Stale Bread – Bread and Apple Pudding

This really goes without saying that when you have leftover bread, make pudding! And bread pudding, I find, works best with stale bread. This is a really simple fruit-bread version but pretty much anything goes with bread pudding where the filling is concerned. People who are not a big fan of puddings would think…ugh…no way…but this is not pudding-PUDDING, you know. Look at it as a heaping version of French toasts. I invited a friend over for tea once and told her I was serving bread pudding. She was reluctant;

‘Err…I don’t like puddings…’
‘Do you like French toasts?’
‘Oh YES!’
‘Well, then it’s just a pile of French toasts baked together…’
‘Okay, I think I’d like that.’

The mix is pretty much the same what you would dip a French toast in, you might even say the French toast is a de-constructed version of the bread pudding. 🙂 A few personal tips when making a bread pudding;

1. Preferably, use a deep baking dish because the bread tends to puff up when baking
2. Let the bread soak in the cream/milk mix for at least 30 mins before baking
3. Cover with foil first so the edges of the bread that’s sticking out won’t burn.
4. I’d rather use a baking dish instead of a baking pan (aluminium or any steel pans) because you will definitely have a layer of bread and milk stuck to the surface of the pan even if you did butter it. To me, with a dish, it’s easier wash-up after soaking.

BREAD AND APPLE PUDDING RECIPE

Ingredients;

Stale bread (I used white sandwich bread here), cut into triangles
1 apple, peeled, cored, sliced
Raisins (optional), soaked in apple juice
Brown sugar/ demerara / muscovado
Cinnamon powder

Liquid mix;
4 eggs
100 ml cream
400 ml milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon honey
A pinch of cinnamon

Steps;

1. Cut your bread into triangles, leave it whole or tear it into pieces. Arrange them in your buttered baking dish. Prep your apple accordingly. Sprinkled some cinnamon powder over the apple slices to coat. Stuff the apple slices in between all the spaces of the bread pieces.
2. Mix all the ingredients for the liquid together and pour it slowly over the bread and apple making sure you get all the nooks and crannies.
3. Let it sit for 30 mins. In the meantime, pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
4. When it’s time, sprinkle the raisins on top and cover with foil and bake first for 15 mins. Then remove foil, sprinkle brown sugar all over the top and bake for another 15 – 20 mins or until the bread is browned and slightly crisp on the edges.
5. Eat with ice cream or some custard sauce.

Enjoy!