Recipe Swap

I often receive those recipe swap emails--you know, where you send a recipe to the people listed, add your name to the list, and forward the email to your friends--in fact, I used to get them snail mail too. People know I love recipes. And I usually participate but I almost never get any recipes back.

Wednesdays seem to be a sort of national recipe swap day, if one-sided. It's the day most papers, including the NYTimes (which I read now) and the Houston Chronicle (which we had at home when I was growin up), publish their food sections. And I have tattered newspaper clippings spanning the Times, the Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and other papers. Now, I mostly email the recipes to myself, having sent several today. Holidays are my favorite times for recipe clippings (I like reading Joan Nathan's Q&A for the High Holy Days every year) and I loved all the posted archived holiday articles in the Times today.

So, in the spirit of food writing and conventional recipe swap, I'm declaring Wednesdays "Recipe Swap Day." I'll post a theme and a recipe and encourage you to comment with your favorite recipe, preferrably with commentary.

Today's theme is Holiday Recipe.

Go!

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Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding
I love bread pudding and was intrigued when Jamie Oliver made one with Italian panettone. Yummy! So, we made this for Christmas Eve 2003, to have with our imported cheese plate , after going to vespers and driving through rain to see lights (actually, DP and I can’t agree on when we actually made and ate the pudding and it doesn't really matter). Indeed, it was quite a fruit bread holiday—lots of different fruitcakes (including one we read about in the Times which we import for England every year) and panettone bread pudding and plum pudding.

1 pint milk (not anything less than 2%)
1 pint heavy cream
1 vanilla bean
4 eggs
6 oz. caster sugar (superfine)
panettone, cut into thick slices and buttered (we only used half of one)
1 orange, zested
3 tablespoons Cognac (we used rum)
powdered sugar

To start the custard base, bring the milk and cream just to a boil in a saucepan. Cut the vanilla bean in half, scrape out the seeds and add to the pan with the zest. Whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale. Add the milk and cream and remove the vanilla.
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Butter the slices of panettone. Dip each slice of panettone into the custard and pile into a buttered baking dish. Pour the remaining custard slowly over the bread, place the dish in a roasting pan and fill halfway with hot water. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and bake for about 45 minutes. When cooked, it will have a slight crust on top, but will still be slightly wobbly inside.

Jamie Oliver