Sometimes cold can be good – Bread Pudding With Ricotta, Nutella and Strawberry Jam
In our house you know Spring has come when you can use the Nutella as a spread again. During the winter we more or less hack it out of the jar and when I make crepes or pancakes and want to top them with Nutella, I have to place the jar very close to the flame and turn it around now and then so that it softens a bit and I can spread it on the pancakes. You get used to it. You get used to finding your olive oil ‘frozen’, to not having to put the butter into the fridge because it really doesn’t make any difference. You get used to using more yeast in the dough and planning you baking unless you make a Cuban bread. Cooking and ingredients in this house enter another dimension when the weather gets colder.
The days are getting longer, I see small buds on trees and bushes but Spring isn’t here yet, it doesn’t matter how much I wish and pretend and rave and rage, our Nutella is still hard as a rock and now they are even saying we’re having more snow by the end of the week. One day, I know, it will end but man, does it have to take so long?? On the other hand, the positive one, you can use Nutella in new ways. For example as chocolate chips like I have in this really filling and comforting Bread Pudding With Ricotta, Nutella and Strawberry Jam. I am convinced you can use Nutella in its soft state of being as well, but it is a little easier to get the chocolate chip effect when it is cold. Maybe you could put some on a plate in the fridge for 20 minutes or maybe more? That should cool it down and make it easy to crumble. I don’t know and I am not going to try, thank you, I have enough of hard Nutella as it is.
Here is the recipe sketch to Bread Pudding With Ricotta, Nutella and Strawberry Jam: I took ca 200 g/7 oz of fresh ricotta and mixed it with 1 egg yolk, 2 tbsp milk (but that amount depends on how firm your ricotta is) 1 tbsp sugar, I crumbled 2-3 tbsp of Nutella, you can also use chopped chocolate, the effect is the same, and mixed it. Then I added 2-3 tbsp strawberry jam and stirred very little, two-three rounds so that the jam didn’t dissolve into the ricotta cream, in this way you will find small treasures of Nutella and jam when you later eat the pudding. Next you put thin slices of bread without any crust on into a bowl of milk and quickly soak them on both sides. Grease a small oven-proof form with butter (yes butter because it tastes better this way) and layer bread with the ricotta cream, taking care to finish with the cream. I added a little more of Nutella and jam on top, plus a few smaller pieces of bread topped with small pieces of butter on them. Bake in a pre-heated oven (200°C/390°F) until golden. Let it cool down a bit before eating, I like it both warm and cold.
Wow, your house must be extremely cold… Thankfully, that doesn’t happen at my place, although I can’t really say that my apartment is really hot.
This pudding must be exquisite! What a great combination.
I love your pretty plates.
Cheers,
Rosa
Our winters also get cold in South Africa, but our straw bale house keeps us from getting that cold inside! We can leave the butter out but our olive oil never gets solid.
Hope your spring comes soon!
Ilva, I could not help it and had to laugh out loud when I read your tale of Nutella chips! Sorry for that!
The moment I spied your first image here, I was smitten. Stunning, Ilva, bravissima!
I feel your pain, about winter not wanting to end. It is snowing as I type!
I have had it.
Wishing you an early spring, soon,
Merisi
Chilly weather is welcome by me so long as it comes with fluffy white snow and delicious treats baking in my oven!
This bread pudding looks stellar! I love the strawberry and nutella together and can’t wait to try it!
Poor you! At least our home has heating! But I think warm bread pudding straight from the oven is the ultimate winter comfort food. Yours looks so good that I have to make a version of it myself. But how will I ever style and shoot such gorgeous gorgeous photos?
Haha I know exactly what you mean about the cold Nutella! We get it with Marmite and also speculoos spread too. I love the idea of turning that into a virtue and making it into chocolate chips!
HA! We keep our butter out in the winter, so we have the same experience… when you can spread it, it’s probably time to start keeping it in the fridge.
This may be the most delicious looking bread pudding… and I’m not really a huge Nutella fan (well, I like it, but we don’t always keep it around like some people). And then there’s the ricotta. I think that’s what has me sold. I’m a sucker for desserts (or breakfasts) with ricotta.
Ah, winter–never long enough. I’m serious–the onset of spring, and the quickening of life that accompanies it, only makes me anxious. Have you tried Rigoni di Asiago’s Nocciolata? It doesn’t harden in cold the way Nutella does, and it’s organic (biodynamic) and otherwise free of questionable ingredients to boot; I prefer it to Nutella. What a delightful bread pudding sketch, however! It’s sort of like an Italian twist on the American peanut butter and jelly sandwich concept–and this really is the season for bread pudding…
Haha, vilket underbart vårtecken att hålla koll på Nutellakrämens konsistens! Även här i Sverige börjar ljuset återvända, men det var minus fem i morse (Stockholm) och snön ligger kvar så det lär dröja ett tag innan våren kommer. Men jag är glad över ljuset!
Long ago I started leaving my butter out. It always works well in Michigan … can’t allow it in Dallas from May thru Sept unless one wants melted butter.
and I know the bread pudding would be lovely hot from the oven.
Love the idea of making the Nutella chips on a plate
O pour Ilva..
That sounds pretty cold over there… Having just returned from the heat of Southern Asia I can safely say that I was quite happy to be back in milder climates. 40 C is a little too much for me, but you’re right; it’s about time we headed full steam into spring. Enough with the snow and ice and freezing cold! Love that bread pudding though!