Leftover brownies? Whoever heard of such a thing? They may not exist in most homes, but restaurants like the Loveless Cafe in Nashville might have a few left at the end of a busy day. That’s one thing Alisa Huntsman had in mind when she created this easy recipe.

But the idea stemmed from a different need, she writes:

“Catering requests … invariably include chocolate bread pudding. The problem with adding chocolate to the kind of thin custard used for bread pudding is that the ingredients often separate into layers, with the chocolate settling at the bottom and a paler, less flavorful custard migrating to the top. Usual remedies for this are time-consuming, so we use some leftover but perfectly good brownies as the base instead. They sop up the vanilla custard and result is the perfect chocolate ‘bread’ pudding.”

Brownie Bread Pudding

Day-old double-chocolate fudge  brownies
5 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Drunken Caramel Sauce (recipe follows)
Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Crumble the day-old brownies into a shallow bowl and let sit out overnight, uncovered, to dry out a bit. If the brownies are stale already, you may be able to skip this step.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 7-by-11-inch baking dish and spread the crumbled brownies evenly over the bottom. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until blended. Mix in the half-and-half and vanilla. Pour over the brownies, cover with foil, and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes to give the brownie crumbs time to absorb the custard.

Bake the foil-covered brownies for about 1 hour, until the custard is set. Remove from the oven and led stand for about 15 minutes. Cut the pudding into 8 pieces and serve warm with a drizzle of the caramel sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if you wish.

Makes 6 servings.

Drunken Caramel Sauce

1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small cinnamon stick
1 inch of vanilla bean, split lengthwise in half
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 cup bourbon, whiskey or dark rum

In a small saucepan, combine the cream, butter and cinnamon stick. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pan using the tip of a knife and toss in the pot. Set over low heat to warm the cream, melt the butter and infuse the flavors, about 3 minutes.

In a separate deep saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring to melt the sugar. Using a moist brush, wash any sugar crystals off the sides of the pan. Continue to whisk until all the caramel is dissolved. Stir in the bourbon, remove the vanilla pod, and let the sauce cool to room temperature before serving.

Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

From “Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe: Simple Southern Pies, Puddings, Cakes, and Cobblers from Nashville’s Landmark Restaurant” by Alisa Huntsman

Opening a beer doesn’t generally remind me of wine, but the Big Sky IPA is an exception.

I opened a bottle recently and discovered a huge explosion of caramel sweetness and flowers bursting forth in the aroma, in keeping with some India pale ales, though perhaps not at quite this intensity. And there was just the right amount of hoppiness bitterness on the palate. Nice.

And just like one of favorite summertime wines, the Argentine Torrontés, which smells floral and sweet but is dry and crisp in your mouth.

But enough about wine. Back to the beer.

Big  Sky IPA poured a rich copper color with one finger of foam that lingered quite a while.

Those intense aromas carried over into the taste, as caramel, flavors of wheat, a touch of orange and herbs mixed with that hoppy bitterness, all leading to a lengthy finish that had a metallic touch.

I enjoyed this brew with a spicy Caribbean-style oxtail stew and let the various spices in both beer and stew complement each other. the same would be true for pairing this with Mexican street tacos with plenty of onion and cilantro on top or grilled burgers with pickles and, again, onions on a whole wheat bun.

This beer comes from Big Sky Brewing is in Missoula, Mont., an area that has plenty of sky indeed — and now it has beers with enough flavor to match.

Brew notes

A new brewery, Busted Sandal Brewing Company, has plans on opening in SA later this year.

According to the company’s website, the “nanobrewery” will specialize in small craft brews made with locally sourced seasonal ingredients: “We are full of brewing energy! Our ambition is to privately brew 20 concept batches in 18 weeks! In November, members of the ‘secret taster’s circle’ will judge the concept batches. From these 20 beers we will select only our best to move forward with. By this time, we will be very close to beginning pilot batch brewing and will begin opening our tasting events to the public!”

The company is the work of brewer and founder Michael DiCicco, “brewchitect” Robert Garza and brewer Joseph Alvarado, who is also responsible for brand development. Follow them on Twitter @bustedsandal for more details.

Blueberry Grunt with ice cream

Fresh fruit is everywhere these days, which means its the perfect time for pies, cobblers and grunts.

Grunts?

That sounds like the set-up for a joke. “How do you make a blueberry grunt …?”

A grunt is a baked fruit dish with dumplings on top that is usually made as a topping for ice cream. It’s not thick like a pie or cobbler. It’s especially popular with people who don’t have much time on their hands.

It comes from the East Coast, according to wiseGeek.com: “For people who have a lot of fruit but no energy to make a pie, a grunt is an excellent alternative.  It is said that the East Coast dessert is called a grunt because of the noises the fruit makes while it is cooked. An alternate name for the dessert is ‘slump,’ a reference to the way the biscuit dough slumps into the berries as it cooks. Whatever it’s called, a grunt can be served hot or cold, with accompaniments like whipped cream or ice cream, and the recipe can be endlessly adjusted to suit different tastes and seasonally available to fruit.”

The following recipe is from Alisa Huntsman’s “Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe” (Artisan, $24.95). “There is some debate over whether a grunt should be cooked covered on the stove to steam the dumplings or placed in the oven to bake them,” she writes. “In this quick and easy version, the berries are simmered on top of the stove in a cast-iron skillet. After a few minutes, biscuit dumplings are dolloped on top and the dessert is then transferred to the oven.”

A word of caution. The sauce can be extremely sweet. I would leave at least 1/4 cup sugar out of the sauce the next time I make it.

Mixed-Berry Grunt

4 cups fresh berries— any combination of blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup sugar, or less, to taste
1 inch of vanilla bean, split lengthwise in half, or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Blueberry Grunt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the berries in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Add the orange juice, sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon and cardamom. bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean.

Drop 12 to 14 tablespoon-size dollops of dumpling dough over the top o the fruit, leaving small spaces in between.

Bake for 18 minutes, or until the dumplings are lightly browned. Allow the grunt to cool for 15 minutes. To serve, place a scoop of ice cream in a serving  dish and top with a portion of fruit and dumplings.

Makes 4 servings.

Sweet Cream Dumplings

3/4 cup unbleached flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup heavy cream

Combine the flour, sugar and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add the butter cubes and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Pour in the cream and stir to form a soft dough. Use at once.

Makes 12 to 14 dumplings.

From “Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe: Simple Southern Pies, Puddings, Cakes, and Cobblers from Nashville’s Landmark Restaurant” by Alisa Huntsman

“On those rare occasions when things are slow at the cafe, we play around with new recipes,” says Alisa Huntsman in “Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe. “If something works out well and makes it onto the menu, we look for a catchy, enticing name that reflects the dessert and our lively Loveless personality. We tossed around dozens of ideas for these chewy chocolate cookies loaded with dried cherries, raisins and chocolate chips until someone yelled out, ‘Cha-chas!’ and the name stuck.”

Chocolate Cherry Cha-Chas

1  2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1  1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup dried cherries
3/4 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 sturdy cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda into a bowl and set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, vanilla and salt with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and scrape the bowl well. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until no streaks remain.

Fold in the chocolate chips, cherries and raisins by hand. Drop the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls at least 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. Remove the cookies from the oven while they still look a little underdone; they will crisp up when they set. Let cool on the pans for a few minutes to firm up slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

From “Desserts from the Famous Loveless Cafe: Simple Southern Pies, Puddings, Cakes, and Cobblers from Nashville’s Landmark Restaurant” by Alisa Huntsman

Sausage Lentil Soup

The last few weeks, I’ve had the time to make a big pot of soup on a Sunday afternoon in order to take to work with me each day.

Soup may seem an odd choice when the temperatures are hovering around 100 degrees, but my air conditioned office can actually make something warm most welcome.

My choice is usually determined by what I have on hand, and the following recipe is no exception. I had a little leftover sausage and some green lentils.

What really made the flavor spark to life was most was the addition of a few fennel seeds, which added a sweetness to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

Sausage Lentil Soup

1/2 to 3/4 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
2 to 3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 (16-ounce) package dry lentils, rinsed
8 cups water
4 cups chicken broth
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon garlic powder or onion powder
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Lentils

Place sausage in a large pot. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Add onion, celery and chopped garlic, and sauté until tender and translucent. Stir in lentils, water, chicken broth and tomatoes. Season with garlic powder, parsley, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, basil, fennel, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover, and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until lentils are tender. Top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Makes about 1 gallon soup.

Adapted from Allrecipes.com