Signature Desserts

Two Southern Favorites
From DamGoodSweet by David Guas

Here are two southern favorites from pastry chef, boutique caterer, and television personality David Guas from his book DamGoodSweet - Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth New Orleans Style (Taunton Press). After the New Orleans neighborhoods he grew up in were nearly erased by Hurricane Katrina, Chef Gaus says he knew he needed to record and preserve not only the desserts of his family and region, but his memories as well. DamGoodSweet is a sweetened travelogue packed with recipes celebrating New Orleans. Cited as one of Food & Wine Magazine’s “favorite new dessert cookbooks,” DamGoodSweet has also been praised by AOL’s SlashFood.com, Washington Post, and Saveur.

Double Chocolate Bread Pudding
By David Gaus

Every year for Christmas, my mom and dad pulled out all the stops and took the family to Galatoire’s on Bourbon Street, one of the few places in New Orleans where a jacket is still required for the gentlemen. Galatoire’s for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day dinner is no joke—not even Tennessee Williams could reserve a table in advance. We’d bribe someone to save our spot in line, and he or she would wait there for sometimes up to eight hours to score us a table. The men and women who crowded the parlor-like dining room were decked out with so many bobbles and flashing lights attached to their sweaters, ears, and even on top of their heads that they looked like lit-up Christmas trees. At the end of the meal, after every drop of béarnaise sauce had been mopped off our plates, out would come Galatoire’s famous banana bread pudding, made with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg and served with a whiskey raisin sauce.

Bread pudding is one of my favorite holiday traditions, and I make it for my family every holiday season. It’s great for large gatherings and potlucks because it can be made up to three days ahead of time. This chocolate version is amazing when served with salted bourbon caramel.

In New Orleans you’d make bread pudding with airy Leidenheimer French bread, but I find that brioche, challah, or even day-old croissants or king cake make for an outrageously decadent pudding.

For the bread pudding
2          tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1          pound brioche bread, crust removed and sliced into 1-inch cubes
6          large eggs
1⁄3       cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
12        ounces bittersweet chocolate (preferably 66 percent–72 percent cacao), finely chopped
5 1⁄2    cups whole milk
2 1⁄2    cups heavy cream
1 3⁄4    cups sugar
1⁄4       teaspoon salt
3⁄4       teaspoon vanilla extract

For the caramel sauce
1 1⁄2    cups sugar
3⁄4       cup heavy cream
2          tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1⁄4       cup bourbon
1⁄4       teaspoon salt

Heat the oven to 325°F. Grease a 13x9-inch baking dish with the softened butter and set aside.

Place the bread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven until golden-brown, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating midway through. Set aside to cool.

Place the bread in the prepared baking dish and set aside. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl and set aside. Sift the cocoa into a medium bowl and set aside.

Place the chocolate in a large bowl. Bring the milk, cream, sugar, and salt to a boil in a large pot, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Turn off the heat, stir in the vanilla, and then pour the hot mixture over the chopped chocolate. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, set aside for 5 minutes, and then whisk until smooth.

Whisk 1/2 cup of the chocolate mixture into the cocoa, stirring until smooth. Whisk in another 1/2 cup of the chocolate mixture and then whisk in the eggs. Transfer to the large bowl of remaining chocolate mixture and whisk until they are completely incorporated.

Pour all but 1 cup of the chocolate mixture over the bread cubes in the baking dish and set aside so the bread can soak up the liquid. Press down on the bread with a wooden spoon every 15 minutes for 1 hour, adding the rest of the chocolate mixture after about 30 minutes, or when the bread has soaked up enough so the last cup of liquid will fit.

Heat the oven to 350°F.

Cover the bread pudding with aluminum foil and use a paring knife to make 4 small slits in the foil to allow steam to escape. Set the baking dish in a large roasting pan and place in the oven. Pour enough hot water in the roasting pan so the water reaches 1 inch up the side of the baking dish. If you don’t have a roasting pan large enough to fit the baking dish, set the dish onto a rimmed baking sheet and slide it in the oven, adding enough water to the baking sheet so it cushions the baking dish but doesn’t spill over. Bake for 45 minutes, and then remove the foil and bake until the pudding begins to puff slightly and the center bounces back to light pressure, about another 25 to 35 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes.

To make the sauce
While the bread pudding cools, make the caramel. Place the sugar in a 2-quart saucepan and add 1/4 cup of water. Cover (or if you can’t find a lid, top the saucepan with a heatproof bowl, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the sugar) and cook over medium heat, swirling the mixture every 1 to 2 minutes, until the sugar is liquefied, about 6 minutes. Continue to cook until the sugar is a medium-amber color, another 4 to 6 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the cream (it will vigorously bubble up at first), whisking the mixture until smooth, then add the softened butter, bourbon, and salt. Set aside and serve with the still-warm bread pudding.

Make Ahead Bread pudding is one of those desserts that is great for entertaining because it can be made and refrigerated a few days ahead of time. To warm, reheat the entire pan of bread pudding in a water bath in a 350°F oven until the center is warm. Or, for individual portions, slice and reheat in your microwave or toaster oven. The caramel can be covered and stored at room temperature for 2 days, or covered and refrigerated for up to 2 weeks ahead of time. Reheat the sauce in a saucepan or in your microwave.

Leidenheimer Bread
For more than a century, the G. H. Leidenheimer Baking Company has baked up New Orleans’ signature French bread—crisp and crackly on the outside and pillowy-tender within. Many New Orleanians say that the bread is the secret ingredient to the best po’ boys at Domilise’s or Mother’s. I would have to agree.

German immigrant George Leidenheimer opened the bakery in 1896, and just a couple of years later, he moved it to where it stands today on Simon Bolivar Avenue. It’s still family owned and operated by fourth-generation Leidenheimers, my dear friend, Katherine, and her brother, Sandy Whann. The bakery is known for its baguettes, mini-size petite pistolettes, and bread for muffulettas, that massive round sandwich popularized at the Central Grocery on Decatur.

After Hurricane Katrina, the bakery shut down due to lack of electricity and bakers (who had fled the city). Until the bakery was operational again, a Leidenheimer baker kneaded and baked bread in Chicago so clients across the country wouldn’t have to go without their French bread. In 2005 the Leidenheimer Baking Company was the recipient of the Guardian of Tradition award from the Southern Foodways Alliance.

Heavenly Hash

1cup                      sugar
1cup                      evaporated milk
2 tablespoons        light corn syrup
12 ounces              semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or chips
1 teaspoon             vanilla extract
0.5 teaspoon          salt
2 cups                    pecan pieces, toasted
                              (at room temperature for use in recipe)
2 cups                    mini-marshmallows

Combine sugar, milk, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, and then cook for 2.5 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate, extract, and salt. Allow the mixture to cool slightly for 10-15 minutes. Stir in pecans and marshmallows. Pour out into a very lightly greased 9-inch x 11-inch pan. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for approximately 4 hours or overnight. Cut into 1- to 1.5-inch squares. Yields approximately 60 portions after trimming up the sides. Serve chilled or at room temperature.