Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cakes with Store Bought Brioche

Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cake with caramel which turned itself into a spun sugar art exhibit

Rose's Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cakes is an incredibly rich dessert.  Rose includes a brioche recipe for the bread pudding base.  It sounded easy enough for someone not intimidated by yeast.  That would not be me.  Luckily Whole Foods had a lovely little loaf of brioche.

The brioche was trimmed, cut into cubes and dried in the oven, filling the kitchen with an amazing aroma.

Next caramel is made to line the ramekins.  Having a pastry brush dipped in water to wipe down any sugar crystals clinging to the inside of the pan helped prevent rock candy forming.  Sugar molecules are clever things.

Mixing the Creme Anglaise was very easy, except for frantic stirring ensuring the pot didn't turn into nutmeg flavored scrambled eggs. Poured over the brioche, it was left for a bit in the frig to soak up all the nutmeg goodness.

I am a Baby Boomer which means I grew up on canned pineapples, not freshly roasted ones.  I've never roasted any fruit before so this was a first and quite fun.  I mumbled quite a bit for not buying a pineapple corer at William Sonoma.and hacked away at the unsuspecting thing.  Caramelized sugar and pineapple juice basted the pineapple in my beloved cast iron skillet.

Once the pineapple cooled, I sliced as directed, although not managing terribly thin slices.  The soaked and drained bread batter was divided among ramekins then submerged into a am I going to the ER today bain marie, and tented with foil.  Forty minutes later we had lovely little puddings.

However, the caramel didn't quite cooperate with the puds.  It stuck to the bottom of the ramekins and was rock hard.  As I pulled the pineapple and sugar out, the caramel pulled into long ribbons!  It also turned itself into spun sugar without benefit of being swung across the kitchen with a lopped off whisk.  It made me feel very creative and quite avant-garde, turning out hip and modern sugar garnish.

The loads of leftover pineapple sauce was mixed with the minuscule Creme Anglaise and spooned onto the plate.  The very delicious Julie's Organic Caramel ice cream, possibly the creamiest ice cream in existence, was scooped on top.

The consensus was mixed.  Too much sugary flavored pineapple for the grandkids and myself.  Not enough for the grown kids, husband or Gena, our horse trainer. Or Daisy, the five month old Chihuahua quality inspector who figured out how to jump onto the computer desk via the chair.

We all, however, LOVED the brioche bread pudding.  Taking leftover soaked bread cubes, I made them into caramel free versions.  I seriously see this as being requested quite often, as in "Grandma, can you make that creamy bread pudding stuff only without the pineapple?"