me yesterday, take this super dense hunk of bread out of the oven about a half hour before I should have.  I tested it with ye old toothpick, but it seemed to come out clean.  Fast forward to a little while later when I dump it out on the cooling rack.  It went "thump".  Not a springy bouncy thump, but like a moist brick thump.  I tried a piece and found that it had the consistancy of Pumpkin Pie.  Good in pie, not good in bread.  So I thought, how can I salvage this????  It reminded me a lot of bread pudding!  Ah ha!

I looked around and found several recipes, but none that was exactly what I wanted.  So I made up my own.  Here it is:

Failed Pumpkin Bread Pudding

• 1 loaf failed Pumpkin Bread (I bet it will work with any pumpkin bread, and not just a failed loaf)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cream
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Cube your loaf of Pumpkin Bread into 1 inch pieces.  You can let it sit out for a few days, or if you are speedy like me you can toast it.  I arranged my 1 inch cubs on a baking sheet and toasted them at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes.

2. Take all the pumpkin bread pieces and put them in the bottom of an 8 inch pan (I used a casserole dish).  Drizzle the butter on top of them and let it soak in.

3. Drop your raisins on top of the bread (this is optional for people like my little bro who hate raisins).

4. Mix the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla together.

5. Pour it on top of the pumpkin bread.  Make sure all the pieces get mushed down into the sauce.

4. Stick it in the oven on 350 for 45 minutes. 

Voila!  Pumpkin Bread pudding out of failed pumpkin bread :)

  

Quick Cinnamon Rolls

“Quick” Cinnamon Rolls

I love Cinnamon Rolls.  My little guy loves them too.  In fact, when I make those canned cinnamon rolls, he can polish off half of them by himself easily.  I was looking for a really good, easy, homemade cinnamon roll recipe that would be just as good as the “canned” kind, but a little healthier.  I came across a Bisquick recipe and decided to give it a try.  I believe that the original recipe would have been a little dry, so I added a few of my own changes.  In the end this gave us a wonderfully flavored roll, not too dry, and with a little more heft than it’s canned cousins.  Little guy ended up eating about 1 and ½ before declaring himself “full” J

Quick Cinnamon Rolls:

***Note: This recipe makes a full 13 x 9 pan of Cinnamon Rolls.  I halved it easily and just filled a pie plate. 

Inside filling mix:

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

Cinnamon Roll Dough:

2 ¾ cups Original Bisquick® mix

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons greek yogurt or sour cream (I didn’t have any “plain” yogurt on hand, so I used the honey flavored greek yogurt.  And I think the result was a little more kick of flavor.  It was awesome!)

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

Glaze (you should know that you can also just sub in store bought vanilla icing.  No one will even know.  I used it and it worked great!)

1 1/3 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Heat oven to 375°F. Grease bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan. In small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon; set aside.

In medium bowl, stir Bisquick mix, 2/3 cup milk , 2 tablespoons sugar, greek yogurt, egg, and vanilla until dough forms. If dough is too sticky, gradually mix in enough Bisquick mix (up to 1/4 cup) to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto surface well dusted with Bisquick mix; gently roll dough in Bisquick mix to coat. Shape into ball; knead 10 times.

Roll dough into 15x9-inch rectangle; spread with butter.

Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon sugar mixture.

Roll up tightly, beginning at 15-inch side. Seal well by pinching edge of dough into roll. Cut into 1 1/4-inch slices; place cut sides down in pan.

Bake 17 to 19 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown.  Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan.

In medium bowl, mix powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons milk until smooth. Spread glaze over warm rolls.

Enjoy!