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.

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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!!!