Apple Bread Pudding
Fills 11 inch x 9 inch pan
Adapted from Eat Smarter!
1½ - 2 baguettes, two days old
1 cup (250 milliliters) milk
1 teaspoon salt
½ zested lemon
3¼ tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
4 apples, any red apples, such as Gala, quartered, peeled, and thinly sliced
¼ cup raisins
2 tablespoons butter, plus a bit more for greasing the pan
Powdered sugar, for garnish (optional)
For Vanilla Sauce:
2 cups (500 milliliters) milk
½ vanilla bean (½ teaspoon vanilla extract)
2 eggs, yolks and egg whites separated
3¼ tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons corn starch
Preheat the oven to 355° F (180° C). Grease a 11 inch x 9 inch casserole dish.
Slice the baguette into roughly equally-thick pieces. Add them to a large bowl.
In a medium bowl, whisk the milk, salt, lemon zest, sugar, and eggs together. Pour about ⅔ of the mixture over the bread slices and mix everything together so as much of the bread is covered with the milk mixture.
Let it sit for at least 15 minutes.
While the bread is resting is a great time to prep the apples.
When the bread and apples are ready, add a layer of bread slices to the bottom of the dish. Add the apple slices on top of the bread and sprinkle the raisins over top.
Add the remaining bread slices on top of the apple layer and pour the remaining milk mixture over top everything.
Bake the bread pudding for 30-45 minutes, until golden brown.
While the bread pudding is baking, prepare the vanilla sauce. In a small saucepan, add the milk and vanilla bean. Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat.
While the milk is coming to a boil, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Add the egg yolks and sugar to a a large bowl and whisk until creamy. Slowly incorporate the corn starch.
Very carefully and slowly, pour the milk into the egg yolk mixture.
Be careful because if you add the hot milk too fast, you might cook the egg yolks. If that happens, you would have to start the whole vanilla sauce process from the beginning again.
Pour the milk-egg mixture back to the saucepan and bring it to a simmer.
Remove the pan from the stove and remove the vanilla bean. Carefully, fold the egg whites into the vanilla sauce.
When the bread pudding is done, serve it in a bowl and pour the vanilla sauce over top, Garnish with powdered sugar.
Enjoy!