Saved by the Brandy Sauce

Ever since the regrettable Blueberry Goo incident, I’ve avoided slow cooker sweets. However, I recently attended a crockpot potluck supper and was delegated dessert. Not one to let the team down, I stepped up to the challenge.

I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to test a new and highly recommended slow cooker cookbook. After rejecting Orchard Crumble with its ill-conceived oatmeal topping and boring Apple Sauce, I picked Raisin Bread Pudding. The cinnamon and nutmeg spicing sounded good and the splash of brandy didn’t hurt the cause either. Having assembled my ingredients, I proceeded to prove my theory on crockpot desserts.

Despite following the instructions to the letter (okay, I used walnuts instead of pecans) the dish burned. Yes, I burned something in a crockpot. The entire reason people buy crockpots is so they can leave a dish unattended all day and come home to a tasty, moist, unburned meal. But in less than three hours the entire bottom inch of pudding was welded to the liner and was three full shades darker than then rest of the dish.

Looking back, I wonder if the author slipped this dish into the book thinking no one would try it. After all, the recipe only takes 2 1/2 hours, which defeats the cook-while-you’re-working-nine-to-five purpose of this particular appliance. Oh, I’ve checked other bread pudding recipes and the standard oven-baked version takes 60 minutes with an hour tagged on to let the dish cool. I did the math. That’s 2 hours versus the crockpot’s 2 1/2. What am I going to do with the extra free half hour? Think up excuses? Bake cookies?

While this burnt offering wasn’t in the same league as the blueberry disaster, it wasn’t my finest moment. Turns out falling back on my motto, “When in doubt, add booze”, saved the evening. I ignored the recommended vanilla ice cream topping in favour of something stronger — lashings of brandy sauce.

I’m not going to post the Raisin Bread Pudding recipe. It was fairly standard except for two apples and a cup of toasted nuts, which got rather soggy after an afternoon soaking in a hot milk bath. Instead, I’m posting the recipe for Brandy Sauce. Takes all of five minutes.

Now, who doesn’t have that kind of time?

Brandy Sauce
Printable recipe

• 1 cup soft butter
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 5 tablespoon brandy
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated

Cook over medium heat until just melted. Pour over dessert, or eat from the spoon.