Friday, May 10, 2013

Coupétade


Per Nana~
I am definitely not a fan of bread pudding. 
 When Hubby and I were married in 1954 and returned from our honeymoon
 in Upstate New York, we found that my French mother had turned our 
leftover wedding cake into bread pudding. Back then, people did not do
 much in the way of freezing foods and my Mom never wasted anything.....
Also the texture of wet bread is GROSS. 
 If I order a Philly cheesesteak, it had better not be soggy.
For this week's recipe I decided to use panettone, an Italian specialty cake
 that was in from freezer from Christmas.  Since there are raisins and dried
 citron pieces in this case, I only added dried apricots. Panettone has a distinct 
flavor all it's own and I should have added the full 2 1/2 tsps of vanilla.  
The aroma while cooking the French toast was wonderful and the rest was 
easy enough to put together.  I baked it for 1 3/4 hours and Hubby tasted 
it when it had cooled a bit. He thought it was good, but he prefers my
 bread pudding made with panettone and crushed pineapple.

Personally, I prefer Texas style French toast with butter and syrup
 whenever we go to the diner. Not exactly healthy, but oh so good !  
I look forward to seeing how the rest of the Doristas made out with this one.
Per Tricia~
I am very lucky (or maybe cursed ?) since the "Le Bus" bread company
has it's only outlet across the street from my office.  For this dish, I
bought both challah and  brioche, but tested the recipe with the challah.

The trickiest part of the dish had nothing to do with the recipe and everything
 to  do with my not being able to get the heat consistent for the French toast.  
In hindsight I should have grabbed my griddle.

The already golden bread got a further suntan in the oven. I think the shape
 of  the  my bread ended up with too much exposed and this led to too much 
browning.  Next time I will watch it more.  Luckily I tested before the 90
 minute  mark and took it right out. I have no taste testers in the house so
 enjoyed a slice  myself. Lovely but there was no way this wasn't going to be
 with those ingredients :) All taste testers will be home tonight from college
 and elsewhere and this is a  wonderful  treat to remind them of what
 adventures occur in the kitchen each French Friday  ~

PS- that was the first I ever heard about the wedding cake being
 "repurposed"  by my own Nana.  Very cool and very funny.

Happy French Friday !

15 comments:

  1. Both of you have such a nice texture to your Coupetades... great idea to use up that Panettone. Not a great fan of bread pudding myself. I'd rather eat straight up custard or regular French Toast.

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  2. Nana, I have never hesrd of wedding cake being made into bread pudding but I have read about people doing it with Christmas cake. I'd live to hear more about your version with pineapple! Tricia, I think your pud looks delish - I like a mix of soft and crispy bits.

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  3. well both of them look SO good! :) I liked how mine, like yours, had soft and crispy parts to it - the best part of it I think!

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  4. Both look wonderful! My bread was also very tanned. Thank god for powdered sugar.

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  5. Both versions look so good. I love the idea of using Panettone for this and Tricia's challah looks perfect - that must be a wonderful bakery. Nana, I can see how the wedding cake incident could put you off bread pudding for life!

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  6. Wedding cake bread pudding! Sounds like an original recipe to me:-) What a great story and sounds much better than freezing the cake (which always sounded like a weird idea to me).

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  7. Nana: how very creative to use the Italian Panettone for this recipe - it sounds wonderful to me and it looks utterly delicious the way you prepared it - love that story about the re-purposed wedding cake!
    Tricia: your version also looks quite delicious - your big white serving dish looks very pretty with all the triangles of French toast and dried fruits - it is so nice to read that you and your family enjoyed this fabulous recipe too!
    Have a wonderful Mother´s Day weekend, both of you!!!

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  8. My Grandma Rockwell NEVER wasted anything (this was the woman who used her tea bags three times), so the repurposed wedding cake struck close to home :-)
    Both of the bread choices you each picked had to have been good.
    Have a lovely Mother's Day, ladies.

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  9. I LOVE French toast made with panettone. What a great choice, Nana! That's not to say that your choice, Tricia, wasn't good too. Both puddings look delicious. Happy Mother's Day to you both.

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  10. I wouldn't have thought of making French toast with Panettone, but that is a good idea. Looks delicious.

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  11. LOL...what a cute story, Nana! Mine got dark, too...I think it was just the recipe. Not a favorite of mine...but the guys seemed to enjoy it!

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  12. Oh I LOVE the idea of htis with pannetone - brilliant!!!

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  13. I'd like to return to your mother making your wedding cake into a bread pudding, Nana. I have never heard of doing that but can see her point. I think that's kinda touching. I could eat Panettone ever day of the week so I like your idea of turning it into French Toast. Unfortunately I always work my way through the loaf and it never gets into the freezer. No leftovers. I think both your puddings look lovely and I hope those college students enjoyed the welcome home dessert, Tricia.

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  14. Great memory of your MIL making bread pudding with your wedding cake. How funny that you have never heard that story before, Tricia! I happen to love bread pudding and thought this was very good…but not so much for dessert! I’m in the breakfast or brunch camp.
    The pannetone sounds like a wonderful bread to use in bread pudding. Both puddings look delectable…love that last photo! Have a great day, ladies!

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  15. That's too funny that your mom turned the wedding cake into bread pudding! We froze our cake, and it was surprisingly good a year later :-) I love challah french toast, but panettone sounds like an excellent change of pace. I'll have to try it sometime.

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