Thursday, October 11, 2012

APPLE BREAD PUDDING!!!!

First, you guys will LOVE Piper and Lucia, two characters in my upcoming "Kirkwood Lake" series!!!  Lucia is a naturalized American, one who truly understands the glory of freedom... voting... living away from fear....  And she has embraced home-style cooking with an eye toward her budget and sales at their Glass Bottle Dairy!

Slices of this homemade dessert would go for $2.25... and a bargain at that! Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Clearly it is the season for this easy, delicious, amazing old-fashioned dessert! Simple, one bowl, bake, serve! And it is AWESOME!!!!! 


Ingredients:
 Six large eggs, beaten in bowl
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1  3/4 cup milk
One apple peeled, cored, chopped and microwaved for about 2 minutes.
Bread, fritters, or bagels to soak up custard. I had about 8 fritters, a half a glazed fried cake and half a chewy bagel. (Onion bagels would NOT be good here. Oy!!!)

 Add milk and vanilla to beaten egg, whisk!


 It should look like this, custardy, when blended...

 Add the cinnamon to the sugar. Mix and then mix into the custard mix in bowl:


Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray an 8" pan with cooking spray or grease lightly.  Break up bread, bagels or fritters into the batter. Press down to see if you have enough. If not, sacrifice a little more bread. I like my bread pudding on the firmer side, not soggy.

 This is the consistency I was looking for. When you press the bread in (think French Toast) you want it to absorb most of the milk/egg mix. Add slightly stewed apples. Mix gently. Pour into pan.
 Please note that I have my friend Mia Ross's newest Sawyer family book on this table because she gave it to me last week and IT'S SO STINKIN' PRETTY!!!! LOVE IT!!!  :)

 Place bread pudding into 13 x 9 pan with about an inch of hot water in bottom. (this "steams" the pudding in the oven so it doesn't get too dry and crusty)

 It is never a BAD idea to drizzle the whole thing with caramel syrup... that was a last minute brain child hence the fact the syrup wasn't in the original picture...
Bake at 325 for about however long it takes... I think 35-45 minutes.... I know it's done when you touch the top lightly and it doesn't feel squishy. It has a firm feel to it, but not dried out and nasty. Try to avoid that scenario. Please.
I

Cut into six generous pieces and serve with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, butter balls or a combination of the three!

This has always been a party pleaser here... A must at any kind of party over the fall and winter. It's just so warm and tasty and good!!!

16 comments:

  1. Oh, baby! You had me at 'easy'. Which makes me easy. But whatever.

    Fritters? I understand bagels and bread. We get a lot of those ends to the load because certain ill-behaved children prefer the inner slices. But we usually take them to the park and feed the ducks.

    I like this idea better.

    Was that caramel syrup like an ice cream topping?

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  2. Yup, Hershey's caramel syrup... easy-peasy, right? And the fritters are great fresh, but they toughen after a day, and I had extras because no one was around last weekend... WRITING WEEKEND!!!! :) But seriously, that thicker, tougher fritter dough (once staled a little) made the best consistency for a bread pudding that I've every had. And I don't have ducks, so I freeze the ends in a toss-in bag for stuffing... and bread pudding... or I run them through the food processor for bread crumbs. Can you tell we're country girls on a budget??? Waste not, want not! :)

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  3. Oh, this might rival my grandmother's apple cake. Must make.

    I got upstate New York apples from Whole Foods this week. They are tiny but scrumptious.

    Sadly, about 75% of our NC mountain apple crop was destroyed due to the weird weather. Glad your state is picking up the slack.

    Oh, gluten-free folks, this is a pretty easy one to convert. Just use that gluten free bread!

    Peace, Julie

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    Replies
    1. No, our state got hit too. At least up here. We have a 30% crop. Cider is $6/gallon. And farms are selling to other farms to stock their farm market shelves because they make better money that way than shipping to the apple factories.

      Tough, tough year.

      That's why I've made it my mantra to BUY LOCAL STUFF to the max because all farmers up here have suffered in varying ways. But then I read that Maryland has a bumper crop??? How'd they do that?

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  4. Apples are hard to get everywhere this year! But oh, that bread pudding looks so good - and it doesn't take bushels of apples, right? Just one!

    $2.25 is a bargain, too.

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  5. Ah Ruthy,

    For a heartbeat I thought you meant me....and then I read on and you meant your character...which is still okay! It is like on that Gevalia Coffee commercial. When I hear that handsome dude say, "Hello, Piper" there is that split second when I feel that the handsome dude is speaking to me...and then I realize he's talking to the Piper on the television screen. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

    I am definitely going to try this. I could have used this recipe a few weeks ago when I had to get rid of a batch of fritters (I thought I could freeze them). Now I know what to do with leftover fritters. And we love caramel sauce around here--good stuff! Thanks again!

    Piper

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    Replies
    1. Pipe, you could pop them in the freezer and use them for this!!! That way if you don't have time to make it when you've got leftovers... you just grab 'em out of the freezer when you do! That's a brilliant idea!!!

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  6. LOL, Piper!!! I can just imagine how that would feel to hear your name like that. :)

    Ruthy, this looks amazing! Since we just got back in town, I'm sure I have a ton of stale bread. Let's just hope it's not moldy. :)

    I'm back, I'm back! Have been away for fall break with the kids and hubby. Will tell you more tomorrow. :)

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    Replies
    1. Welcome home!!! I've missed you. And I've had to clean the coffee pots EVERY SINGLE NIGHT because you and Jan were away and Virginia is a SLACKER... she keeps taking care of those kids and leavin' me all the clean-up.

      Fresh Pioneer BRAT is what she is. ;)

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    2. Ruthy, thanks for covering for me! I promise to do the dishes the rest of the week. :)

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  7. Julie, can you believe I've never been to Whole Foods? I don't live near one but would love to! Will have to go to one sometime when I'm near Atlanta.

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    Replies
    1. They've got Whole Foods in NYC... crazy pricey. I don't know if that's because it's Whole Foods or because it's NYC... Julie, what do you think? Of course I'm spoiled here because we have Wegmans and Tops, two huge grocery stores with price wars and they're simply gorgeous.... Have you guys ever been in a Wegmans Grocery Store?

      They're amazing.

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  8. I've never seen it. And I'd never heard of Wegmans until you mentioned it. We have Ingles (based in NC) and Publix and Kroger (although I don't live near Kroger anymore).

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    Replies
    1. OH, Missy, when you come up the coast, check them out. Really amazing stores. Beyond amazing. I don't think having Super Walmarts around hurts Wegmans because they're that good.

      They have them outside of Boston and Princeton now... And Washington. Darn! You were just there! They will only build a store in an established market area within six hour drives of their hub warehouses. Really great marketing.

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  9. Seriously. How is it you are not 5 x 5 wide? Butter and butter and more butter. I love it but I just look at it and gain chubbage.

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    Replies
    1. Wait... there's no butter in this.

      None....

      But way too many carbs. My trick is LITTLE PEEPS> I eat a tiny piece, they GOBBLE the rest.

      So I feed my dessert monster and then move on.

      Truly, if I was alone here, or just me and Dave, I'd have to stop the baking bus because I have zero resistance.

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