Monday, September 24, 2012

Cooking with Spirits

I got a new cookbook last week, Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos. It's AWESOME. The recipes make little bitty cakes or two scones or mini loaves of bread. I've made five or six recipes out of the book already and on the whole they're very good. I've been hitting the bread pudding hard, partly because I like bread pudding, partly because I like using my ramekins.


One of the recipes I wanted to try, and finally did, is the Butterscotch Bread Pudding with Tennessee Butterscotch Sauce (pictured, above, still puffed from the oven), which calls for Jack Daniel's whiskey. I've never gotten into the habit of drinking much, so I had to go out and buy a bottle of Jack just for this recipe. Which calls for 2 Tablespoons of whiskey.

Well, it was worth it. That's what I had for supper tonight (the bread pudding, I mean, not the Jack Daniel's), and I'm stuffed but it was sooooo good. And I have some of the sauce left over, which means I'll just have to make it again in a day or two.

I drew this on the COMPUTER using my MOUSE:

Saturday afternoon I made Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Scones. They turned out a bit dry and salty--I'm not sure if I measured something wrong or if I should try again and adjust the recipe a bit--but not bad. I made tea and set the table with my mother's beloved Royal Doulton china. You know how when you make tea you add one scoop for the pot and one for each cup to be drunk? Well, I added one for the pot, one for me, and one for my absent homies.


Mom, I wish you could have come to my equinoctal tea. We could have sat outside in the gusty, cool afternoon and picked leaves out of our plates.

7 comments:

Richard said...

Loving this--in particular the comic. And the recipes. And the sentiment.

K.C. Shaw said...

And the bread pudding. :)

Free Range Anglican said...

You can buy little bottles of Jack, rum, or whatever usually at the checkout if you just need a few tablespoons for cooking... Or you can make a LOT of bread pudding. Love the post, though.... and yeah, the comic, too.

widdershins said...

Just read 'Blood Oranges' on DSF. Those two vampires deserve each other ... nicely done.

K.C. Shaw said...

Tara--I was telling a co-worker about having all that Jack left over, and she said, "I'll bring the Coke." :)

widdershins--Thanks! Sort of appropriate (and totally unintentional) that I posted about cooking the day before the story ran.

Kelly Robinson said...

My sister made some awesome whiskey caramels. Maybe you can make some with the leftovers. (If there still are any. I am the behindest person ever.)

K.C. Shaw said...

It is long eaten up, but it's easy enough to make more. Whiskey caramels sounds excellent.