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Recipe

Caramel-Glazed Apple Bread Pudding

pregame. let's make it count

Served next to smoked pork at a New Year's table, which tells you how sweet it is: not very. It sits somewhere between a pudding and a stuffing and it is better for it.

Stale bread, and if it is not stale, dry it in the oven. Fresh bread turns to paste in custard. Twenty minutes at 300°F on a tray and it will drink the custard instead of dissolving in it.

The glaze goes on after it has baked and cooled a little, not before. Poured on raw it burns in the oven; brushed on warm it soaks a quarter inch in and sets glossy on top.

Feeds
10
Hands-on
35 minutes
Soak
1 hour
Bake
55 minutes

An hour of soaking, an hour of baking. It can be assembled the day before and baked when you want it.

Apple bread pudding and smoked pork with Veuve ClicquotCaramel-glazed apple pudding called art
Shot the night it was made. Open any picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The base

  • 1 1/2 lb day-old bread, torn into large pieces
  • 4 apples, skin on, in thick slices
  • 1 cup raisins, soaked in hot water 10 minutes
  • 3 tbsp butter, for the apples
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon

The custard

  • 6 eggs
  • 3 cups whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg, grated

The caramel glaze

  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 tsp flaky salt

How it goes

  1. 1 — Dry the bread out if it is not properly stale

    Torn and spread on a tray at 300°F for twenty minutes until dry to the touch but not browned. Fresh bread goes to paste and there is no recovering it.

  2. 2 — Cook the apples briefly in butter and sugar

    Butter, apple slices, brown sugar and cinnamon for five minutes until they soften at the edges but hold their shape. Raw apples release water into the custard as it bakes.

  3. 3 — Soak the raisins and drain them

    Ten minutes in hot water. Dry raisins steal moisture from the custard around them.

  4. 4 — Custard whisked and poured over, then PRESSED down

    Bread, apples and raisins in a buttered dish, custard poured over, then pressed down with your hands every ten minutes for an hour. The pressing is what gets the custard into the middle of every piece.

  5. 5 — An hour of soaking, minimum

    Overnight in the fridge is better. A pudding assembled and baked immediately is wet on the bottom and dry on top.

  6. 6 — 350°F for 55 minutes, covered then uncovered

    Forty minutes covered with foil so the custard sets gently, then fifteen uncovered so the top browns and the exposed bread edges go crisp.

  7. 7 — Caramel glaze made while it bakes

    Brown sugar, butter and cream boiled three minutes, flaky salt in off the heat. It thickens as it cools.

  8. 8 — Brush the glaze on while the pudding is warm

    Out of the oven, ten minutes to settle, then the glaze brushed over the whole surface so it soaks in and sets. Cut in broad slabs.

    pro tip — Save a little glaze to spoon over each plate. It is the best part and it goes fast.

Pregame. Thank you to all my old friends and new. Let's make it count. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

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