Dos Leches Pan Dulce Bread Pudding

I've been in Harlingen for 5 weeks now. I must admit I'm a HUGE fan of Mexican cuisine. I've become addicted to the Mexican bakeries around here. Each of them sells the same thing for the most part; various kinds of cookies, empanadas and pan dulce which is a round loaf of bread that has a slightly sweet flavor. At a few of the bakeries, they have day old pan dulce loaves 5 for $1.00. Since I love bread pudding and it's a great deal, I decided this would be a good medium to try it with. I'm also in love with the different items you see in the grocery stores down here that generally aren't found in the rest of Texas. One such is Media Crema. It's in the baking aisle with sweetened condensed and evaporated milk. It's a thick cream in a can basically. It's even thicker than half and half and probably heavy whipping cream. If you can't find Media Crema, whipping cream would probably do the trick though.

Most Mexican desserts aren't sweet by American taste buds. This dessert hits it's right on the spot. Since the bread is slightly sweet you don't need to add any additional sugar to the custard mix. The end result is delicious, sweet enough to qualify as dessert but not overwhelming. If I had to do it again, I might add a little bit of piloncillo to the dos leches that goes on top just to make it an wee bit sweeter and add some depth to it. The neat thing about this dessert is that the colors from the icing on the bread stay intact while baking so you end up with colorful bursts as you slice into it.




Dos Leches Pan Dulce Bread Pudding

8 Pan Dulce (day old), torn in about 1" pieces by hand
raisins (to taste)

6 eggs
4 c. milk
1/2 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 can (7.6 oz.) NESTLÉ Media Crema (can be found in Mexican Grocery Food Store)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease 9x13 baking dish.

Place about half pan dulce pieces on bottom of baking dish in one single layer. Let bread sit for about ten minutes to dry out. Sprinkle with half the raisins (I used about 1/3 cup here). Repeat process with remaining bread slices and raisins.

Combine milk, butter, cinnamon, first half of sweetened condensed milk and eggs either by whisk or by blender. Mix until smooth. Pour over pan dulce layers in dish. Let stand for 10 minutes, pressing down on bread so that bread is soaked in liquid.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake.

While bread pudding is baking, combine remaining sweetened condensed milk and media crema. After pudding has come out of oven, pour the two milks (dos leches) over the cake. It will not absorb fully, but you will have a layer of sweet cream sitting on the top. Serve warm (although it's not too bad cold either)!

Heavily adapted from Nestle Meals

No Leftovers Cake

I made this for a family gathering on Labor Day. I was looking for something easy and that would fit in a cake pan and not have to roll out or scoop out cookies. This is a take on a cake that my mom used to make, but I just changed it ever so slightly due to my recent obsession with Tres Leches Cake. Seriously, in less than 24 hours, this cake was gone. I had to fight for the last piece. This takes no longer than a normal cake to prepare and it will win over everyone!

I didn't even get a picture of a slice because it was gone so quickly!

1 chocolate box cake mix, to be prepared as directed
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar of caramel topping (can be found in the ice cream aisle)
1 large container cool whip
2 large Heath bars, crushed

Prepare chocolate cake as directed on box. While cake is warm, poke holes in cake with straws or end of a wooden spoon. Pour can of sweetened condensed milk over warm cake. After milk has soaked in, pour caramel topping over cake. Let cake cool. Right before serving, top with Cool Whip and sprinkle with Heath bars. At first, you might want to serve smaller pieces, but I found people came back for seconds anyways. ;)

Strawberry Napoleon

Or this could be called "Easy Strawberry Napoleon" or "Low-fat Strawberry Napoleon." But I decided to keep it simple. ;) This is so easy to put together, but it looks so impressive. In fact, if you don't let you guests see you make, they'll thin you spent hours preparing it.



1 sheet puff pastry
strawberries
whipped cream
chocolate sauce

Defrost puff pastry according to package. Once it has defrosted enough to handle, cut puff pastry into 9 squares. Bake according to directions on package (about 15 minutes). Remove from oven and split each square into two pieces. On plate, layer pastry, whipped cream, strawberries, chocolate sauce. Repeat 2 or 3 times (depending on how hungry you are!)

This recipe is so easy to modify depending on your needs. I make this for my uncle who is watching what he eats because fruit is healthy, then I can use sugar-free cool whip and low fat chocolate syrup. Or I can make it ultra decadent by whipping my own cream and using high-quality chocolate. Either way, it's a hit!

Chocolate Chip Pie

I've made this pie once before. It was one of the last things I made in my kitchen before the hurricane. I remember taking it to my Dad's when I evacuated because there was over half a pie left. Everyone went crazy for it up there. The only problem is, I don't remember the recipe. I tried to make it again and had problems while cooking it in the oven. I think I originally added more flour. The problem was, I couldn't get the pie to "set." After 40 minutes, the top was brown and crusty, but the inside was still raw. I turned the oven down to 300 degrees and baked it for another 15 minutes like that. It set fine in the end but all the chocolate chips had melted together at the bottom and then there was the 'dough' layer. So I'll post the recipe as I made it and you can make your own judgment as to how to prepare it. (I would probably add another 1/2 cup of flour and start baking it at 300 degrees first.)



2 eggs
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla (I didn't have any!)
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. chocolate chips
1/4 c. chocolate chips
pie crust of your choice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat eggs until frothy. Add both types of sugar and vanilla, blend well. Once sugars are incorporated, add melted butter. Add flour in small batches until well blended. Add 3/4 c. chocolate chips and pour into pie crust placed on a cookie sheet. Bake in oven for 40 mins. Add 1/4 chocolate chips (so you'll have some at the bottom AND the top). (This is where I had to turn the oven down to 300.) Bake an additional 15-20 minutes. Pie will still look raw, much like chocolate chip cookies, but should be firm.



Serve warm with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla, whip cream and chocolate syrup (if I had some!). Yummy!

Bridal Shower

Before I post recipes, I just had to post pictures because I'm so proud!!! I threw a scrapbooking shower for my cousin's wife and of course I HAD to do a nice spread. They're wedding colors were fern and wine, so I decided to only serve food that were red and green, how clever, right? It actually wasn't as hard as one would think. A random lady stopped me in the grocery store to discuss women getting into Texas A&M (which while it was totally interesting, it was not the right time) so I got put behind schedule and didn't get to complete everything I had planned. But I was VERY pleased with the end result. I think the biggest compliment was having 9 ladies eat all 28 of my mini cheesecakes!

Apples Galore!

Okay, I admit it. I am ADDICTED to food blogging. Not only do I participate, but I have upwards of 10 different blogs listed on my google reader feed. A few weeks it ago, it seemed that ALL of them had some sort of recipe containing apples, one even had an apple week!!! After sifting through them all, I decided on an apple cake. Apple Dapple Cake to be exact. How can you resist a name like that? And once you look at the pictures, HOW can you resist a cake like that?

I had a little trouble with the cake, but I think it was my own fault. I didn't have an electric mixer NOR a 1 cup measuring cup NOR a sifter. I think I might have lost count when adding the oil. When I first mixed it as I thought was right, it was very stiff. Like I said, I don't know if I mis-measured oil or maybe it had to do with not having an electric mixer. Anyways, I added a little more oil and a tad bit of milk. It turned out GREAT! The cake was a little dense, but sooooo moist. I also didn't boil the syrup for long enough because I was worried that I was going to burn it or myself because I was cooking in a much smaller pan that anticipated. So I'm not sure if the syrup was supposed to harden or what. Anyways, in spite of all of this, the cake was DELICIOUS!!! It's in my refrigerator right now and it's going to be hard to share it the rest of the week. I know I *should* if I don't want to gain 10 pounds this week, but it's so good I just might not!


Apple Dapple Cake
(Slightly modified from The Southern Plate)

3 c. all purpose flour
1 t. salt
1. t. soda
1 c. oil
2 c. sugar
3 eggs
2 t. vanilla
3 1/2 cups raw apples, peeled and chopped fine
Mix oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, soda. Add to first mixture. Fold in pecans and apples. Bake in tube pan at 350 for 1 hour (or until knife comes out clean).

Sauce

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup margarine(1 1/2 sticks) (*I used 1/2c because that's all I had)

Mix and cook 3 minutes after it begins to gently boil, stirring constantly. Pour over hot cake while cake is still in pan. Let cake cool completely before removing.

51st Anniversary Four Course Meal

My grandparents celebrated their 51st anniversary this year (yay!). Instead of the ginamorous party we threw for them last year, I decided to put my skills to use and cook them a nice dinner for the two of them. I decided to go ultra swanky and attempt a four course meal. Honestly, it was my first time to try and get the out at the right time. It was going well until dessert, that was a little late. BUT it went over well and everything turned out great. My pork turned out a little dry, so I need to remember the carry over cooking time next go around, but all in all, it was pretty great! I'll list the recipes after each picture. OH! And the theme for dinner was fruit. Each course had fruit in it and was used in different ways. For a little bit I was worried that it might have been a too sweet meal, but I think I definitely managed to balance the savory with the sweet. I wrote all these recipes down in my food book which is currently somewhere in my house. I thought since I was in the updating mood, I'd at least post the pictures.

First Course: Strawberry Cheese Ball

Okay, I cheated and bought this from HEB. But it definitely could be made at home. It tasted like strawberry cream cheese and cheddar cheese mixed rolled in pecans and cinnamon sugar. Very good. This worked out perfect because it tasted like fruit AND looked like fruit.


Second Course: Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese, Figs and Apple Vinagrette

Specific recipe to follow once I find my book.


Third Course: Apple Stuffed Pork Chops with Cheddar Potatoes and Honey Kissed Carrots



Specific recipe to follow once I find my book.




Fourth Course: Fluffy Panckes with Bananas and Butterscotch Sauce

Specific recipe to follow once I find my book.