Pirates, and Doughnuts, and Pudding. Oh, My!
/A few short weeks ago, my son Jonathan - who also happens to be the last man-child I have left at home - woke me up with, "Mom! We are getting doughnuts today!"
I should probably explain at this point that this is not an unusual occurrence around here. He often wakes me up with proclamations of what we will be doing that day. What was unusual on this particular occasion was that he was dressed like a pirate. From head to toe.
I should further explain that because I was the costume mom for the high school drama productions for so many years and because we often have parties where dressing up is required, we have amassed a great stockpile of costume pieces.
Which brings us to the random early morning Pirate thing. It happens that Krispy Kreme Doughnuts was having a 'Talk Like A Pirate Day' promotion. Anyone who went into one of the participating stores and talked like a Pirate would receive a free glazed doughnut for their effort. I wasn't sure a doughnut was worth the effort.
"Jonathan. I don't know if it's worth the effort."
Did I mention that Jon was dressed like a pirate? From head to toe? And there was an earring and no dissuading him? Because apparently if you took the piratey thing up a notch and didn't just talk, but dressed up too, you would be rewarded. You would get, not just one sweet doughtnut, but an entire dozen doughnuts. A quick Google search told me he wasn't lying.
Before you ask...no, I didn't dress up, but I did go along for support (and curiosity about how this thing was going to play out, but that's not important right now).
So, we headed down to our local Krispy Kreme Store to collect our free dozen doughnuts, or in my case (because I was not in full pirate regalia) my one doughnut.
it seemed that everyone and their mother (but not Jonathan's mother) was dressed up as a pirate and collecting free doughnuts. It was A Thing. Who knew?
I felt kind of bad for them as people were coming in collecting boxes and boxes of free doughnuts, so that by the time it was our turn in line and I managed a half-hearted, "Arrr, matey" and they handed me my free doughnut I had made A Decision.
Jon did some kind of elaborate piratey monologue, which was completely appropriate given the fact that he was looking pretty scalawaggy (<--I'm pretty sure that's not a word, but you get my meaning). As they were about to gift him his well-earned dozen classic glazed doughnuts, I had a stab of conscience and decided to also buy another dozen.
As we were heading home with 2 dozen (plus one!) fresh glazed donuts, it struck me that NO WAY would we be able to eat our bounty (that's pirate talk for 'reward'. You're welcome.)
There are only 3 of us left at home and Eric was at work all day. We had no plans to have anyone over. At least not for coffee & doughnuts.
Which left me with the (almost absurd) task of finding a life and purpose for all those doughnuts. We managed to eat (and share) most of the first box, but still had a dozen doughnuts just languishing in their box. I felt bad. Fresh, hot Krispy Kremes offer an amazing transcendental sensory experience. They are THE BEST. But these were going to go bad and I couldn't let that happen on my watch. So I turned to the interwebs for help.
It may be that there's something imminently wrong with me that Pinterest is the first place I turned to, but such is my cyber-life in the 21st century. Also, if you're so inclined, you can follow me on Pinterest.
It was there that I came across this perfect idea. What do I usually do with stale bread -when I have the time and motivation, of course? Bread pudding! Of course. I love bread pudding. I have a couple of tried and true bread pudding recipes that I love. Here are those links:
- Not-My-Tio-Fernando's Bread Pudding Recipe (with guava)
- Sourdough Bread Pudding with Salted Honey Sauce
So now I was on a quest to find a way to take the stale glazed doughnuts and make a bread pudding. Genius. I found that some people used sweetened condensed milk in theirs, and being Cuban, that would be my first option, but then I felt that there was already enough sweetness inherent in the doughnuts themselves, so I opted for whole milk and heavy cream with brown sugar as an alternative.
If you measure out your ingredients beforehand, this comes together rather quickly. I was happily surprised.
You're curious now, aren't you?
Krispy Kreme Doughnut Bread Pudding With Chocolate Sauce
INGREDIENTS
- At least 1 dozen stale glazed doughnuts (Krispy Kremes are my first choice)
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- a pinch of nutmeg (careful with this - you want just a tiny hint of flavor)
Chocolate Sauce
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
DIRECTIONS
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
3) Cut each doughnut into about 6 pieces and place in the greased dish.
4) In a medium bowl, whisk together all the other ingredients - eggs, milk, heavy cream, brown sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and nutmeg.
5) Pour mixture over doughnuts.
6) Press doughnuts down into the liquid. Make sure they are all moistened. Let sit 10 minutes.
7) Place baking dish in oven and bake uncovered for 45 minutes.
Chocolate Sauce
- Place chocolate chips in a bowl.
- Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Pour over chocolate chips. Let sit 15 seconds to melt chocolate. Stir until smooth.
- Pour over bread pudding.
The finished doughnut/bread pudding was an instant hit around here. So much so that we made another visit to Krispy Kreme to procure yet another dozen glazed doughnuts and intentionally let them go stale (WHO AM I??) so that I could make it again. I'm way past the guilt and really enjoying this recipe win.
Plus, I now have a whole year to practice my pirate jokes.
"What's a Pirate's favorite letter of the alphabet?" "ARRRR?" "No! It's the C!"
