Apple Bread Pudding

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 A week ago I recklessly bought three loaves of bread, despite my teenage daughter's urging against this. I prefer not to freeze bread, as it seems the texture changes. The plan was to use ALL THREE LOAVES before the insidious appearance of a mold spot.

Easy, thought I. I had signed up to take one loaf to a local event, leaving only two for our little household of three to consume. It's fall now so I cherished visions of whole-grain toast smothered in real butter and topped with jam, cinnamon sugar, brown sugar, or honey. For lunches we could enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches with soup. What could possibly be better? (I tend to giddy-ness on grocery days -- I so love being surrounded by all those possibilities).

It turns out there was PLENTY of bread at the local event, so I whisked my donated loaf away as I exited, as I planned to take a huge pot of home-made chili and that loaf of bread to share with my sister's family in the next day or two. Didn't happen.

Still, I wasn't worried. That is, until yesterday when I noticed a tiny spot of mold on two slices. I retrieved the culprits and broke them up into the dog's dish. Whew! We had tuna sandwiches for lunch and those slices were fine.

It was time to strategize. I have two back-up plans for stale bread. Plan 1: french toast. Plan 2: bread pudding. I pulled out my binder of breakfast recipes and found this one, for which I had ALL the ingredients EXCEPT the chunky applesauce.

No worries -- I pulled out my well-worn copy of "Peanuts Cook Book" and turned to page 48 to "Lucy's Applesauce Pie". An added bonus for selecting this breakfast meal was I could use some of the apples a co-worker had given me! Apple Bread Pudding 10 slices Italian or French bread, cubed, divided 1 jar (25 oz) chunky applesauce 1/3 tsp. ground nutmeg 2 eggs 2 cups milk 1/2 c. sugar 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon Whipped topping, optional Place half of the bread cubes in a greased 11x7x2" baking dish. Spoon applesauce over bread; sprinkle with nutmeg. Top with remaining bread. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla. Pour over bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake, uncovered, at 325 for 50-60 min. or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve with whipped topping, if desired. Yield: 8-10

If you don't have chunky applesauce on hand you can make your own! 5 med. apples, peeled and cored 1/2 c. sugar 1/4 c. water 1/2 tsp. cinnamon dash of salt. Slice apples into a med. saucepan. Add water, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cook (covered and stirry frequently) until water is gone--being careful not to burn the apples. Stir until most lumps are gone. I prepared the applesauce last night and combined all the ingredients as directed (except I used a blender to combine the milk, eggs, sugar and spices), covered the dish with plastic wrap and slipped it into the refrigerator.

Somehow I popped awake at 5:30 this morning so I got up to turn on the oven and start it baking. I climbed back into bed and read a chapter from my scriptures before nestling back under the covers for an hour. My daughter has an early morning class so gets up at 6. How nice it was for us to enjoy this hot breakfast together.

Our rating? We thought it would be best served with whipped topping. My mixer broke just last week so that was not an option for us. (We much prefer whipping up our topping from heavy cream to using the stuff from the freezer aisle). We thought a dab of butter would have added a nice flavor and perhaps a bit more cinnamon sugar. We should not have added milk as it was best piping hot with just a bit of heavy cream as a garnish. I think it would have been nice with raisins baked in it. My daughter prefers chocolate chips to raisins.