Alcohol in Baking And Boozy Bread Pudding Recipe

Baking and alcohol is like a match made in heaven. This post explains how and when to use alcohol in baking, along with a recipe of a delicious Boozy Bread Pudding. You do not want to miss this post.

Baking is my first love when it comes to working in the kitchen. Sure, I do enjoy cooking but baking is where I come to my elements and I think, baking is where my knowledge is the most in depth as well. This boozy bread pudding is the proof to that!

Last April, I had started the A-Z of baking on the blog with an intention of sharing more baking recipes, tips and tricks, but I stopped at “B for bread”. Yes, sometimes I can be fickle minded like that. Well this time around,  I am restarting the whole thing and I promise to myself and you guys, that I will try and finish it, reach the Z at the finish line. A little motivation and cheering from you guys in the comments and shares will surely help, I guess 🙂

A was for apples last time and this time around I was wondering what to write on, I wondered about many topics and recipes. There is the apple pie or the almond cake, or the talk about accuracy of measuring ingredients while baking,  but then an idea popped up in my head and I knew this is what I MUST write on.

Alcohol in baking! Now tell me who doesn’t like that rum soaked cake or that spiked apple crisp or Bourbon bread pudding or boozy tiramisu or errr the hash brownies (I know I know it’s not technically alcohol) and the list goes on? I think adding alcohol to your baked goodies takes the flavour of the desserts up, by multiple notches and makes them the perfect goodies to be served in an adult party or picnic. In my opinion, booze deserves as much as a place in your baked goodies, as it does in the bar and cocktail glasses. But very often I see people getting overwhelmed by how to use it, how much and which one and when to add.

Today lets attempt to break some of the confusion around Alcohol in Baking with my top tips and of course, there has to be a recipe in the end.

Flavour – The boozy flavour is the number one reason one might want to add alcohol to the bake. The woody flavour of the bourbon, the mustiness of the wine, the coffee hit with Kahlua – the key here is to know which one imparts how much and what flavour to the baking. It is a complex thing to learn honestly, but broadly, remember that a darker liquor always leaves a stronger flavour in the bake than a lighter one. Whiskey and Rum are the strongest whereas Vodka or Gin hardly leave a flavour and its almost a waste using them in the batter. I love using liqueurs because the creaminess they add along with complementing the coffee or the peach or the vanilla, is amazing.

Texture – We often don’t think this to be a case but the alcohol can add greatly to the texture of your baked goodies. For example, vodka works great in a pie dough because it adds to the liquid, but unlike water, does not contribute to gluten formation, which means you can add more liquid to have a easy to roll dough. This still results in flaky crust, in fact flakier, if you ask me. Addition of wine specially in cakes leads to a very moist cake (try this Chocolate Red Wine cake and it will turn into your favorite chocolate cake ever)

When to add the alcohol – That depends on how intense you want your alcohol flavour to be. If you just like the mild aftertaste of alcohol, add it in the batter. If you are the brave one, who likes the boozy cake to be boozy, soak your baked cake in alcohol and if you are really bold and brave, add an alcohol jelly to your cakes and cupcakes. Honestly, this is my favorite way of spiking the cakes – think of the dark chocolate cake with a gel layer of alcohol (Tip : to make the gel, take 30 ml of your favourite daaru, add 60-90 ml of water and dissolve 1/2 tsp of agar-agar or gelatin in it. Let it set and then spread in between two layers of cake). Another favorite are frosting made of alcohol . For example, a simple buttercream frosting can be taken to the next level with addition of Contireau or Baileys.

Bake like a bartender – This was a term I read somewhere and I think I have fallen in love with it. Think of cocktails and convert them in your cakes and cupcakes. This is so much fun. I once baked cosmopolitan cupcakes for a friends bachelorette and that gang still takes about those. Another very popular cake that I make is Lemon cake remodelled as a Mojito. Go take a walk in the well stocked store and there are so many interesting liqueurs that complement your bakes. Malibu in Coconut cake, Peach Schnapps in Peach Cobbler, Amaretto in that almond and orange cake – the possibilities are endless, really.

It all DOES NOT Evaporate : Yes, we have heard it many times oh the alcohol in cooking it all evaporates, but the truth can’t be farther from it. A 2003 USDA study showed that 5-85% of alcohol can remain in the food after cooking, it depends on what alcohol, the method and time of cooking. For eg it takes 2.5 hours of cooking for vodka to evaporate to 5% residual (see this link for more details) so hold on,  before you give that full cake to a child (though in my house we allow boozy cakes in which alcohol has been added only in batter because if you really calculate the amount which you eat in every slice it is not too much).

And, here is a favorite boozy bread pudding recipe in the house which has fair amount of Jack Daniels in it. This is a pudding I have made again and again and again, to an extent that I can probably bake it in my sleep. I increase and decrease the amount of JD depending on who is going to eat it.

Everytime I have made this boozy bread pudding, the dish is almost licked clean. I even had a friend add ice cream to the baking dish so that the yummy left over flavours of the pudding don’t go waste and the best part of this boozy bread pudding is that it is so easy to put together!

So here is the recipe of the awesome boozy bread pudding!

Boozy Bread Pudding

Baking and Alcohol is like a match made in heaven. This post explains how and when to use alcohol in baking along with a recipe of a kickass Boozy Bread Pudding. You do not want to miss this post.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 45 mins

Total Time 1 hr 35 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine german

Servings 6 serving

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 6 buns Sweet
• 4 eggs
• 1.5 cups milk
• 1/3 cup castor sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
• 2 tbsps butter melted
• 1/3 cup cranberries
• 1/4 cup Jack Daniels

Instructions

 

• Pre heat the oven to 180C.
• Soak 1/3 cup cranberries (or raisins, blueberries or dried figs, cherries) in 1/4 cup of Jack Daniels.
• Tear apart the sweet buns roughly. Old bread slices work as well though if it is not sweet bread, you will have to adjust the sugar accordingly.
• Whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter till combined. Add cinnamon and nutmeg powder and whisk again till combined.
• Pour this over the tore buns and mix till the bread/buns are coated. Transfer to a baking dish and top with rum and cranberries.
• Bake at 170C for 40 minutes. Take out and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top and bake again for 5 minutes.
• Serve warm as it is or with ice cream.

Notes

 

 

So what are you waiting for, go raid that bar and take your baking a notch higher 🙂

Also do check out the rest of the bloggers doing the A to Z Challenge

If you make this, share a picture with me on twitter, instagram or Facebook? I would love to hear what you have to say about it !

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!