Okay, here’s my attempt at writing a blog post in the style you described, focusing on my “focaccia bread pudding” experiment:
Alright, so the other day I had this HUGE leftover hunk of focaccia. You know, the kind with all the good rosemary and sea salt on top? I hate wasting food, especially good bread. I was thinking, “What can I do with this besides just, like, eat it with soup?” Then it hit me – bread pudding!
I’ve made regular bread pudding before, but never with focaccia. I figured, why not? It’s bread, right? So I started by ripping up the focaccia into, I don’t know, maybe one-inch-ish pieces. Didn’t measure, just eyeballed it. I tossed those into a big ol’ baking dish.
Next, the custard. I whisked together some eggs – I think I used four? – with a good glug of milk, some heavy cream (because, why not go all out?), and a decent amount of sugar. Not too much, though, because I didn’t want it overly sweet. I also threw in a splash of vanilla extract. Just a splash, you know?
Mixing everything
I poured that eggy mixture all over the bread chunks, making sure everything got nice and soaked. I let it sit for a bit – maybe 20 minutes? – to really let the bread absorb all that liquid. You don’t want any dry bits, that’s for sure.
While that was soaking, I preheated the oven. I think I set it to, like, 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m not good at remembering numbers. Then, I sprinkled a little bit more sugar on top – just a tiny bit, for a little extra sweetness and crunch.
baking
I popped the dish into the oven and baked it for… a while. Honestly, I kinda lost track of time. I think it was around 45 minutes? You just want it to be all golden brown and puffy, and the custard should be set, not jiggly.
I pulled it out of the oven and let it cool down a little bit – you don’t want to burn your tongue! – and then I dug in.
And you know what? It was GOOD. Like, surprisingly good. The savory-ness of the focaccia with the sweet custard? Awesome combo. It was a little denser than regular bread pudding, but in a good way. Kind of chewy and… I don’t know, just… good.
So yeah, that’s my focaccia bread pudding story. Definitely doing that again. Next time, maybe I’ll add some fruit or something. Or chocolate chips. Ooooh, chocolate chips…
