Dessert By Candy

A Decade Of Blogging

Last Sunday Dessert By Candy turned 10 years old. It dawned on me how many things happened since the first day I took up writing and how much things changed. At the same time, I am glad that my love of cooking and writing is still the driving force behind Dessert By Candy. My blog may not be trendy nor famous but it remains my favourite place to share my stories both in and out of the kitchen.

Being a part of the blogging community, I often come across tips on increasing readership, guidelines on design aesthetics, how to engage through social media, and of course how to monetize from blogging. I read them with great interest but at the end of the day, I just want to cook fun things and hope you will try it some time too. Dessert By Candy ought to be my fun place to explore the enjoyment of great food.

Having said that, I did take a big step last year to “make things official”. I finally claimed the domain http://dessertbycandy.com! No more fidgeting with the long and clumsy URL when you want to check out my blog on your mobile device. It only took me more than 9 years to finally commit…but better late than never, right?

Breakfast Strata & Croissant Bread Pudding

Great way to use stale croissants with many variations based on ingredient availability. The sweet bread pudding is slightly richer than the savoury strata by using more cream and fewer eggs in the custard. However, the technique is essentially the same.

Variations for the savoury strata include using different combination of fillings such as:

• chopped grilled vegetable
• different types of cheese (soft goat cheese, mozzarella)
• addition of savouries such as olives, anchovies, roasted garlic, fresh herbs

Variations for the sweet bread pudding include using:

• spread orange marmalade on croissant halves before chopping. Add chopped chocolate to filling.
• add toasted nuts or other dried fruit

Ham & Cheese Breakfast Strata

makes 1 9x13 pan or 12 servings

Ingredients

• 8 stale ham & cheese croissants, frozen and no need to defrost
• 15 slices of ham, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese, divided
• 1/4 cup drained chopped sundried tomato in oil
• 1/4 cup fried onion
• 10 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1000 mL whole milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 275F hi fan setting. Spray non-stick oil spray on 9x13 inch glass baking dish.
2. Roughly chop 6 croissants into 9 pieces and spread evenly in baking dish.
3. Scatter ham, 1/4 cup of cheese, sundried tomato, and fried onion evenly over croissant pieces. Layer with more chopped croissant pieces and 1/4 cup of cheese to ensure fillings are not exposed.
4. In a large 3L measuring cup, whisk eggs with mustard and salt. Add milk and whisk until combined. Pour into baking dish and lightly press on croissant pieces to soak in custard. Wrap with foil and rest for 10-15 minutes in fridge.
5. Put baking dish on half sheet pan and bake for 60 minutes.
6. Remove foil and baking for 15-20 minutes until custard only jiggle in the center.
7. Place on warming plate and rest for 10 minutes before cutting into 12 pieces.

Croissant Bread Pudding

makes 1 9x13 pan or 12 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup raisins
• 1 Earl Grey tea bag
• 9 stale plain croissants, frozen and no need to defrost
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup / 200g white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1500 mL half & half
• 3 tablespoons of coarse raw cane sugar

Method

1. Place raisins and tea bag in a small bowl. Fill with hot water until raisins are covered. Remove tea bag after 5 minutes. Soak raisins for 30 minutes to plump. Drain away liquid.
2. Preheat oven to 275F hi fan setting. Spray non-stick oil spray on 9x13 inch glass baking dish.
3. Roughly chop 6 croissants into 9 pieces and spread evenly in baking dish.
4. Scatter raisins evenly over croissant pieces. Layer with more chopped croissant pieces to ensure fillings are not exposed.
5. In a large 3L measuring cup, whisk eggs with sugar, vanilla extract, and salt. Add half & half and whisk until combined. Pour into baking dish and lightly press on croissant pieces to soak in custard. Wrap with foil and rest for 10-15 minutes in fridge.
6. Put baking dish on half sheet pan and bake for 60 minutes.
7. Remove foil and sprinkle with raw cane sugar. Baking 15-20 minutes until custard only jiggle in the center and sugar forms a crackly topping.
8. Rest for 10 minutes before cutting into 12 pieces. Can be served warm or at room temperature. Great with a scoop of vanilla gelato.

Crowd Pleasing Cider Doughnuts

Homemade doughnuts are always worth the trouble. The freshness of a doughnut minutes after emerging from a vat of hot oil is simply incomparable. Biting into that crispy crust enveloping soft fluffy centre makes all the work of deep frying worthwhile. Every time I make doughnuts at home, I always tell myself that I should do it more often but it is easier said than done. That’s good news for my waistline.

When I made my Chinese New Year snacks last week, I planned out my schedule to incorporate a batch of cider doughnuts. I bookmarked the recipe for these cake doughnuts from smitten kitchen long ago but did not have a chance to try until recently. The use of apple cider reduction drew me to the recipe initially because it ensured a strong apple flavour without excessive liquid. However, it was simply another hurdle that caused me to procrastinate. Deep frying is already hard enough. Why would I want to add more cooking time by slowly reducing apple cider until it turns syrupy?