Bring us some bread pudding

Taking a cue from England, New Englanders have traditionally enjoyed a warm pudding for Christmas. In my household, it's chocolate bread pudding. Now, it's important to note that the Pilgrims didn't celebrate Christmas and didn't have access to chocolate. But they did enjoy bread pudding. In fact, after his first wife jumped ship (some claim she fell) and drowned in the icy waters of the Atlantic, as the Mayflower was anchored off the coast of Provincetown, Gov. William Bradford married Alice Southworth, who became known for her plum pudding, according to the Plymouth Antiquarian Society's Plimoth Colony Cook Book. The pudding was made with bread, milk, eggs, molasses, raisins, currents, citron and candied cherries. Southworth came to Plymouth on the ship "Anne" in 1623.

According to Colonial Williamsburg, the first reference to chocolate in North America occurs in 1641, when the Spanish ship Nuestra Senora del Rosario del Carmen arrived in St. Augustine, Florida with crates of chocolate. In 1670, Dorothy Jones and Jane Barnard opened a public house in Boston to sell imported chocolate. By 1682, a British report detailed cocoa exports from Jamaica to Boston. And we know that early Patriots drank hot chocolate instead of tea to protest taxation without representation.

This recipe for chocolate bread pudding comes from the Gourmet Touch Cookbook by Naomi Arbit and June Turner, published in 1978. The pudding is homely but decadently delicious, especially served with real whipped cream.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

5 slices white bread, cubed

6 ounces chocolate chips

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1-1/2 cups milk

½ cup sugar

¼ cup butter

¼ teaspoon salt

2 eggs, well beaten

Lightly grease a 1-1/2-quart casserole. In a large bowl, combine bread cubes, chocolate chips and cinnamon. In a sauce pan, heat milk, sugar, butter and salt, bringing to a boil at medium heat. Remove from heat. Stir two tablespoons of hot milk mixture into beaten eggs to temper. Quickly beat eggs into remaining milk mixture. Combine milk-egg mixture with chocolate and bread cubes; stir to coat. Pour into casserole. Place casserole in a baking pan filled with a half-inch to an inch of hot water. Bake in a 350-degree oven 40 to 50 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, if desired. Serves six.

Cape Cod candies

Looking for an easy-to-make gift for the mail carrier, piano teacher or bus driver? Try these delicious and not-so-sinful treats. They combine toasted almonds, dried cranberries and dried blueberries enrobed in dark chocolate. I developed these clusters two summers ago for the Barnstable County Fair and won a blue ribbon in the candy division.

Cape Cod Clusters

1 cup whole almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

¼ cup dried cranberries and ¼ cup dried blueberries

8 ounces Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips or any good bittersweet chocolate (60% to 70% cocoa), finely chopped

In a medium bowl combine almonds and dried fruit. Line two large baking sheets with waxed paper. Melt half of the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over water that is just simmering. Make sure the water does not reach the bottom of the top pan or bowl. If any water touches the chocolate it will seize! Stir chocolate frequently. Remove double boiler from heat. Stir in remaining chocolate until melted. Carefully remove the top pan or bowl and wipe water from bottom. Stir fruit and nut mixture into chocolate. Working quickly, spoon heaping teaspoons of the mixture onto a waxed paper-lined baking sheet, leaving about an inch between each cluster.  Replace the pan or bowl containing the chocolate mixture on top of the pan containing the warm water to keep it at the proper temperature, if you need to. Refrigerate the clusters for at least 20 minutes to cool and set. Remove and store at room temperature. Makes about two dozen clusters.

Into the strata-sphere

As a result of Thanksgiving and then a holiday party, I’ve been faced with a lot of leftover ham. One can eat only so many ham sandwiches. A favorite New England bed-and-breakfast offering because it can be assembled in advance, strata can remake that ham into a tasty meal. Strata refers to the layering of ingredients. The basis for strata is bread, cheese, eggs and milk. For filler you can use ham, sausage, mushrooms, spinach, chard or asparagus. When we kept chickens, I often made strata because of an abundance of eggs.

Ham and cheese strata

6 slices hearty white bread (day-old is fine), cubed

1 cup diced cooked ham

5 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, cubed

3 large eggs

1-1/2 cups milk

Nutmeg to taste

Put a layer of bread in a greased 1 1/2-quart casserole dish. Top with ham and then cheese. Beat the eggs with milk and a bit of nutmeg. Pour the mixture carefully over the contents of the casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until the liquid is set and the casserole is lightly browned. Let sit a few minutes before serving. Serves four.