Today, I came home from work to the smell of something burning in the oven, and a platter of burned blueberry muffins cooling on the kitchen counter. Uh oh, there goes dessert for tonight's small dinner gathering we had planned with friends.  My wife, daughter,  and her friend made the muffins, and went downstairs to play, but did not hear the timer ring when the muffins were ready.  It was not until my wife caught a whiff of something burning that she realized that they had lost track of the time. Hey, it even happens to the best.

So what to do, I was not fond of the idea of tossing a dozen burned muffins into the garbage.  They were not burned all that bad, they were still edible, but just not that good tasting.  So, I decided to try a bread pudding that incorporated the muffins. 
 
I never made bread pudding.  Actually, never even tasted it.  It looked easy to make from the various times I have seen it made on the cooking shows, and since there was nothing to lose, we gave it a try. I conglomerated several recipes from the web into the one below.  Scrounging around the kitchen, I found that I had just about everything needed.  Most of the recipes I found called for a dash of rum or whiskey, but I did not have any liquor on hand. It may not be "real" bread pudding, but it better than wasting food. Here is the recipe I came up with, but read below for some remarks on how it turned out and changes I would make in the future.

Recipe for Bread Pudding 
12 "burned" blueberry muffins
4 tablespoons melted butter
4 eggs
2 cups milk
3/4 to 1 cup sugar (more for really burned muffins)
A generous dash of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or more)
a dash of nutmeg.

Preheat oven to 350 F.
First, break up the muffins.   and place in a 9x10 or 9x13 pan. I used them, burned part and all. Drizzle the melted butter over the top of the muffins. Combine the eggs, milk, cinnamon,  sugar, nutmeg, and mix well. Pour the mixture over the muffins in the pan. I pushed the muffins to ensure that they all got coated with the mixture and soaked up some of the liquid.  It was sort of like a giant french toast.
Place the pan in the oven at 350F for about 40 to 45 minutes.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the result.  It sort of came out like a giant cinnamon bun/french toast.  It seemed a tad on the dry side, so maybe a little more milk and an extra egg would produce a better result.  I definitely would have like to have added a shot or two of rum. This turned out to be a great dessert once you topped it with a little whipped cream. 

Much better than tossing the whole mess into the garbage!

Mix up a little flour, water, salt, yeast, and sugar. Plus a dash of olive oil and give them something fun to do, make pizza dough!

Kids love to stick their hands into anything squishy. There is something magical about pizza and bread dough that make kids just want to dive right in knead the dough to their heart's content. Arguably, for most kids, and probably most adults too, pizza is their favorite food.  What better combination is there to get your kids busy in the kitchen learning how to cook and eating their favorite food?

Pizza and bread dough is an easy recipe, yet so few people actually make their own dough from scratch. There is a preconceived notion that making dough is a long involved process that takes hours. However, the actual work of mixing the ingredients takes only a few minutes. If you have a bread machine it is even easier. But wait, we are going to use our kids to stand in for the kneading, right? So there is no need for the machine.

Preparing the dough properly takes a little practice. First timers have a tendency to over knead the dough, leading to a tough and rubbery crust.  Or they may use too much flour or to much water leading to an overly wet or dry crust. If your kids mess it up, do not worry, the goal here is to have fun and keep them busy.  Dough ingredients are cheap.  It just costs a few pennies for the flour, salt, and yeast packet, and maybe a few pennies more for the olive oil. Much cheaper then renting video game or the movies.

A word about the yeast packet.  Yes, this is a website devoted to using what you have on hand in your refrigerator or your cupboard.  However, scraping around the back of your cupboard and pulling out the decade old yeast packet to use for your first stab at making fresh dough will only lead to disappointing results.  You will be much happier picking up a couple of fresh packets for a buck.

Here is the basic recipe we follow:

1 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon
salt and a dash of sugar
corn meal, for sliding the pie on and off the peel

To make a yeast starter, mix a little flour and water to form white liquid in a cup. The water should be at room temperature or a little warmer, around 80 degrees. Mix in a dash of sugar into the starter a cup with the yeast.  Let the yeast become active for a few minutes, until the liquid in the cup becomes frothy. 
In a bowl, add about half of the flour called for in the recipe in a large bowl and form a dimple in the middle of the flour mound.  Add the starter in the dimple and start to mix, gradually adding more flour while mixing. You can add some salt at this time. 

I have read that salt can retard yeast growth, it may or may not be true, so it is up to you.  Some recipes also call for adding a little milk. Again it is totally up to you if you want that type of texture in your crust.  You can also chop up some garlic and oregano for some extra flavor and add it into the dough while you mix.

After a few minutes of kneading, a dough ball will start to form. The dough should not be too wet, but should be a little spongy to the touch.  You can add a little flour or water to get the right consistency. Once ready, quarter the dough ball, brush on a little olive oil on each section, and set it aside for about an hour to proof. The dough should double in size, and you will have two large pizza doughs ready for their toppings.

While the dough is rising you go get the toppings ready for the kids.  Here is were you can really have fun, by letting your children choose the toppings.  If there is more than one child, or they have a group of friends over, you can hold a pizza cook-off.  Have different categories, for best appearance, spiciest, sweetest, tasting, etc. 

Remember, that pizza not just about sauce and cheese.  You can put just about anything on a pizza, even peanut butter and jelly. Although I have not tried that one myself, but I would hazard a guess that you would want to cook the dough first, then spread the PB & J on when the crust cools.

When you roll out the dough make sure the rolling pin and rolling surface is well floured. Try to roll the dough out as thin as you can get it. The kids will love to give their dough tossing skills a try. You can make that into a contest, too!  Make a few extra doughs, since some will undoubtedly end up on the floor. Generally, a pizza cooks best at or above 400 degrees, in about 15 minutes, depending on how thick the dough, and the type of toppings.

There are two items you will need for handling the dough or making the pizza.  These are a pizza pan, or stone, and a pizza peel. If you do not have either of these items, then here is a variation that you can try that will make life easier: use a large wooden cutting board for the peel, and cook the pizza on your grill on high heat outside.

Put a little cornmeal on the cutting board, lay out the dough.  Add your toppings, and then slide the dough onto the grill.  Cook the pie with the top of the grill down for a few minutes until it just starts to brown on the bottom.  Then take it pie off and place in the oven to finish it off.  You can run it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the top a bit. Grills vary quite a bit in temperature, so your results may vary.

Another variation is to turn pizza dough into a tasty sausage bread. This method does not require a peel. Simply roll out the dough on a floured board as a rectangle.  Place thinly sliced Italian sausage, olive oil, and a smattering of shredded mozzarella cheese. Then roll the dough up like a Stromboli and set aside in a bread pan to allow for a short additional time to proof.  Brush a little olive oil over the top. Place it in the oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes and when done, you will have a delicious sausage bread. 

So the next time the kids are giving you a hard time on a rainy Saturday afternoon, have a pizza making party!