Spoonbreads are standards in every cuisine because they're easy to make, taste great, and are classy-looking desserts! There are cooked spoonbreads, like bread-pudding, but my favorite are the ones that require very little cooking. So here, for spoonbread, I mean:

"Spoonbreads are standards in every cuisine because they're easy to make, taste great, and are classy-looking desserts! There are cooked spoonbreads, like bread-pudding, but my favorite are the ones that require very little cooking."

• Cake or Lady Finger cookies (also called Savoiardi or Boudoirs, these are hard until put in liquid when they turn to cake),
• quickly soaked in juice, or coffee, or alcohol, or a combination of them,
• layered between pastry cream or pudding,
• and depending on the recipe and your tastes, layered with jam, fruit, or ground nuts.
• Then it sits for a few hours to a few days in the fridge so the cake/cookies can soak up the liquid and flavors, and the whole thing sets.

It's a dessert you can prepare days in advance of serving, taking pressure off the cook.

It's a cool, refreshing dessert served straight from the fridge.

If you prepare it in a tall, glass dish or in individual glasses, it's a very chic-looking dessert.

It's beautiful scooped out into balls, with an ice-cream scooper, and served up on a dessert dish.

You don't need to slave over a hot stove to make it; you can use a purchased cake, pudding, and whipped cream.

If you line the dish with cling-film, it's easy to remove and set on a serving platter, then you can decorate it with whipped cream, fruit, flowers...

Make it in a pie pan for easy slicing and serving, and it looks beautiful, too.

And you can make it low calorie, low sugar, non-alcoholic--any way you want, by choosing your ingredients carefully.

Here are Some Tasty Spoonbread Recipe Suggestions

Coffee Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in coffee and/or coffee liqueur, layered between pastry cream/pudding, served covered with whipped cream dusted with powdered chocolate (sprinkled through a sieve or sifter) or fresh coffee grounds.

Whiskey - Orange Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in orange juice mixed with whiskey, layered between pastry cream/pudding (and orange marmalade or chopped oranges if you want), served covered with whipped cream decorated with orange peel shavings (a potato peeler works wonderfully for this).

Irish Coffee Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in coffee mixed with whiskey, layered between pastry cream/pudding, served covered with whipped cream sprinkled with fresh coffee grounds.

Fruit Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in fruit juice (and Brandy or Rum or fruit liqueur if you want), layered between pastry cream/pudding and sliced fruit (or jam), served covered with whipped cream and topped with sliced fruit.

Nut Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in a nut liqueur or whiskey, layered between pastry cream/pudding and ground nuts, served covered with whipped cream and topped with whole nuts.

Chocolate - Orange Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in orange juice and/or orange liqueur, layered between chocolate pastry cream/pudding (and orange marmalade or chopped oranges if you want), served covered with whipped cream decorated with chocolate shavings (the potato peeler has many functions!).

Soft Summer Fruits (Berry) Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in berry juice (and Rum or Brandy or a fruit liqueur if your want), layered between pastry cream/pudding and berries (or berry jam), served covered with whipped cream and topped with fresh berries.

Mocha Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in coffee and/or a coffee liqueur, layered between chocolate pastry cream/pudding, served covered with whipped cream decorated with chocolate shavings (or dusted with powered chocolate, or sprinkled with fresh coffee grounds).

Lemon Spoonbread: sliced cake/Lady Fingers dipped in lemon juice or lemonade (and a lemon liqueur if you want), layered between pastry cream/pudding (and grated lemon peel if you want), served covered with whipped cream decorated with lemon peel shavings (that potato peeler, again).

This is a Quick and Simple Pastry Cream that Works Every Time

Whisk all the ingredients together in a saucepan while they're cold, then whisk the mixture continually over a medium flame, reduced to a low flame for the last few minutes of cooking, until the cream thickens (roughly five minutes in total).

• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (or another flavoring)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar (if you replace the sugar with a diet sweetener, double the flour to compensate for the lost thickening agent)
• 2 tablespoons flour

For chocolate pastry cream, melt into the warm cream chocolate chips or sliced chocolate bars, to taste.

Candida Martinelli - Candida Martinelli grew up in San Francisco, California, but lived many years in Florence, Italy. As an outlet for her love of Italian culture, she set up Candida Martinelli’s Italophile Site a few years ago. It’s grown since then into a site that celebrates Italian culture for both children and adults. Candida offers up Italian culture in a fun way, with lots of pictures, and links for those who want to learn more after her introduction to a subject. She covers everything from Italian home decorating to gardening, fashion, music and movies.   Website: Candida Martinelli’s Italophile Site To review the Reprint Rights for this article, please go to the authors page by clicking the button below.

List Your Web Site