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Croissant Bread Pudding with Chocolate, Cherries, and Pecans

For the past 12 years, I have taught a class on Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. It’s a lot of fun. The students are smart, talented, and inquisitive. They help me keep on top of my practice.

This year our final class is on Wednesday, November 28 — Thanksgiving Eve. What better way to start a long holiday weekend than to attend an evening class with an adjunct professor!

We need to celebrate the end of the semester with something sweet and decadent. This Croissant Bread Pudding features the buttery richness of croissants combined with tart cherries, smooth chocolate, toasted pecans, and sumptuous custard.

Earlier this year, I served the bread pudding at a dinner for 40 attorney friends who were in town for a continuing education program. It was a hit, so much so that a friend remarked that she had “embarrassed herself” by going back for multiple servings. I thought she was just showing her good taste.

Don’t embarrass yourself. Try some Croissant Bread Pudding.

Croissant Bread Pudding

  • ¼ cup dried cherries
  • ¼ cup pecans
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 3 day-old croissants
  • 1 oz. grated bittersweet chocolate

Cover the cherries in a small bowl with boiling water. Let the cherries sit for 20 minutes. Drain then set aside.

Toast the pecans under the broiler for 1-2 minutes. Cool the nuts, then chop.

Preheat the oven to 350*. Grease 4 small ovenproof bowls with cooking spray.

Heat the cream in a heavy saucepan. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds into the cream, then add the pod. Simmer over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the bean pod.

Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Slowly pour in the cream while whisking the egg mixture to prevent the yolks from cooking.

Tear the croissants into 6 pieces each. Cover the croissants with the egg and cream mixture. Allow the croissants to absorb the liquid for about 10 minutes. Then add the cherries.

Transfer the mixture into the prepared bowls. Sprinkle the top of each bowl with chocolate and toasted pecans. Bake for 25 minutes or until set.

Adapted from Cooking for Two: Perfect Meals for Pairs

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Tomatillo Sauce

Tomatillos are a staple in Mexican and Southwestern cuisine. They have a bright, acid flavor that adds a kick to any meal.

And they are versatile. Tomatillo sauce can be made from raw, boiled, or roasted tomatillos. Each has its own virtue.

This recipe highlights the smoky flavor of roasted tomatillos. It brings a mild spiciness to pork, chicken, eggs, and chips. And it’s easy to make.

Before making any sauce, remove the papery outer skin on the tomatillos. Tomatillos are sticky, so wash them carefully.

Tomatillo Sauce

  • 12 to 14 tomatillos
  • 1 white onion, cut into chunks
  • 6 to 8 cloves of garlic
  • 2 Hatch chiles
  • 1/2 cup cilantro
  • salt and pepper

Heat the oven to broil.

Place the tomatillos, onion, garlic, and chiles on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Roast the vegetables until charred, turning the vegetables every few minutes to ensure coverage on all sides.

Peel, seed, and stem the chiles.

Blend all ingredients in the blender until smooth. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with water, one tablespoon at a time.  Salt and pepper to taste.

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Southwestern Eggs Benny with Tomatillo Sauce

It’s the holiday weekend, so it’s time to cook.

in anticipation of the weekend, I spent some time reviewing my collection of cookbooks to get some ideas. I came across a great idea for Green Chile Eggs Benny in The Essential Southwest Cookbook (available at Amazon.com https://tinyurl.com/y4r3tdeb).

My Sweetie has a sensitive stomach, so I revised the recipe to make it less spicy. It looked and tasted great.

The original recipe calls for English muffins as a base for the Eggs Benny. I decided to mix it up a bit and use sourdough biscuits instead. We also added some homemade tomatillo sauce, which brings a robust smoky flavor to the meal.

We started off our weekend with a Southwestern breakfast for dinner. Try it, you’ll like it.

Southwestern Eggs Benny with Tomatillo Sauce

  • 2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed
  • 2 cups sweet corn
  • 3 green onions, sliced (white and green parts)
  • 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
  • juice of one lime
  • kosher salt
  • freshly ground pepper
  • 1 cup Mexican crema
  • 1 roasted Hatch chile, peeled, seeded, and diced
  • zest of one lime
  • 1 teaspoon chile powder
  • 8 poached eggs
  • cotija cheese, crumbled
  • tomatillo sauce

Combine the black beans, corn, green onions, tomatoes, and lime juice in a medium saucepan. Heat the mixture over medium heat until the beans and corn are heated through. Reduce the heat to low, and keep the mixture warm. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the crema, the diced chile, lime zest, and chile powder. Season with salt and pepper.

Poach the eggs.

Split four English muffins or biscuits and set them on your serving plates. Spoon the bean and corn mixture onto each half of bread. Gently place a poached egg on each half. Spoon tomatillo sauce and crema onto each egg. Top with cotija cheese.

Learn how to make tomatillo sauce here: https://legalchow.com/tomatillo-sauce/.

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Grandparents Birthday Party

Photo by James Besser on Unsplash

When my mother passed away in November, I simultaneously became a 59 ½-year-old orphan and the oldest living member of my immediate family. It is sobering to think of my ongoing responsibilities to extended family members in this dual role.

I am the oldest of five siblings. My brother and I are the bookends of the brood, with 12 years and three sisters in between us. I call him my “favorite” brother; he (lovingly) refers to me as his “only” brother.

My father passed away before my brother’s two teenage sons were born, so they will know their grandfather only if we teach them about him. And they need to know the great heritage that he left them.

My father is the finest man I have ever known. He was kind, hard-working, and trustworthy. He behaved the same way in public as he did at home. I never saw him say or do anything inappropriate, nor did he ever raise his voice in anger. If I can be half as good a man as he was, my life will be a success.

And my mother was his equal. She was a writer, a poet, and a teacher, whose passion for perfection led her on a life-long quest for learning. But most of all, she had an unlimited capacity to love. If Mom decided that you were worth loving (and very few people were not worthy in her estimation), she would love your fervently and unceasingly.

My four siblings live within 15 minutes of our home. Nearly all of our children live within a stone’s throw as well, which means that we have regular opportunities to get together for extended family celebrations.

So we gathered together recently to celebrate my father’s (July 7) and mother’s (August 15) birthdays. We had 34 adults (my parents’ children and grandchildren) and 12 children (their great-grandchildren) present; we missed those who were not able to attend because of illness or distance.

And food! We had lots of food. I smoked nine racks of St. Louis style pork ribs, which we slathered with homemade cherry barbecue sauce. We made mac and cheese and served it with cornbread. Everyone else brought food to match our BBQ theme.

The only thing better than eating good food is eating good food with people you love. We laughed, loved, and ate until we could eat no more.

We may have started a new family tradition.

Smoked Pork Ribs

  • St. Louis style pork ribs
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup kosher salt
  • ¼ cup ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
  • Tart cherry juice

Remove the ribs from the refrigerator about one hour before you begin cooking so that they can come to room temperature. Heat your smoker to 250*.

Mix the brown sugar, salt, pepper, and paprika thoroughly. Pat the ribs dry with a paper towel. Remove the membrane on the bone side of the ribs. You may need to use pliers to get a grip on the membrane.

Season both sides of the ribs with liberal amounts of the rub. Put the ribs upright in a rib rack. Place the ribs into the smoker.

The ribs need to smoke about 5 to 6 hours. Check the ribs hourly to monitor their progress. Spray the ribs with tart cherry juice each hour to keep them moist and to infuse them with flavor. The ribs are done when they are dark brown and crusty, with the meat pulling back a bit from the tips of the bones.

Cherry BBQ Sauce

(Adapted from Steven Raichlen’s Best Ribs Ever)

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 cups fresh or frozen sour cherries
  • 1 ½ cups tart cherry juice
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • ½ cup cider vinegar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • ¼ cup cherry preserves
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • Kosher salt and  ground pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions, and cook until they are translucent. Add the cherries and cook until the mixture is soft.

Add the cherry juice, and increase the heat to high. Let the mixture simmer until the liquid is reduced almost by half.

Reduce the heat to medium. Add the remaining ingredients. Let the sauce simmer for about 6 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and let the sauce cool. Puree in a blender. Taste the sauce, and add additional salt and pepper if needed. Makes about 3 cups.