There's no real introduction to this pudding, except to say that its a 'bread and butter pudding' style pudding but made from croissants or pain au chocolat instead of the bread and butter.
I could be really cliche and go into detail about how i was wondering what dessert to make and all i had left was some stale pain au chocolat yada yada yada. Does anyone really care about these long winded introductions? Now I'm not slamming food bloggers. I love food bloggers, there is some incredible talent out there and some really entertaining writing. Also some of the food photography is absolutely outstanding (and puts my iphone/ ipad when i'm too hungry to take the time to take pictures properly and just cant wait to tuck in, efforts to shame). But is anyone else a little tired of hearing the same introductions, rehashed for each dish?
I certainly am and I know I've been guilty of it myself in the past, when inspiration fails me, i have fallen back to the default intro such as, "I had such a craving for something comforting and this really hit the spot!" etc etc.
YAWN!!!
Not that there's anything wrong with putting more effort into the food than the writing. It is after all a food blog, but my point is, if we can't think of anything remotely interesting to say, why don't we just cut to the chase? Lets just get down to the nitty gritty without having a long winded, and boring account of how someone popped over unexpectedly for dinner and how we just had to cobble something together at the last minute and how everyone loved it. (How very Nigella!)
I'm putting a stop to it. I'm hoping this will challenge me and ultimately make my blog either more interesting, more original, or at the very least less unoriginal. From now on, my intro's will either be mildly interesting, amusing, or non existent. If i don't have anything original to say before a recipe, I will simply blog the recipe with no waffle! (unless its a waffle recipe... sorry about that!).
So rant over anyway and back to the dessert. I had people coming over for dinner and just had to knock something together... only kidding!!
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
3 large pain au chocolat or croissants (these are better if they are a couple of days old and a little dry)
150 mls fresh espresso
300 mls double cream
150g catser sugar
2 egg
50g dark chocolate (use more if using croissants)
pinch salt
Butter for greasing
Method:
Whisk the eggs and then mix in the sugar. Beat in the cream and then the espresso and salt.
Grease a small oven proof dish with butter and break up each croissant into about 4-6 pieces and fill the dish with them. chop the chocolate into small chunks and sprinkle evenly over the croissants. then pour the custard mixture over the top and press all the croissants down to make sure it is all soaked in the custard.
Leave to stand for at least 30 minutes (longer if possible). Then bake at around 150 degrees (fan oven) for around 45-50 minutes or until its puffed up and crunchy on top.
Before baking you can sprinkle on a thin dust of sugar for more of a sweet crunch.
Serve it hot or cold with cream.
I made this last week and froze it, then defrosted it and reheated it for around 30 mins at around 140 degrees (fan oven).
YUM!!! :)
Labels: blogging, desserts