Baking Friday - Bread # 2

Luck o' the Irish to you!

Yep, we have St. Patty's Day in mind now.  For a couple of good friends of mine, St. Patrick's Day is THE Holiest Day of the Year.  Period.  Bar none.

So while March 17th may not hold the high regard for me that it does for my friends, I feel a need to do this holiday justice to honor their freindship if nothing else.  And we start this one off with bread.

Bread.  For St. Patrick's Day.  Isn't the answer obvious?

Guinness Gingerbread.  Right?  That's what you had in mind, right?

Oh wait...you mean you thought of Irish Soda Bread?  Hmmm...I can't imagine...

Just kidding!  Of course I thought of Irish Soda Bread, but I'm sorry.  I have tried Irish Soda Bread a few times in my life, and my experience has always been that it's dry and rather bland.  Dipped in a nice hearty Guinness beef stew, and we start talking some good eats, but by itself?  On a regular old Thursday morning?  I couldn't see it. I could envision this lonely, sad loaf of soda bread sitting in the Thursday Baking cube at work all day, drying out and looking forlorn, because only a few people had stopped by to cut a meager slice out of pity for Deb.

Are you sad yet?  Of course you are.  That was a sad word picture.  But other than bringing in a pot of beef stew with the soda bread, I couldn't figure Irish Soda Bread out.  At least not yet.  Stay tuned on that idea...

So I turned to Guinness.  Not literally.  While I enjoy tasting it, I'm not a Guinness drinker.  But I AM a Guinness baker!  I've baked lots of things with Guinness!  Like Guinness Chocolate Cake.  And another Guinness Chocolate Cake.  Oh, and don't forget Guinness Chocolate Cake.

Ok, so maybe I haven't baked that many different things with Guinness, but after this series of St. Pat's Day baking Fridays, my repertoire of Guinness baking will have at least tripled!

Beginning with today's feature - Guinness Gingerbread.  I found this recipe here - on Smitten Kitchen  and she calls it the Gramercy Tavern's Gingerbread by chef Claudia Fleming.  I served it with a simple dusting of powdered sugar and some Cinnamon Maple Butter.

Kinda pretty, no? I love this bundt pan.  The simplest of pound cakes come out special looking simply by virtue of the shape.  And let me tell you.  Tasty.  Sweet.  Moist.  Too often gingerbread can be on the dry side.  Not this one.

But wait.  There is something else in that picture.  On the right side.  What is that?

That, my dear friends, is a bit of whiskey sauce.  Not officially Irish whiskey sauce, mind you, since I have no Jameson on hand, but a bit of whisky sauce yummy goodness nonetheless.

For the gingerbread?  Nope, not exactly.  That bit of delight was for this homey dish of bread pudding, served warm from the oven.

This was from my favorite flour website, modeled after their Creamy Maple Bread Pudding with a few changes and then served with Pioneer Woman's Whiskey Sauce.  I didn't make it with bread.  I'd tried a muffin recipe (not King Arthur, so I should have known better!) but they were only mediocre.  So I cubed them up with some leftover Amaretto pound cake that had been in the freezer to soak in the egg custard overnight Wednesday night.  Then since I had two bananas that were about 1.75 days beyond their 15 minute window of eat-ability, I sliced those up in the pudding right before baking Thursday morning.

Now keep in mind that I am not a bread pudding fan.  I usually find it either too dry or too soggy or too tasteless - just plain bland.  I honestly haven't tasted it much less made it in years. But I am also quite frugal, and since I had this bread Friday coming up, rather than tossing these mediocre muffins I thought, why not?

Since I used muffins and cake, does it still count as bread?

Yes, I think so, too.  Thank you.

And I actually liked this bread pudding.  It had the right texture balance of bread to custard, plus it had flavor.  It was sweet.  And the whiskey sauce laced a very nice extra boost of fun in each spoonful.

When I sent the email to folks at work to let them know what Thursday's bread was, I described them like this:

Nothing fancy today – comfort food that might make you feel like you’ve stopped off at an old country pub on the coast of Ireland where the proprietor’s mother bakes up old recipes handed down from her mother and grandmother, laced with treats from her son’s stash.

And the most lyrical literary description of both of our St. Patrick's Day breads came from a temporary worker whose last day with our company is next Friday.  I simply have to copy and paste her taste tester's response since she wrote it so well.  Think I'm gonna miss this lady's feedback?  You betcha!

           Is it the Guinness that makes this cake so moist? I have to admit I thought you would be able to taste more of the stout beer than gingerbread flavor.  It was very delicious and the Cinnamon Maple Butter made it perfect.

The Bread pudding is to die for.  Love the whole combination of the warm bread, bananas and nuts, the whiskey sauce brings it all together.  I just wanted  a nice spoonful of your bread pudding, and a good cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise in the crisp morning in the ocean spray.  No wonder the Irish say “ Top of the morning to ya”

Simply beautifully put, right?  

Here are a few other conversations we heard Thursday morning...

The bread pudding is amazing!

All I heard around me was "Ooo!" and "Ahh!" so I had to come get some!

Guinness makes a very nice balance with the ginger so the ginger isn't in your face.

Too much banana for me.

I LOVE the banana!

The red enamel dish you baked the bread pudding in really made it pop. It looked better in the pic that in real life.

I actually like the bread pudding better without the sauce.

The bread pudding is good, but the sauce makes it amazing.

Your jacket looks nice.

What did you use in your bread pudding?  Did you use bread?  Me: No, I used muffins and some pound cake.  Them:  Ah, yea, that makes sense.  That's why I like it.  I don't like bread pudding, but this is sweet so I like it.

Gosh darned delicious!  Do you ever pre-bake your bananas?  Me:  What?  I've never heard of that.  Them:  Yes, leave them in their peel, and bake them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 - 15 minutes.  It brightens the flavor of the banana to then use in banana pudding or banana bread or whatever.  Me:  Interesting!  I will have to try that sometime!  Mind if I share this in the blog?  Them:  Feel free!    

When she calls you "the devil woman", Deb, she really means that you're an angel in disguise.

Delicious… both were absolutely phenomenal! And I was so excited to find that when I came back to my desk after the production meeting to enjoy these desserts, that the bread pudding was still warm! J

Yum yum!

You know; I was never a big fan of bread pudding, but after so many years of rejecting it; yours was pretty darn good.  My mom would have given me heck, if she’d  heard me make that statement.---☺

I liked the bread pudding.  The Guinness Gingerbread was not only an extremely eye-appealing presentation, but wow, it was most delicious.  The flavors were all there, but none overwhelming the other.  And the moisture level was spot-on.  You hit it out of the park with this one.

And with someone who was out of the office, we had this email exchange...

From: S
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 8:43 AM
To: M; A
Cc: Debbie
Subject: RE: St. Patty's Day Breads

M, your scoop and slice taste great!  Thanks for letting me eat them.

From: M
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 8:45 AM
To: S; A
Cc: Debbie
Subject: RE: St. Patty's Day Breads

Deb,

Seeing as my boss, my leader, my mentor S couldn’t find it in his heart to save some, would it be possible to save me a little so I can try it tomorrow?

Thank you,

M

From: S
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 8:51 AM
To: M; A
Cc: Debbie
Subject: RE: St. Patty's Day Breads

M,

Seeing that this event has caused you trauma, I see no other solution than to provide you with recourse.  To amend the harm I have caused, I alerted HR that you will mandatorily be working from home every Thursday.

Thank you,

S

S

From: M
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2014 8:56 AM
To: S; A
Cc: Debbie
Subject: RE: St. Patty's Day Breads

Sounds good. I will come to the office to enjoy Deb’s baking then head back home.  

Pretty fun, huh?  

Would you like to see the pics of putting the Guinness Gingerbread together?  

I began with brushing the pan generously with butter..

...very generously.  And then sprinkled with flour.

And yes, I made a mess with the flour.  I can't seem to dust with flour without making a mess.  And just to be on the safe side because the recipe says generously, I sprayed with baking spray, too.  

Signed,

I Hate Cakes...er...I mean Breads That Stick to the Pan

Now, I turned to the Guinness - 1 cup...and seriously, do you count the foam in the measure?  I did not...I still am not sure the right answer to this question...

And then 1 cup of molasses...(yes, in the same measuring cup as the Guinness...I'm a bad person...)

I combined these in a saucepan...

...and stirred and cooked to a boil.  Stirring and cooking about another minute took away the lighter foam at the top that you see below.  But I forgot to take a pic of that.

When I added the 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, the mixture foamed up all over again,but it wasn't the same looking foam.  Kinda fascinating all ye olde kitchen chemistry!

While that cooled to room temperature, I measured the dry ingredients and spices together.  (I did not use the full amount of cloves called for in the recipe, because I'm not that much of a cloves fan.  I also added about 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  I don't have any cardamom, and added allspice, because I like it with this spice flavor profile.)

Look at all those gorgeous spices!  I can smell it again just looking at it!

Then I mixed the eggs with the sugars...

...and then the oil and the cooled Guinness and molasses mixture.

Finally I mixed in the spicy flour.

Until smooth but not mixed beyond that.

Definitely bowl licking worthy!  Not like I did any licking, you understand...

Baked at 350 for about 50 minutes, let it cool in the pan about 5, and it didn't stick!  Woo-hoo!!

I actually baked this on Tuesday night, so that it could ripen and mellow for a full day before serving on Thursday, making this a great make ahead option.  The cinnamon maple butter was just that - 1 t. of cinnamon and 2 T. of maple syrup mixed into a stick of butter.  Yum!

And here was the Thursday Baking Cube spread yesterday ready for my taste testers!

Not a spec 'o green, but if we include Guinness and whiskey, doesn't this count as Irish?  I hope so!

Thanks for reading another long, Deb Dissertation post, and we'll see you next week for St. Patrick's Day cookies!

Love,

Deb