Tropical Bread Pudding

It's not often that I buy a $6 loaf of bread. Only when desperate and no other options are available. Now if that loaf of bread is only half eaten and stale two days later, it certainly will get used! I know of no tastier way of using stale bread than in a delicious bread pudding.

Having watched the animated movie "Ratatouille" for the umpteenth time again recently, I was reminded of tastes that take you back to your childhood. Home-made bread pudding does that for me. Just the first spoonful transported me back to my childhood home, my mum in the kitchen whisking eggs and vanilla essence in her oval Pyrex bowl and the sweet fragrant smells wafting through the kitchen. I'm so glad that I can recreate those feelings with this pudding.

There is no exact science to making a bread pudding. It really does depend on the size of the slices of bread, the consistency of the bread and your personal taste. I like a moist bread pudding, with a tropical taste and not too sweet. Just like my mother used to make. It may never turn out exactly the same twice though.

In this pudding I've used dessicated coconut, almonds and dried mixed fruit (my mum used to use dried cut mixed peel). Eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla essence are the other basic ingredients.

I like it best served warm with soothing custard. Aaah... the taste of home!

Recipe

You will need:

Pecan nut cookies

I love sitting outdoors in the warm winter sun. I love it more when there's food to accompany the view as well. Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities I've seen. The Sydney Harbour bridge provides a fitting backdrop to a late afternoon tea with freshly-made cookies in my local park. The air is crisp but the sun is warm, a perfect winter's day.

I love nutty cookies. I have made these particular cookies many times, using different nuts or combinations thereof. I've used pecan nuts for this batch but have also previously used almonds. Walnuts, hazelnuts or even various mixed nuts would go just as well too. I have topped each pecan nut cookie with an almond here as my husband really loves them.

These cookies are great with tea or coffee or even on their own. A light dusting of icing sugar creates the prefect balance between sweet and nutty.

You can whip up a batch in ten minutes and with only ten minutes baking time, there's no excuse not to have cookies with tea!

Recipe

You will need: