Welcome back to Italian desserts. This post is the start of another kind of fun. In the new posts, we will discuss the history of bread pudding and some recipes along the way. I am drifting again because my research into the world of Italian desserts has taken me VERY far back in time, it took me to Sicilian desserts and from there I landed here.
Bread pudding dates back to prehistoric times and has had its place in all ages and in all countries ever since. My research has revealed that bread pudding, both sweet and savory, was first developed by ancient peoples. It seems that there has always been a tendency for frugal cooks to avoid wasting stale bread and this sweet treat was born.
The history
If you delve into the history of cooking from prehistoric times, you’ll find that stale or stale bread has been used in countless ways; for example, medieval soup, foccacia, fillings, special dishes such as French toast, and thickeners such as puddings. Interestingly, if you look in a 19th century cookbook, you are likely to find recipes for bread puddings listed as “Invalid Cuisine”. The recipes you will find will be varied and will depend on the type of bread used.
important category
Another thing you will find if you delve into the history of cooking is that many desserts throughout the centuries have included bread as an ingredient in the form of breadcrumbs or slices or chunks. And, if you follow my train of thought, I’m sure you’ll see the efficiency and frugality of using leftover stale or stale bread pieces to create another dish by adding a sweetening agent and milk and baking the resulting sweet. Adding fat, like butter, and a fruit, like currants, to this mix moves this potentially wasted use of bread into the category of a special treat.
This has been so much the fact that today even cooks without stale bread will have some amazing recipes and uses for bread pudding. The “improved” product was called bread and butter pudding. Some cooks have even used brioche, panettone (Italian yeast bread), and plain cake slices in place of the bread, while adding more fruit and even spices to further enhance this simple dessert. Consequently, some of these “improvements” must be kept under strict control, so that the bread pudding does not lose its traditional characteristics.
How it began
The likely beginning of bread pudding can be found by looking back at medieval sops and the medieval practice of using a hollowed-out loaf of bread as a container for a sweet dish…varieties of bread pudding can be eaten hot as pudding or cold. having a cake In fact, an Egyptian dessert that bears a strong resemblance to bread and butter pudding, and was originally a simple dish originating in rural areas, is called Om Ali and is prepared with bread, milk or cream, raisins and almonds.
Another Middle Eastern sweet bread, Eish is serny (palace bread), made by drying large round slices cut horizontally across a large loaf to make huge biscuits (loaves or pieces of very hard bread baked twice), which are then slow cooked in sugar and honey syrup flavored with rose water and colored with caramel. If you travel further east, a Mongolian-style Indian dessert, Shahi tukra, is prepared by pan-fried in ghee (clarified butter), dipped in a syrup flavored with saffron and rose water, and then covered in a creamy sauce in which are mixed decorative slices of almond.
Our next post will cover the emergence of bread puddings in the United States and some interesting facts and recipes for it. Stay tuned for more delicious information on this multicultural dessert.
Bon Appetite!
