When gluten free baking goes wrong...

I don't know where my head has been the last few weeks but it certainly hasn't been keeping track of my pantry essentials so when I went to do some baking on Saturday I hadn't got enough corn flour or tapioca flour to make up a batch of my go to blend and I just wasn't feeling up to the trek to the store.

I found a box of this premixed flour blend I had bought as a trial and figured there was no better time to put it to the test. Silly me. I should have trust my instincts before I bought it. There was a little niggling voice in my head going "been there, tried that and it didn't work" but I bought it anyway. All in the name of research I told myself.

 
 
 
A lesson I have learned along the way with these mixes, even when it says you can substitute it into any recipe, 9 times out of 10 it doesn't work so I decided to try the recipes that the company suggest and advertised on the box. I made a pasty and a white sandwich bread. Firstly the pasty recipe was very dry and didn't come together like the recipe suggested.  I had to add a lot of liquid (not included in recipe) to try bind the pasty together. When the pastry was cooked it was rock hard. A solid layer that was just not edible. The sandwich bread recipe was also lacking in the wet ingredients and didn't form a batter as suggested on the box. Again I had to add more liquid to the mix. The bread didn't rise and I was left a two terrible bakes.

 
So what do you do when a gluten free bake goes wrong???
Normally I make bread crumbs but I have a bag full in the freezer already. I didn't need any more. I decided to make a Bread and Butter Pudding. Obviously, I had run out of raisin's {see earlier shopping note} but had some dried cranberries and white chocolate drops. Who doesn't like that combination!!



 
1 1/2 cups cream
2/3 cup milk
3 eggs
 1/3 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Handful Dried Cranberries
Handful white chocolate drops
1 tablespoon light brown sugar for sprinkling
 
 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an ovenproof baking dish.
Butter all bread slices. Line the bottom of your dish with a couple of full bread slices, butter side up. Chop the remainder of the bread into small pieces. 
In layers place the bread pieces sprinkled with some cranberries and white chocolate.  Repeat until your dish is full.
For the custard heat cream and milk in a saucepan, almost to a boil. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla in a heatproof bowl, then pour the hot milk/cream combo on top, whisking as you go. Pour over bread and use a fork to press the bread down to soak up the custard. Let sit for 20 minutes. Sprinkle brown sugar over top before going into the oven.
The bread pudding will cook in a water bath. The easiest way to do this I found is to place the baking dish in a large roasting pan and put in the centre of your oven, then carefully pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come halfway up side of dish. This eliminates the potential to scald yourself while moving the water bath to the oven if the water is put in first not that I'm speaking from experience or anything ;-)
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden and centre is just set.
 
     
     
    Other than a basic bread pudding recipe which I got here I just added a sprinkle of cranberries and white chocolate to the layers of bread. I served mine with ice-cream but it would go just as well with fresh cream or custard. Anything really. It's a super homely dessert to warm your insides as the nights draw in.
     
    Hope you like it as much as we did. I've officially started the count down to Christmas. Well December 18th a least. We are heading back to Ireland for the holidays.... soooooo excited!!
     

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Have a great week.
 
Michelle xxx 
 
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