Presley's Pantry

I am a cookie CREATURE.

I am the COOKIE fiend.

Cookies are THE ONLY thing that make me WEAK in the knees.

I’ll eat them, till their all GONE…..

and believe you me, it won’t take LONG.

COOKIES for PRESIDENT!

COOKIES ARE KING!

Eat these cookies, their guaranteed to make you sing.

Cookie Ingredients:

1 – cup apple juice (I use Martinelli’s)

3 – cinnamon sticks

1 – cup raisins

2 1/3 – cups flour

1 – teaspoon salt

1 – teaspoon baking soda

1/4 – teaspoon cinnamon

2 – sticks butter (room temperature)

3/4 – sugar

3/4 – packed dark brown sugar

1/2 – teaspoon almond extract

1 – teaspoon vanilla extract

2 – eggs

2 – cups chocolate chips

1 – cup coarsely chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit.

In a saucepan over a medium flame, add apple juice, cinnamon sticks, and raisins.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Then take off flame and drain.  Set raisins to the side.  This step will rehydrate your raisins, and make them juicy plump!

In a medium bowl add flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Set to the side.

In a mixer add butter, sugar, and dark brown sugar. Mix until creamy.

Then add almond extract and vanilla. Mix in. Next add eggs, and mix to combine.

Adding a little at a time, add in flour mixture. Until all is combined.

Then add raisins, chocolate chips, and almonds. Mix in well.

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat, drop cookie dough by heaping tablespoons 2 inches apart.

Bake for 11 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Take out of oven and let cool for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

SNACK TIME!

The smell of certain foods take me to other places or times in my life.  I love that.  My wheel of music does the same for me.  Especially songs from my adolescence.  When I need to be inspired I find music to be my biggest muse.  In my world, cooking and listening to music go hand in hand.  Nothing better then putting on a GREAT album, when preparing a big meal.  I get lost singing along to the lyrics, with complete focus on what I’m cooking.  It’s my way of telling the rest of the planet to take a hike while I encircle myself in the joy of escaping into my own private orbit.  Once I’m in the safety of that bubble the possibilities are inexhaustible.  I’m locked in.  If I feel like singing at the top of my lungs it has to be Fiona Apple, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, The Pretenders, or Bjork.  If the mood calls for something that’s more upbeat New Order, Daft Punk (Discovery), Imperial Teen, Lily Allen, Manu Chao, or Michael Jackson (Off The Wall) will get me moving.  When it’s all about the French invasion who better than Brigitte Bardot, Django Reinhardt, and Serge Gainsbourg, those are my faves!  Sometimes I want to become one with the music…. John Lennon & Yoko Ono (Double Fantasy), Hugh Masekela (Grazin in The Grass), Ethiopiques (Volume 4), Buena Vista Social Club, Peter Bjorn and John, Kings of Convenience (Quiet Is The New Loud), and Miles Davis (Kind of Blue, and Bitches Brew) become part of my skin.  When I want to relive the soundtrack of my youth I could depend on  The Smiths, Sonic Youth (Goo), Pixies (Doolittle), Joy Division, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs, Duran Duran, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, and the Beatles (Revolver, and Abbey Road).  These artists are the wordsmiths that remind me that it is great to be alive!

I could talk a million miles about all the other bands that were left out that I love, but I have to leave room for the recipe.  Sorry Steely Dan.

Pine Nut Mushroom Rice is a staple in my house, and is always found in my fridge.  I have probably made it dozens of times while each of these artists played in the background.

Rice Ingredients:

4 – tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick)

2 – chopped white mushrooms

2 – chopped crimini mushrooms

1 – tablespoon minced garlic

2 – cups extra long grain rice (I use Mahatma)

1/4 – cup chopped green onion (white part only) (about 6 stalks)

1/2 – cup pine nuts

1/2 – tablespoon roasted sesame seeds

1/2 – teaspoon black pepper

1 – teaspoon Lawry’s seasoned salt

4 – cups vegetable broth

In a medium pot/sauce pan (with a lid), over a medium high flame, melt butter then add mushrooms, and let saute for 5 minutes. Stirring every minute or so.

Then add in garlic, and rice. Mix well. Continue to saute for another 3 minutes.

Next add in chopped green onions and pine nuts. Continue to saute for 4 minutes. You will notice the rice is starting to brown. Continue to mix so rice doesn’t burn.

Now add sesame seeds, pepper, and Lawry’s. Mix for another minute or until all rice is golden brown.

Add broth and bring to a boil.

Once broth is boiling. Lower flame to low/simmer, and cover pot with a lid.

Cook for 20 minutes. That’s it you’re done!

I like to serve mine with fresh sliced tomatoes, then squeeze lemon over top.

Some people love it with tomatoes, lemon served on the side.

It’s delicious!

As a kid I looked forward to Easter every year.  To me it meant: Confetti eggs, a new Easter dress, a cute little bunny pin on my sweater, yellow ribbons in my hair, and a fancy basket that my mom would put her heart into.  She knew exactly how to make it special and filled the basket with all my favorite treats.  I would pull the brightly colored cellophane off to find yellow marshmallow bunnies, colorful plastic eggs filled with jellybeans or sweet tarts, a chocolate egg from See’s, chocolate malt balls with a hard white shell, Jordan almonds, a variety of small japanese toys, and a big solid chocolate bunny wrapped in pink foil.  Complete kiddie heaven.

Come Easter day we would have a huge family picnic with all the fixings.  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, ham, macaroni and cheese, and some sort of green salad.  Dessert was a whole party on it’s own…. Chocolate banana cream cake, finger jello, ambrosia salad, sugar shortbread cookies, and lemon meringue pie. A sugar high for all. Then the grand Easter egg hunt would take place, my cousins and I would scramble in a frenzy to try and find the golden egg, that was the one with money in it.  It was a day of absolute family closeness, and a spirit of fulfilled happiness.  Once the sun would start to fade the festivities would die down, everyone would say their good-byes, and return home.

I would jump into my pajamas first thing, and settle in for a screening of “The Wizard of Oz”, which showed annually every Easter evening on regular television.  But nothing was complete until my mom would serve me a bowl of warm capirotada topped with whipped cream and candy sprinkles.  It was the finale to my Easter.  The end all of end all’s.  It was made of the things I dreamed about.  Sweet rich softness on the inside, crystallized and crispy on the outside.  The most divine taste you could put in your mouth.  I relished every bite, and till this day capirotada is what I look forward to the most when Easter/Lent rolls around. Hippity Hippity Hoppity Hoppity Easter’s on it way!

Capirotada Ingredients:

7 – pan dulce (conchas) (sliced and toasted, should make around 10 cups)

6 – cups water

3 – piloncillo (cane sugar)

5 – cloves

6 – cinnamon sticks

2 – anise stars

1 – teaspoon vanilla extract

2 – granny smith apples (peeled and sliced)

3/4 – cup raisins

1/2 – cup pecans (coarsely chopped)

1 – cup cheddar cheese (I use Tillamook)

1/2 – cup almonds (coarsely chopped)

1 – cup sweetened shredded coconut

2 – cups monterey jack cheese (I use Tillamook)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.

On a chopping board slice each pan dulce into 12 to 15 pieces.  Reserve all sugar topping crumbs for later use.

Then line two cookies sheets with aluminum foil and place sliced pan dulce evenly across each sheet.

Place in the oven and bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until golden brown.

Once you remove toasty pan dulce from oven, reduce temperature to 350 degrees fahrenheit.  In a saucepan, over a medium flame, add water, piloncillo, cloves, cinnamon sticks, anise stars, and vanilla extract to make syrup. Stir every so often to help piloncillo melt, once melted, reduce flame to low and let simmer while you build your capirotada.

In a buttered glass baking dish 9 x 13, place 5 cups of toasted pan dulce slices to bottom to form your first layer.

Now peel both granny smith apples and slice into thin wedges. Divide in half.

Next, use half of the granny smith apple slices and raisin to layer on top of toasted pan dulce.

Here comes the next layer. Add pecans and cheddar cheese.

Again add another layer of pan dulce with the remaining 5 cups, and almonds.

Now for the fun part. Take piloncillo syrup and pour over the top of toasted pan dulce layers to soak all the way through. The pan dulce should be very soggy and drenched.

Take other half of granny smith apples and coconut, and layer on top of soggy pan dulce.

Lastly add monterey jack cheese to layered apple/coconut. Then take pan dulce sugar topping crumbs and sprinkle over the top.  Place in oven for 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, pull capirotada out of oven and it should be golden and crunchy. Then loosely cover with aluminum foil and put back in the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes. This step will help to keep the top of your capirotada from burning, but allow more of the moisture to evaporate from bread pudding.

Pull it out of the oven, remove aluminum foil, and allow it to sit for a half hour.

🙂 Capirotada tip:  I like to serve mine warm with candy sprinkles on top.  If you’re feeling decadent add whipped cream to that equation.

“Te Sacastes Un Diez!”

Paris holds a big space in my heart.  People always talk about how romantic it is there, how great the shopping boutiques are, how the French are just born gorgeous, and not to forget that the architecture will leave you speechless.  Yes those things all hold true, but more importantly the food is off the charts.  It far surpasses all expectations I ever had.  It’s full of all the delicious things that we are taught to eat in moderation, yet the French seem perfectly healthy.  I have to admit, the first couple of times I visited the great city of lights I ate myself silly. I didn’t have any reservations about what passed my lips.  I thought ” I’ll deal with the repercussions when I get back home.”  Almond croissants, gruyere cheese, chocolate, chicken pate, pistachio macaroons, crepes, gougeres, foie gras in brioche, croque monsieur,  seafood stews that were cream based over puff pastry…I could go on and on.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the savory tart.  So perfect in every way, it made my taste buds dance with joy.  I made a nice drawer for it in my memory bank, and filed it away.

One day a good girlfriend of mine called and said “I’m in your neighborhood! Can I stop by? Got anything to eat? I’m beyond famished!” I said “of course, come over.” It was set she would be at my house in one hour.  I didn’t have time to go to the market, and I was running a little low on groceries at that moment. I panicked…I looked in my fridge only to find some left over mashed potatoes, a head of cauliflower, cheese and some packaged pie crust.  What was I going to do? I immediately remembered the savory tart I had loved so much in Paris. I went to my pantry to find I had two large onions on hand, without hesitation I sliced them up and throw them into a pan with some butter.  It was time to start building my rendition of the savory tart…

Ingredients for Savory Tart:

1 – box of Pillsbury pie crust (2 packets come per box, you’ll need both)

1 1/2 – cups garlic mushroom smashed Idaho potatoes (instructions on how to make listed below)

1/2 – cup parmesan cheese shavings

1 1/2 – cups sharp cheddar cheese (grated) (I use Tillamook)

1 1/2 – cups sauteed onion (instructions on how to make listed below)

2 – cups grilled cauliflower (instructions on how to make listed below)

1 – cup gruyere cheese (grated)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees:

Line 12″ round baking dish with pie crust… (use both packets to form a big enough crust, allow excess to drape over edge of baking dish). Poke a few fork marks into the crust.

Then scoop in smashed Idaho potatoes and smooth across with the back of a spoon.

Then add parmesan cheese shavings and grated sharp cheddar cheese.

Then spread sauteed onions on top of potato/cheese layer and distribute evenly. Next repeat layering with the grilled cauliflower.

Lastly top with 1 cup of grated gruyere.

Fold up side of crust to encase edges of savory tart.

Then take a piece of aluminum foil and cover the edges of your tart so it doesn’t burn.

Bake for 35 minutes, then take the aluminum foil off and bake for another 15 minutes; a total of 50 minutes.

Serve with a simple green salad.

Bon Appetit!

Ingredients for garlic mushroom smashed Idaho potatoes:

3 – large Idaho potatoes (Peeled and cut into 8 pieces)

1 – tablespoon minced garlic

1 – stick of butter

8 – large mushrooms (chopped)

1/2 – cup whipping cream

2 – tablespoons chopped green onion

salt and pepper to taste

Peel and boil pieces of potato for 20 minutes or until a fork can pierce through. Drain and place in a bowl and mash with a hand masher. Then in a frying pan place 2 tablespoons of butter with mushrooms and garlic and let saute for 5 minutes, then add the rest of the stick of butter to melt. Pour the butter garlic mushroom saute into the mashed potatoes along with the whipping cream and the chopped green onion, and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

🙂 Smashed Idaho Potato Tip: Will taste better if made a few days ahead of time and placed in the fridge.

Ingredients for sauteed onions:

2 – large onions (sliced)

4 – tablespoons butter

1 – teaspoon dried basil

2 – teaspoons salt

1/2 – teaspoon pepper

1/2 – teaspoon garlic powder

2 – tablespoons white wine (Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc)

Melt down butter in a large frying pan, then add onion, basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and let saute for 10 to 15 minutes over a medium high flame. Then add wine, mix well and let wine reduce for another 10 to 15 minutes. Mixing onions every 3 minutes or so. Then reserve in a bowl.

Grilled Cauliflower:

1 – large head of cauliflower (cut stalks off and just use the heads)

2 – tablespoons olive oil

1/2 – teaspoons chili flakes (the kind you put on pizza)

1 – teaspoon salt

1 – teaspoon pepper

In a large bowl mix together olive oil, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Then add your cauliflower heads and mix to cover with oil. Then grill your cauliflower to brown on each side ( I use my bar-b-que, but you can easily use a grill pan or a George Foreman) about 5 minutes on each side.

I have a good friend named Adrianna who I nicknamed A-dre, my partner in food crime.  It took a little convincing at first, my girl wasn’t big on onion or mushrooms when we initially became friends, but once she was introduced to proper preparation, that all became a thing of the past.  It doesn’t take much nudging on my part to get her to come along when I get a hankering to scour Los Angeles in search of the yummiest macaroon, baked ziti, french onion soup, torta… you name it.  She jumps in gung-ho and puts her seat belt on, sits back and smiles.  That’s my girl A-dre.  But if anything goes wrong, I always have to absorb the blame.  She’ll complain right in front of me to other friends that it’s my fault that she gained a pound or two.  I take it because I realized many years ago that it’s hard to be a size zero and be a girl who loves to eat.  Especially when you love bread or cake.   Which I do.  But this one time….It was A-dre who was taking the blame.

A-dre and I have literally criss-crossed this entire city tasting all cakes… from the fanciest bakeries to the hipster bakeries to the mom and pop hole in the wall bakeries.  We don’t turn our noses up when it comes to good cake.  We just want to taste them all and praise the best of the best and leave the bad ones in a distant memory.  I introduced her to all the bakeries that I had grown to know and love and in exchange she introduced me to her favorites.  One day she surprises me with a delicious Choco-flan cake.  Oh my word!  I thought it was the most genius thing the food gods had ever created.  I inhaled that cake and when I caught my breath I asked for more.  I was smitten.  I needed to know exactly where this bakery laid in the land.  She went on to tell me it was located in an area that didn’t have the best reputation and in fact was a bit on the scary side.  I didn’t care.  I wanted to go there and get more of this amazing cake.  It happened to be my mom’s birthday in a few weeks so I had the perfect excuse.  I got their phone number from A-dre and ordered my mom’s cake.  My mom was just as blown away by this choco-flan cake as I was.  The day after my mom’s birthday, I ask my mom to bring me a piece of cake.  As soon as the cake enters my house I dig my fork in and savor the taste again.  That evening I tell my fiance he should try the cake…. he’s sitting in the kitchen having his slice, when all of a sudden he bites into a good sized rock.  He totally freaks out because he almost broke his tooth, and tells me “There is a cussing rock in my cake!”  I say “No, maybe it’s a hard clump of sugar?”  He assures me it’s a rock as he pulls it out of his mouth and let’s me examine it up close.  Sure enough it was a rock.  Immediately we start making unpleasant comments about the bakery and questioning the cleanliness of their workspace.  We start saying A-dre introduced us to a shady bakery.  I vow never to step foot in that bakery again.  When I tell A-dre what happened, she is absolutely horrified and embarrassed.  She feels awful and apologizes for ruining my mom’s birthday cake and almost breaking my fiance’s molar with her bakery suggestion.  I think her eyes even welled up with tears.  I tell her it’s not her fault and not to worry about it, we’ll just never go to that bakery again.  Problem solved.  Come to find out, my mom remembered when she was loading the cake into her car to drive it over to my house, she dropped the cake plate on the newly graveled driveway, and a little pebble must have flown on the cake.  So all along it was really my mom’s fault. Hahahaha.  Sorry A-dre.

The good thing is: that whole dilemma prompted me to make my own Choco-flan and see what I could do to improve this already mouthwatering cake. I wanted the cake part to be super moist, and the flan to be ultra creamy supreme….. Here is my interpretation of the wonderful cake named Choco-flan!

Coconut Chocolate Cake Ingredients:

1/2 – cup cajeta (I use Coronado- cajeta quemada)

1 1/2 – cups water

3 – cinnamon sticks

1 3/4 – cups flour

1/2 – cup natural unsweetened coco powder (I use Hershey’s)

2 – teaspoons baking soda

1 – teaspoon baking powder

1/2 – teaspoon salt

2 1/4 – cups sugar

2 – large eggs

1 – cup buttermilk

1/2 – cup vegetable oil

1 – teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 – cups sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

In a small sauce pan over a low- medium flame, add water and cinnamon sticks and let simmer.

In a bowl combine flour, unsweetened coco powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and 1/4 cup sugar.  Set to the side.

In a mixer bowl, combine 2 cups sugar, 2 eggs, and vegetable oil. Mix on medium for 3 minutes.

Next add buttermilk and vanilla extract and beat for another 2 minutes.

Slowly add the chocolate flour mixture a little at a time to the egg/buttermilk blend to make cake batter.  Add the shredded coconut to the last 1/2 of cup of flour mixture and toss to coat, then add to the chocolate cake batter. Mix for another minute to combine.

Now take cinnamon stick water off of flame and strain into a cup. Then add  1 cup of hot cinnamon tea to cake batter, and mix for another 2 minutes on low or just to combine.

In a 12 cup bundt pan.  Coat with a non-stick baking spray, then pour in cajeta to bottom of pan.

Then take cake batter and slowly pour over cajeta.

In a tea kettle, fill with water and place over a high flame. While waiting for water to boil, make flan blend.

Flan Ingredients:

5 – ounces cream cheese (I use Philadelphia Cream Cheese at room temperature)

1 – 12 0z. can of evaporated milk (I use Carnation)

1 – 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk (I use Carnation)

1 – tablespoon vanilla extract

4 – large eggs

In a blender add cream cheese, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and eggs. Blend on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Once flan mixture is blended, slowly pour in a circle over cake batter, a little bit at a time.

Next take a piece of aluminum foil (enough to cover top of bundt pan) and coat with non-stick baking spray.  Loosely place sprayed aluminum foil on top of bundt pan and cover. Then place covered bundt pan in a large baking dish and fill halfway with super hot water from tea kettle.

Lastly, place the covered pan in hot bath in oven on middle rack and let bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes (80 minutes total).

Once cake is baked,  remove from hot bath and remove aluminum foil. Let cool in the pan for 2 hours, next run a butter knife along the edge of pan to pull cake away from pan, then flip it over onto a plate.

Slowly lift pan up away from plate. There you have it….PERFECT coconut Choco-FLAN! Put it in the fridge for another 4 hours and eat it chilled.

It’s FLAN-tastic!

I’m very sneaky when it comes to margaritas.  I like to make them really potent, but so tasty, you’d never know how much alcohol is actually floating around in your drink.  My margaritas go down smooth, and serve as the perfect thirst quencher, give it a minute or two and you’ll be checking back on your own reality, as many of my friends do when slurping down my sweet gal Margarita.  Me and Margarita have been good friends for a long time. Margarita is the sassy co-pilot I call on board when I feel an itching for a wild adventure.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be my adventure… I’m easily pleased sitting back and observing the influence Margarita takes on others as well.  Whether good or bad, it’s always interesting to watch who can resist her seduction, and who is enthralled by her alluring ways.

Here’s a funny story I relive by telling…..

In my early twenties, I worked for a high end post production studio where lots of celebrities would come in and do voice over work primarily for animated films, cartoons, and commercials.  You could imagine the insane demands we had to meet to make these people comfortable.  Naturally it was my job to keep the entire studio well supplied with all happiness relating to food and drink.  With a giddy bounce in my step I took that ball and ran with it.  In addition to the many treats I would whip up on a daily basis, every Friday afternoon I would up my game with a bigger bang.  This usually involved my dear friend Margarita.  Long story short…One Friday afternoon, a HUGE celebrity we all know and love comes walking through the door.  Along with greeting this celebrity (that I will not name), I offer him a margarita on the rocks that I had just made.  He looks at me with a cheshire grin, and then stares at the margarita for a long time.  Inside I’m doing somersaults just talking to him, so the idea that he is about to enjoy something I made is exciting.  Then he turns back to me, and says “I’m sorry, that margarita looks so delicious, but I really can’t.”  Still enthusiastic I say “Of course you can. I made it just for you. It’s amazing. This margarita will fly you to the moon. Drink it.”  His eyes went puppy dog sad, but still kept his grin to be polite then said “Wow. I would love nothing more than to drink that margarita, but darling I really shouldn’t.”  Me being the young buck that I was I said “Alright…Let me know if you change your mind” with a tone still trying to persuade him.  As he walked into his studio a few of my co-workers come running out, and say to me “Are you out of your mind? Don’t you know he just got out of rehab for being an insane alcoholic? He crashed and spun his car out on Mulholland Drive.”   I felt bad for tempting him with my luscious margarita.  No wonder he stared at it like a hungry wolf about to attack his prey.  Too bad he couldn’t control his alcohol… he missed out on a super yummy margarita.

I had a birthday this past weekend, and a few of my friends and some family decided to join me for a toast.  Of course I made margaritas, and like always…EVERYONE was in LOVE with Miss Margarita.  Here’s a photo of my birthday festivities….

 

 

Margarita Ingredients:

3 – cups tequila ( I use Cuervo 1800, or Cuervo gold )

3/4 – cup Cointreau

3/4 – cup triple sec

1 – cup Rose’s sweetened Lime Juice

2 1/2 – cups margarita mix

1 1/2 – cups orange juice (I use Florida Natural- no pulp)

3/4 – cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 12 limes) – I save the rinds of the limes to put inside of the margarita pitcher

salt (optional)

sliced oranges for garnish (optional)

ice cubes

In a 11 cup pitcher mix in all ingredients including lime rinds. Salt the rim of your glass (Optional), add ice cubes and pour in margarita. Garnish with orange slice.

CHEERS!

“I could feel your energy, it’s very strong.  I could tell by looking in your eyes, you are a very old wise soul.”  These were the first words I heard as we entered into the gates of Christiania, Copenhagen.  Now mind you, this wasn’t a fortune teller expressing these words to me, it was simply a woman passing me by.  I wasn’t sure what to expect of Christiania, I had heard all these magical wonderful stories of how it was a real life version of Pinocchio’s “Pleasure Island”.  I had heard how creative people had taken over this piece of land in Denmark, and gave it to the poor, along with Greenlanders, and talented musicians.  It was now a place where progressive thinking thrived, and anyone who craved a liberated lifestyle could come to this great commune and feel at home.  It was August of 2002, and I was on tour with my aunt Hope, singing backing vocals and playing keyboards as part of The Warm Inventions (Hope Sandoval and The Warm Inventions).  We had a few days off and the band decided Copenhagen would be a grand place to pass our free time.  Within two hours of arriving and parking our tour bus, a plan was mapped out, taxi cabs were called, and we were on our way to Christiania.  En route there, Hope continued to school me on all the in’s and out’s of Christiania…telling me that it was a place where cannabis, hash, and hallucinogenic mushrooms were sold freely, and if you didn’t have enough money they would also be willing to barter with the individual.   Even though this was not an activity we would take part in, it is an important piece of information one needs to know in order to get a full understanding of the place.  She went on to tell me that many chefs had opened five star restaurants in the commune and were generating a lot of traffic to the area.  No one was allowed to take photographs anywhere on site, and police cars were forbidden from entering along with taxi cabs, therefore we would have to be dropped off at the gate.  So like I said…I didn’t know what to expect.

We finally arrive, and are dropped off at the side of a dirt road.  The taxi cab driver gives us his phone number and tells us he will return to pick us up in the exact same spot, all we need to do is give him a call when we are ready.  We walk through the big rod iron gate that is separating Christiania from the rest of Copenhagen, and make our way through what resembles a swap meet.  Little tents stand all lined up side by side, vending beaded bracelets, glass blown pipes, and colorful cute summer dresses.  The sun is just about to set when we come to a section of the commune that houses some of the best restaurants in all of Copenhagen.  We chose one that was made out of big rocks.  The smell of delicious-ness wafted us at the door.  I remember everything was made of wood inside, the floors, high ceilings with the beams exposed, the chairs, stools and the massive long table they sat us all at.  It was the most casual, laid back experience I had ever witnessed.  The waitress smoked puff after puff as she took our order.  There were dogs and cats lounging around, some even under our table.  Yet every meal described on the menu sounded absolutely divine.  It would have taken wild horses to pull me away from my plate that night.  Everyone at the dinner table went silent once the food was served.  There was no time for talking, the main focus was tasting and eating.  All you heard was “Ummmmm”, and little sounds of pleasure under the tongue.  At that point of my gastronomic journey I was in heaven, and ready to be in a food coma.  There was no way I would fall short without requesting dessert, didn’t matter how full I was.  I ordered the chocolate croissant bread pudding….it was out of this world.  Now I could officially say I lived the magic firsthand.  I wondered why this place was famous for forward thinking and not for their bread pudding?

Ingredients for Bread Pudding:

1 1/2 tablespoons of salted butter

1 1/4 – cups sugar plus 2 tablespoons

4 – eggs

1 – teaspoon cinnamon

1 – teaspoon almond extract

1 – teaspoon vanilla

3 – cups half and half

1 – cup whole milk

5 – tablespoons unsalted butter (melted and brought back to room temperature)

5 – cups moist chocolate cake (no frosting) (cut into small squares)

5 – cups stale (3 – 4 days old) croissants (cut into small squares)

2 – banana (sliced)

1 – cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 – cup chopped pecans

1/2 – cup shredded sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

In a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish, take salted butter and generously grease entire dish. Cut both chocolate cake and croissants into cubes.

Now take 2 1/2 cups of chocolate cake and 2 1/2 cups of croissants and mix together in baking dish. Now arrange neatly to make your first layer .

Next neatly lay banana slices, chocolate chips, shredded coconut and pecans.

Mix remaining croissant and chocolate cakes cubes together, then top banana, chocolate chip, pecan, coconut layer with mixed cake/croissant cubes.

Now, with a electric mixer, beat 1 1/4 cups sugar and eggs together on high for 6 minutes. Next add cinnamon, almond extract, vanilla, half and half, milk and unsalted butter, and beat for 1 minute.  Carefully ladle egg/half and half mixture over prepared cake/croissant cubes.

Once all of the egg/half and half mixture is poured in, gently  press down on  cake/croissant cubes with both hands to make sure they are soaked in egg/half and half mixture. Then sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

Now in a large baking dish or roasting pan (15 x 10 inches or 4 quarts) fill 1 inch deep with hot water to create a water bath, then place the 9 x 13 inch prepared bread pudding dish in the middle of the 15 x 10 water bath (you want the bath to go halfway up the side of the 9 x 13 inch dish) and place in oven for 1 hour.

As soon as the bread pudding is ready, remove from water bath and and let it cool for 15 minutes.

I enjoy serving mine warn with coconut pineapple ice cream (I use Haagen Dazs) on top, and colorful candy sugar sprinkles.  I could eat bowl after bowl….

Happiness is Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding!