apples, Breads, eggs, fruit, PYO Locations, sweets and desserts
by madeline2020

BlueBerry apple bread pudding

how to use leftovers for dessert!

Earlier this week I was getting ready to clean out my fridge and organize the kitchen. A quick perusal showed me a few Rhode Island Greening apples sitting in my fruit basket. I’d picked those with my sister a few weeks back for an Apple Walnut Upside Down Cake. I also came across a big bag of frozen blueberries from a trip to Greg’s U-Pick in Clarence, NY back in August. I also had a container of leftover cream cheese frosting from a Red Velvet Cake I’d made for a shared birthday and a whole loaf of Italian bread left over from a potluck. I am tired of feeding squirrels with leftover food, so bread pudding here we come. Funny how you always find something else to do when it’s kitchen cleaning time. This recipe is a bit rich, and really doesn’t need topping, but I used the cream cheese frosting and spread it over while the pudding was cooling so it would melt and soak in well. Soooo good!

Ingredients:

  • 4 large eggs
  • 4 cups of cream (I used a mixture of 1 cup whipping cream, 2 cups fat-free half and half, and 1 cup milk, whatever dairy you have is fine)
  • 2 cups sugar (it seems a lot but it didn’t seem overly sweet to me)
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tsp brandy
  • 1 cup diced cooking apples*
  • 1 cup frozen blueberries. See my tip below for freezing blueberries. Bagged frozen berries are usually mushy and will discolor your pudding. Also, freshly picked berries give the pudding a tangy bite to contrast the sweetness. If you use packaged frozen, add a TB of lemon zest to balance out your flavors
  • 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 loaf Italian bread, cut into 1-inch cubes

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • Grease a 13×9 in. baking pan
  • In a large bowl, combine eggs, cream, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and brandy. Whisk until well-mixed and the sugar has melted.
  • Stir in apples, blueberries, and chocolate chips.
  • Stir in bread cubes and allow to stand for 10 minutes, stirring periodically to make sure the bread gets a full soaking.
Pudding soaking after everything is mixed
  • Pour the batter into your greased pan, pushing it around until all corners are filled, and it’s nice and even across the top.
Pudding in the pan before it goes into the oven
  • Bake on the center rack in your oven until cooked through and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. This took mine about 70 minutes, but start checking at the 50-minute mark. Depending on your bread and the juiciness of the apples, yours may take more or less time.
  • When browned and cooked through, remove from the oven and set on a rack for 5 – 10 minutes before serving. This keeps well in the refrigerator for 3 days or more as long as you cover it with foil.

Serve with caramel sauce, ice cream, whipped cream, or just as it is!

Enjoy!

I picked so many apples I can’t remember which these were!

*What apples are best for cooking? I love the Rhode Island Greenings I discovered this summer. But you could also use:

  • Braeburn
  • Cortland
  • Crispin
  • Golden Delicious
  • Honeycrisp
  • IdaRed
  • Jonagold
  • Macintosh
  • Pink Lady
  • Rome

If you like baking you might like some of my newer recipes:

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