Domestic goddess wannabee's weekend post

It's a challenge trying to preach to kids about the importance of healthy eating.

Take the example of eating bread.

We are constantly reminded that wholemeal & wholegrain is infinitely superior to white, right? Because the first two have more sources of fibre and nutrients compared to the latter which is made from highly bleached flour which in turn raises your blood sugar way too fast.

So far, I have not been able to convince the kids to give up their white bread. And because I love coarse grained breads, I always ended up with stale hard leftovers because I can hardly finish a whole loaf by myself. And my husband doesn't really like bread - whichever type.

So what I normally do, being the conscientious cost conscious and waste-n0t-good-food woman that I am (!), I use the leftovers to make bread & butter pudding.

Ahem - bear with me, after all it's a weekend, rite? This is another one of my self-indulgent "domestic goddess wannabe" cookery class post.

Oh, did I forget to tell you guys I am actually one of those rare women who, as the Cantonese saying goes, "yap tak chui fong, chut tak tai thong" (can perform in the kitchen and is equally presentable in public.) (tsk tsk ... I'm in the mood for some self-glorification ... kekeke!!)

Back to business before I go off tangent trumpeting my other glorious achievements. (wahahahaha!!!)

Bread puddings are basically very very easy to make. It's fail-proof even for anyone who has never baked anything in their whole life. And the end result is, you get something which does not taste like bread at all. The texture of this pudding is something like our local "kueh".

AMOI's Bread Pudding with Honeycomb Sugar & Real Vanilla










Break 3 eggs into a bowl. Beat briskly with a fork until well-combined.










Add in about 2 cups of low-fat milk (not more than 2 cups!). Beat again to combine them well.










Add in 3 spoonfuls of sugar or whatever, depending on your taste. In my pix, I'm using raw honeycomb sugar which is less sweet, and presumably healthier. But I need to beat the mixture a bit longer in order to blend it in.














Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract or in my case, the beans from one vanilla pod.

Oh - never seen real vanilla pods before? There they are, the dried blackish sticks in the jar. They smell wonderfully fragrant and really, there's no substitute for the real thing. I took one pod, slice in down the middle and scrap the beans & pulp out and deposit them into the milky mixture. You can also add a dash of cinnamon if you like the smell of it. And, if you have spare bananas, you can slice one up and mix it in.

Btw, don't throw away the used vanilla pod. Clean it and dry it in the sun. Put two sticks in a glass jar, cover with fine sugar and hey presto! You now have lovely home-made vanilla sugar. They give a lovely fragrance to my cup of tea!










Tear the bread you wish to use into bite-sized pieces. You can use any type of bread that you like, preferably not too fresh/soft.

I'm using half a loaf of wholegrain raisin that's 2 days old. It works out to a big bowl of bread chunks which I add into the egg/milk mixture. Coat the bread thoroughly, making sure each piece is well-soaked. Don't dump in too much bread - make sure you have a layer of liquid just covering the whole thing when mixed.

Let the bread sit in the mixture for about 1/2 hour. Stir it around a few times in between.










Heat your oven to 180 degC. Grease a baking tin. Pour mixture into the tin, and put a few pats of butter on top of it. Bake it bain-marie style, meaning you put the baking tin into another bigger pan half-filled with water (about 1.5cm will do). Put the whole thing into the heated oven and bake for about 45-50 mins until the top is slightly browned.

I was told by a friend that if you don't have an oven, you can actually steam this dish over high heat until it's well done. Just make sure that the water vapours from the pot cover don't trickle back into the pudding pan. Personally, I've never tried this method.










There, it's done! You can dust some icing sugar on top, pour some custard sauce over it or serve it warm with a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Delicious, and the kids don't even notice that it's wholemeal stuff.


HAVE A RELAXING WEEKEND FOLKS! Hopefully, I'd be back in active mode next week.