quote:

Originally posted by Frank S:
Can the Praline Sauce be made ahead of time and refrigerated? I'd like to serve this for Christmas dessert. To avoid last minute chaos, I'd like to get some of my preparations out of the way on Christmas Eve.

Absolutely Frank, I left all mine in the fridge to see how it would keep. It's almost gone now, pushing 2 months and it tastes fine. We've been eating it on our steel cut oats so much I'm probably going to make more when it's gone just for that, it's so good!

made this last night while waiting around for the darn smoke to finish. The boss went to the store so I had her pick up some cinnimon bread (cause couldn't find egg bread anywhere and to lazy for bread makin) it was the "cinnibon" brand plain jane cinnimon loaf. I figured it was densest and the best I could do. Not knowing what to think of the whole thing I made it exactly like recipie except half the amount. Also not being a cook it dawned on me halfway through "wander if the time is the same since I cut it in half" Still don't know the answer to that but I just kept an eye on it till it looked "done" to me. (I copied Shawn's pics, lol, sorry dude) anyway this is tasty!!
I thought that sauce was a bit stressfull to make (freakin bubbly butter crap went everywhere ) but when it was done and the candy therm was clean it was worth it! I think i'll find a different sauce to use next time, like everyone says i think it needs some rum!
OH and I used peanuts cause I cant stand pecons (dont know why) the peanut flavor actually comes out pretty well I thought.THANKS for the recipie.
Oh ya and what is the water in the other pan for? I thought it was takin forever to cook and not really doin much for an hour so I pulled it out of the water and back in oven then was looking like shawn's pics in about 15 min. +it was really really good, Im sure I did it right. just curious. thanks.

Half the amount doesn't mean half the cook time, it could but there's a lot of factors in there ... if you aren't sure, reduce the time then check and cook longer, you can always add more time but you can't undo the cooking that happened.

Setting the pan in water is to cook it gently and avoid burning/overbrowning the edges/bottom (in contact with the baking dish) before the center is done. Water in an open sytem cannot exceed boiling point temp. I set mine on the turkey lifter to keep the bottom suspended in the water.

Did you have a boil over Dan? I didn't but I kept the heat down and used a tall pot. I have a mind to try the sauce in a double boiler next time.

Sounds like you really enjoyed it!

it didn't do to bad the boil over was more of a surprise then anything I had fun w/ this, im def. not real strong in the kitchen so a great learning experience. Thats where the time question came from, but sounds like I made the right call knowing it didn't seem done. thanks for the pics too those always help in a lot of cases, im glad were allowed to post pictures.

hey guys i've made this twice now, first time halfed recipie and 2 nights ago made a full one I liked it so much.
I wasn't liking one thing, I cooked w/ 4 inch deep roaster half filled w/ water, everything just like recipie says, EXCEPT, I only had a bit over one pound of bread, and lacked about a 1/4 cup of heavy cream, my thoughts were I was close enough for what it was and just used the 1 lb. of bread w/ the lack of cream replaced by more milk (that means about a 1/4 cup of cream missing, replaced by about a 1/4 cup of milk. I cooked entire time as recipie says, but it took about 1 1/2 hours to look like Shawn W's. pictures of the finished product, besides I could just tell the middle needed a bit more time to firm up etc. (same thing happened last time as far as cook time is concerned)
Question #1 Is my altitude affecting cook time? something is cause it could have gone about 1 3/4 hours easy although I pulled it at 1 1/2 instead. Do I need a different temperature, or just more time like i've been doing? My baking knowledge isn't excellent w/ these things.
Question #2 First batch was just right, I cooked in roaster for about an hour (w/ water) and then pulled it from the water and just put in back in the oven for another half hour w/ nothing but the glass pan, finally it "poofed" up and cooked up pretty evenly like Shawn's picture and was perfect as far as I was concerned (strange huh?)
So this second round I left it in water the whole time and waiting a long time to finish but I seemed to have gotton it close to the last batch until I served some up and noticed in the bottom 1/4 " to 1/2" of the serving (and throughout the pan) there was mushy, kind of curdled up looking stuff, along w/ a lot of moisture that is best described as looking like just plain water.
My thoughts first were from the directions "coat heavily w/ butter" (the pan) maybe the butter did something to it like I used to much although I didn't think I did. OR did my lack of about a 1/4 lb of bread.. OR was that egg I was seeing at the bottom?, that somehow cooked up that way... Either way it wasn't real pleasant for texture, wandering what I did wrong. OR was that water in the pan getting absorbed by the bread pudding, (remember the puddle of "water" looking stuff? it didn't look like butter).
Common sense (which I may lack ) is telling me to do the recipie as written next time EXACT and go w/ water pan for only half the cook and the last half yank it out and cook w/ no water pan. For the first time was a much better, no mush bottom, product. what do you think? THANKS!

* by the way im at 6300 ft elevation. If I remember right (may not) water boils at 209 at my place. if that helps.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dan H.,

I think what happened to your second one Dan is that you used 33% less bread than the recipe so to keep in proportion with the recipe everything else should have been reduced by 33% too. 5 eggs, 2 1/2C milk, 1 1/3C cream and so on.

This made it wetter and you cooked it longer trying to firm it up though it was still wet when you were done.

By comparison, I used a 2lb loaf for that amount of milk cream and eggs thinking they might be calling for dry bread (mine was ultra fresh, moist) and I'd rather err on the side of more bread than not enough.

This thought came from Mom telling me her mom always made it it with dried up crusts ... this was the first bread pudding I've ever made, so I'm a novice Dan, what I showed certainly isn't the only way and may not be the best way.

Altitude does affect cooking time, higher alt means longer cook time but in general just go with the recipe, you can always cook longer. Here's a neat little guide I found about high altitude cooking from U of New Mexico.

never got back for a thanks. so thanks a lot.
last night had guests and made another half recipie again. (im not obsessed w/ it, I just wanted to not get away from it w/ out figuring it out, you know?) but it was perfect, it just had to be (to me at least). but strange thing happened again. Same story as above. I went exact to recipie, but again, took about hour and a half, till it looked right to me, so at that point I pulled out of oven (and out of roaster pan half full of water) but not to be fooled this time I carefully peeked through the glass bottom to see mushy unfinished, wet, "pudding" mix. ah ha!. back in the oven w/ no roaster pan full of water, for another 30 minutes on bottom rack, closest to heat coils. it then grew to more then two inches above the sides of the glass 9x9 pan. Pulled at 30 minutes, w/ the top a slightly bit more browned then desired, but just slightly (i was the only one who thought that) and it was delicious. I made a rum sauce I made up and still of course have a large amount of the posted "praline" sauce left as well. Im no cook so I felt good when everyone preffered the rum. I didn't measure but it was something close to a cup of apple cider, butter, brown and white sugar, honey, and some cap. morgen in the cabnit I had on hand... I really don't know if anyone would dig that but made me feel good everyone else thought it was awsome!, just a good guess on my part. it took a while to boil up firm so a gave a little shot of corn startch... I don't even know what I was doin, lol. It was tasty though.
Anyway if/when I do this again (for anyone who might experience the same as me) Its going to be about 40 minutes in the roaster, w/ enough water to cover bottom half of glass pan as stated above, until top and top edges start looking like there getting evenly cooked. And then im going to take it out and finish the rest of the way w/ out the roaster at the posted temp. above: 325.
Time wise this may take about 1 hour- 1 1/2 hours. Not sure why its been this way but thats ok too. great great stuff when it turns out like last night!! easy and impressive to other people, and it fills them up esp. w/ a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.
And Shawn thanks for the handy high elevation cookin link, theres a lot there I never knew!
Hope this helps folks in the future! It took three times but I believe I got it now.
Now i gotta decide on a good chicken wings recipie for super bowl! Thats gonna be tough but all i'm set on so far is I want to deep fry them breaded, and thats as far as I've got! Im probably in for it again!

Just picked up everything I needed to give this a go. I'll make it either today or tomorrow. Can't wait to see how it turns out. My only substitutions are purple raisins for the yellow kind...and I have regular cinnamon bread...since I couldn't find cinnamon "egg" bread.

I have 10 minutes left on the bread pudding. The praline sauce is done...and absolutely to die for. Holy $hit is this stuff good. Wow. I'll have a couple pics up after the jump.

All she wrote. This stuff is off the hook. I think my mom's gone to heaven early. This was fairly easy to make...and I didn't experience the boil overs that others did. While melting the butter, I constantly stirred with a wooden spoon. For the record...the praline recipe makes an OBSCENE amount of yumminess. I'll have this stuff forever. LOL

Can anyone provide me with the best way to store the remaining praline?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hayden McCall,

Hayden,

You can put the leftover praline sauce in a covered airtight container (Tupperware, Rubbermaid, Glad, left over deli container, etc.) and put it in the fridge. It will keep for a couple months, if it lasts that long.

LOL That's a HUGE "if". This stuff's already seen grilled bananas with vanilla ice cream, oatmeal, cheesecake....

I actually like that I can make a whole 'nother batch of bread pudding and know that I have enough sauce still to cover it too.

This stuff (both the bread pudding and the praline sauce) is OBSCENELY delicious!

I baked my own Challah bread (w/ a touch of cinnamon) in the electric bread maker and it paired nicely.

(Side note: My bread pudding was just a tad soupy at the bottom though...but stiff delicious)

THANK YOU for the recipe!