Bread pudding in Air Fryer, No, oven yes.

This is something that sticks to your ribs. Not too sweet but filling.

I like this chaps process, although I didn't add the butter to the bread, just to the bowl for prepping.
160 deg C for 20 minutes (half of the 40 minutes for normal oven).

I wanted to use some molenburg bread as it was taking up room in the freezer. I threw everything in and cooked it for quite a while but it did not set. I threw out half of it. It didn't quite work with the flavours. I will go back to a simple white bread and minimalist recipe.

Overall, not blown away with the results, in fact I didn't make it for a long while because I was disappointed with it. I think I tossed a lot of it.
I threw in too many spices. I had a feeling I was doing so at the time. 

 Oven Recipe

I then decided to go back to a simple oven recipe and used this gentleman's recipe:

I found it was a lot more simple, a bigger batch, but I froze a lot of it and have been eating it regularly.
I have been saving the leftover ciabatta bread when I don't eat it all and make a new batch. I put those bits in a freezer bag and collect the ends in the freezer. I have to thaw and when mixed with the wet ingredients leave them to soak a lot longer as the bread is pretty crusty. I also have to use the bread knife to cut it into smaller pieces, too hard to tear with hands.
This was the taste I was after, so I'll be making it again for sure.
ingredients - 

• 500g bread -any bread 
• 500g dried fruit 
• 140g light muscavado 
• 600 ml milk
• 2 eggs
•  demerara sugar for sprinkle topping 
• 1.5 teaspoon of ground mixed spice, (cinnamon nutmeg) 
• 100g melted butter

16th May 2020. A different recipe- verdict- Delicious, and not too sweet

I hadsome nubs of ciabatta left over so decided, as the weather was cooling, to use them up in  bread pudding.

I found this one online and decided to give it a try, the photos show its the right colour, dark brown rather than pale.

Recipe webpage  here:

Ingredients:

• 1kg Bread (day old/stale white bread), chopped.
• 1,200ml Whole milk.
• 400g Raisins
• 300g Currants.
• 300g Sultanas
• 100g Mixed peel.
• 100g Glace cherries.
• 2 tbsp Ground mixed spice.
• 4 Egg.
• 280g Light brown sugar (plus additional for sprinkling on top before baking).

I was a little lighter on raisins etc but added grated orange zest and used 4 eggs. I think milkwise I used about 600ml, also nutmeg and cinnamon and some mixed spice.

I was a little light on the sugar but its absolutely delicious. Not too sweet but a nice crunchy top with the sugar on top which I'd layed quite thick.

Looking forward to having this over the next few day and hopefully weeks if I don't scoff it all too quickly.

Definitely a great use of unused bread.

For the baguettes I just cut them up and toast them, that is good too.

Air Fryer what is working so far

 
I tried to do a bread pudding last night. I had a ceramic bowl and some stale bread, but I was short of milk.
Also the bread I'd saved was old fruit bread that was not a successful bake and I was a bit heavy handed with the cinnamon, something I'm not over keen on.  I found it was a bit dry. I have bought some custard powder ( A small custard container is too much for me, I don't use it that frequently) so I'll try it out with that.
It was delicious the next day with custard, see below.
Next time I have some molenburg toast bread in the freezer I will try and layer and see how that comes out.

Puff pastry

I tried the first example in the video above. It made a shape that I could use custard in. I also added a slice of peach on top.
The recipe says heat at 200 deg C for 15-20 minutes in the oven. So I did 200 deg C and 10 minutes in the air fryer.

I only did one for a test, I'd tried to cool the custard down but it was still very runny. I have some chilling in the fridge for the next time.

It was lovely and light. I will sprinkle caster sugar over next time.  

I wonder if baking the pastry on its own and then putting the fillings in after may make a different taste. I have a couple of squares in the fridge so will try one each way and see which I prefer. 

This is quick, easy, looks very pretty and is tasty.

Spring rolls

A great success, great to heat up in the evening and munch on as a snack.

Sausage rolls. 

I really like these for breakfast and for a day or evening snack. A bit greasy but yummy (maybe because I haven't had any for so long). I'm now looking to take one strip off and thaw overnight then just heat in air fryer and eat straight away. Although the frozen cooked ones and then pop in microwave is easy too. Just grab a bag from the freezer and put in the fridge overnight and they are ready for a 1 minute zap.
I put poppy seeds on the ones below, I've also put sesame seeds on them too. The ones in the photo below I just cut up, heated and then ate them straight away, they went very fast.

Bread pudding

This developed from left over bread. As I'm baking my own most of the time this issue does not come up as much. I will have to buy a loaf and freeze it to use for this. The bowl size is good for making a good size one for one person. It will last 3 - 4 portions.
I just had some with custard and it was delicious. A real rib sticker.

Frittata

Yes, good idea, I haven't quite got it right but am working on it.

 Mini Calzone

They are a great success. I thought I was getting pizza'd out but they are thin and not very oily so are definitely more pleasant than the pizzas I get at the talks. I think I'll need to make some more pizza dough and freeze it on the weekend.

Chicken bits and wedges

I tried these stopgap reheat freezer bits that I have in reserve and the air fryer heats them through well. You can fit 4 chicken pieces and a reasonable amount of wedges in the basket and they just need turning and a shake once in a while. Quick and easy.

Manu drumsticks and chops

Yes, good to do in batches and freeze. He is definitely getting a bit of padding on him as he eats most things put down now.

Whats not working to date

Southern fried chicken drumsticks. 

Although I never cooked them before, only doing BBQ drumsticks, and those extremely infrequently, I found that the outside breadcrumbs had the flavour but the chicken was pretty bland. Maybe some sort of marinade overnight might improve the taste. I may give them another go. We'll see if Manu eats the ones I'm not successful with.

Par baked bread

Still tastes doughy at my 2nd attempt. I did that at 12mminutes. About 8 minutes at 170 deg C and the rest at 200 deg C.
I may have to go back to my standard method of making Ciabatta bread. Or freeze the dough balls.

Roasted nuts and chickpeas
Not that successful to date but I'll need to be a bit more careful about what I'm trying to mix with them. 

End comment

I still want to try a few other things out, like patata bravas, although I have to make some of the sauce first.
Pork Dumplings would be interesting too.
Empanadas with puff pastry, which is really a calzone variation with a different pastry.
I definitely want to try some churro's too.
It seems to be setup to do quick heat and eat and picky bits, my type of food.
I should try some vegetables too. There is a cauliflower one that may be interesting. A few of the videos show brussel sprouts.
Generally, the things I'm enjoying are greasy foods but with the minimal grease in the process I haven't come across an oily experience. They tend to be a bit dry.
The flaky pastry and the sausage rolls