Epcot Food & Wine Festival: Ireland

Good Sunday morning! Several of the Magical Blogorail members are hosting a virtual Food & Wine blog carnival! Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoy all the samplings!

Walt Disney World Guests planning to circumnavigate the World Showcase now through November 13, 2011, get a literal taste of the 11 nations featured at Epcot’s permanent Pavilions and much, much more. The 16th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, which opened September 30, features small, snack-sized specialties as well as samplings of adult beverages at 29 international and specialty kiosks.

Upon arriving at the Park, Guests can visit the Festival Welcome Center to receive a complimentary souvenir Marketplace Discovery Passport to have stamped at each stop as they wine and dine their way around the world, attend a cooking demonstration, or dance a little jig at an outdoor concert.

The Emerald Isle is well represented with a fine sampling of Irish eats. On the menu: Lobster & Scallop Fisherman’s Pie, Kerrygold Cheese selections, Warm Chocolate Lava Cake with Bailey’s Ganache, Guinness Draught, and Bunratty Meade. Because I couldn’t be there in person, I made a delicious bread pudding—the very one served at Downtown Disney’s Raglan Road Irish Pub!

Walt Disney World Facts published the recipe in a March 2010 blog post. I made mine with raisin bread from my local Kroger bakery, and used Land ‘O Lakes butter because I couldn’t find Kerrygold, but otherwise followed it precisely, and OH MY GOODNESS is it yummy!!! We discovered it tastes just as good cold as it does warm, so don’t worry about leftovers; they’ll be tasty too!

Today’s Takeaway:
Make your own Raglan Road bread pudding!

Here it is:

1 loaf Pullman or Texas toast (I substituted raisin bread.)
1 lb Kerrygold butter softened (I used Land ‘O Lakes.)
2 C Sugar
1 qt Crème anglaise (see below)
1 C Raisins soaked in Irish mist or water (I used raisin bread instead of adding raisins.)
• Combine the sugar and butter, spread evenly on the bread slices to make sandwiches, stack together and cut of the crust.
• Cut the “sandwiches in ½ on an angle (from corner to corner)
• Butter the inside of 8 oven proof cups or preferred baking dish. One by one dip the “sandwiches” in the anglaise and place in the baking dish, layer the bread and a sprinkling of soaked raisins as you go until done
• Bake covered in a Bain Marie at 375 degrees for 35 minutes until it rises a bit. Remove the cover and bake an extra 10 minutes until slightly brown. (I do not own a Bain Marie, so I assembled the bread pudding in individual ramekins, placed them in a 9×12 cake pan and filled the cake pan with about 1 inch of water.)
• Carefully remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature with remaining anglaise and caramel sauce (see below).

Sauce Anglaise
6 Egg yolks
2 C Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 qt Heavy cream
• Heat the cream and vanilla on the stove until it almost starts to boil. Meanwhile, combine the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk well.
• When the cream reaches the almost boiling point, turn off burner and remove the pot from the flame. Temper the yolks by ladling a small amount of cream to the bowl and mixing well. Then add the yolk sugar mixture to the cream, whisk well so that it does not curdle. Place over a low flame for 2 minutes whisking until it starts to thicken. Strain and allow to cool to room temperature.

Caramel Sauce
½ lb Butter, chilled
1 C Brown sugar
1 C Heavy cream
• Combine the sugar and butter in pot and cook over a medium high flame. Whisk well to combine. When sugar is melted and it starts to boil turn off the stove, remove from the flame and whisk in the cream to combine. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Enjoy!

Be sure to visit my friends to sample more treats from around the World!