D id you get a fruitcake in the mail? I haven’t seen a fruitcake in years, but I did recently binge-watch the entire first season of The Holiday Baking Championship on Food Network. When they were handed fruitcakes as a challenge the effervescent rockabilly chef Erin Campbell did something amazing: She made what she called a “junkyard brownie,” drying the cake in the oven, then pulverizing it in the food processor and eventually turning it into a brownie. I thought that was genius. You can follow her recipe here. It looks fantastic, with a pool of spiced orange liqueur sauce.
As far as I can remember, all of the other contestants did something like a bread pudding, which is also genius. I would cube the fruitcake and then dilute it by using some other, blander bread, too. Day-old croissants are the best, of course.
Also: panetonne! Holy cow, right? Check out this recipe for panetonne bread pudding from Victoria Jordan Rodriguez at the James Beard Foundation. I'll ruin it for you: Just hack up a panetonne and throw a custard over it. YUM.
Got leftover eggnog in the fridge? You know what's awesome: eggnog ice cream. If you have real (not soy, not almond milk, not fat-free) eggnog you can just DUMP IT IN THE ICE CREAM MAKER and it comes out as ice cream! Because it's already custard, duh. Do this. And then plop a scoop on some gingerbread, something dark and rich and wild, like this molasses gingerbread cake.
Speaking of holiday do-overs, I'm kind of freaking out over these corn flake-candy cane cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar. Is that amazing or what?
What news do you want to see in this newsletter? We want to hear from you! Let us know! Email thefork@sfreporter.com
