Apple Apple Bread Pudding & Classic Strawberry Tart


This week for Tuesday's with Dorie, Elizabeth at Cake or Death? decided on Apple Apple Bread Pudding as our treat to try. Thank you Elizabeth, I absolutely loved this delicioius bread pudding! I am a new fan of bread pudding, I used to be scared off by soggy bread and eggy custard, but have found a "formula" to adapt recipes for those of us who still think bread pudding sounds good -- but would prefer it a little more solid. When we made the Chocolate Bread Pudding for Tuesdays with Dorie I tried using 3/4 recipe of the bread and 1/2 recipe of the custard, so more bread and less custard. Now I do that with any bread puddding recipe I try, and I've been pleasantly surprised with every bread pudding that comes out of my oven.


I used homemade brioche and crock pot apple butter (made with apple sauce) for this recipe. The apple butter was great and I'd never even thought about making it on my own before this TWD pick. I do love the stuff and have fond memories of it, Mussleman's Apple Butter had been a pantry staple growing up and I loved it on bagels as a kid. Nice to know I can now make my own, and next time around, it will hopefully be with homemade apple sauce :)


Was this how the bread was supposed to be placed? Since I only used 9 ounces of bread and overlapped a little more than I should have, I didn't have enough bread to sandwich the caramelized apples, so I just put them on top, and broke up my last piece of brioche and stuffed it in around the edges.


Whoa Nellie, that's a lot of custard, and that's after halving the custard recipe!


Not to worry, it baked up perfectly! What a yummy dessert, I thought it was especially delicious with some whipped cream and grade B maple syrup, mmm. Sadly, I couldn't convince picky husband on this one, and the kids only liked the apples and picked them out, oh-well.


Last but not least a quick photo of the Quick Classic Berry Tart, picked for us to try last Tuesday by Cristine of
Cooking with Cristine -- so sorry I didn't get a chance to post this last week even though I baked along. Picky husband liked it, although he did say it wasn't as good as strawberry shortcake, and the tart was a huge hit with the kids :)