Plum Brioche Pudding for my 200Th Blogpost ~ By my Guest Deeba

This is the celebration of reaching 200 blog posts.... A lot of you will wonder, why am I not making something fancy to celebrate it. Getting to the 200th post has been a journey full of wonderful people who walked with me in life and some joined me thru the blog world.

So I thought of having an event called 'Celebrations' where I would open out my blog to some of my friends who would share some parts of their journey with me as Guest Posts......

This post features my friend Deeba of Passionate About Baking and her Macaroon madness is at Mactweets. She's been the wind-beneath-my-wings in the baking world... which has been a huge part of my life in the last 2 years. So how did I meet her? I'm a part of the Delhi Blogger's society. When new member's join they sent a mail introducing themselves and their blog. Deeba sent a mail sometime in August 08. Got interested in Deeba's URL http://passionateaboutbaking.blogspot.com now http://www.passionateaboutbaking.com. Clicked and entered a world of wonderful surprises and the most awesome stuff I could imagine. Till date, she never fails to bring a smile :)

The first post I read was "POPPY IN MY LIME COOKIES...COOKIES WITH ZEST!". They just blew me away. Her presentation was so immaculate.... I use to check her blog everyday.... :-)
Just check out a pic posted by her...

The next one was "MANGO MOUSSE CHEESECAKE TRIFLE...quite a yummy mouthful!" Mango is my favourite fruit :-) and when I saw it served so elegantly.... My heart skipped a beat.... Was totally addicted to the quips and quotes she puts in each post... :-)
Her yummy blog made me go back to the kitchen and try my hand at various things....I needed help one day, wrote to her and got an instant answer :-) We share phone numbers,from then on there was no looking back.....
Would call her whenever I needed help. she was always there for me at all sorts of odd hours.....
She graciously invited me over for lunch at her place Lunch at Deeba's, made a Zebra cake for them Zebra Cake for the Rajpals, We iced cupcakes together Cups of Magic ~ Vanilla Cupcakes @ Deeba's. It was such a nice day. Her kids are so wonderful.

Check out Deeba's account of the fun we had TRIFLE TALES...OF VISITING BLOGGERS & SWEET THINGS!

My MOST fav recipe from her blog are the Cappuccino Buttermilk Muffins, which I made for Babaji and lots of friends n family and even for Diwali last year.
This one is such a winner, easy to make, moist, yummy n awesome is how everyone who eats it says. They fall in love with these.

I really enjoyed making her a Cappuccino Tiramisu Cheesecake on her Birthday. Deeba is 'Eggo-phobic', likes Pink, loves Coffee..... So what can we do with this.....
Cappuccino Tiramisu Cheesecake [No bake, so no egg :-) ]

Cheers to our friendship :)

A small something for the Indian readers of Deeba.... She will select 1 lucky commenter to win complimentary meal vouchers from The Old Baker, the Patisserie at Jaypee Vasant Continetal or Jaypee Siddharth Palace, New Delhi. So be sure to leave a note at the end of this post with your location. Readers in other countries can share the same with anyone in proximity of the restaurant.

Deeba Writes.....

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating."
Wilson Fortaleza

I got an invitation to write a guest post from this dessert crazy girl whom I met not so long ago. I still remember the day Nachiketa landed up on my doorstep, with never-ending bags and boxes of stuff. Flowers for me as it was my birthday, a cheesecake she made that was drop dead delicious ... and above all, an unbelievably inquisitive mind. She wanted to learn everything 'food and photography' with an appetite you seldom see. I have yet to meet a more enthusiastic foodie, who seems to have the energy of a 2 year old and never tires of anything related to the culinary world, however remote it might be.

I am honoured to be here to herald in her 200th post. For her, I wanted to post something that included a bit of everything she would like. I put chocolate on top of my list, picked up a batch of plums, probably the last of the season here, and set my mind to work. I knew it had to be something sweet, a dessert obviously, and so took out my frozen loaf of brioche to make a plum pudding! My current obsession is baking with fruit, has been for a while now, and I never tire of the endless options blogs tempt me with. One such pudding was the Cherry Brioche Pudding I had bookmarked a while ago. I played around with ingredients and made this delicious pudding. Plums and chocolate make for a great marriage!

Brioche is a highly enriched French bread, whose high egg and butter content give it a rich and tender crumb. It has a dark, golden, and flaky crust from an egg wash applied after proofing. I made the brioche a while ago, and since I had plenty, I froze some. If you don't have the energy to make a brioche from scratch, you can substitute brioche with a nice country bread, croissants, or even white sliced bread. Be sure to increase the sugar a little bit as the brioche I've used is a sweetened bread.

Brioche Plum Pudding
Adapted from Canelle Et Vanille
1 cup low fat milk
200ml low fat cream
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 eggs
2 small brioche
3-4 plums, pitted, sliced
Method:
Whisk together the milk, cream, eggs, sugar, cocoa, vanilla extract and almond extract. Cut the brioche into medium size pieces and divide these with the sliced plums amongst your ramekins. Pour the custard on top of the brioche and plums.
Place the ramekins on a sheet pan, bring this to the oven and pour hot water in the pan. Bake them in a 300 degree oven in a water bath for about 30 minutes or until the center is set.
Sift a little icing sugar before serving, and add a few slivers of pistachio nuts.
Serve warm or at room temperature. A a dollop of unsweetened cream will add a little magic to it!
{Note: Ramekins and linen from Tarini, Galleria, DLF Phase 4, Gugraon}