Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Pudding with Apples!

Good morning and happy Monday to all you awesome people! Yesterday I went on a bit of cooking spree, but as you all know, I make dessert before dinner. And this will last for 2-3 days hopefully.  Thought I’d open up to welcome everyone on a beautiful Monday here (before the last snowstorm of the year hits tonight)…That last one of the year is purely my hopes though..

I’ve never done bread pudding in my life! Never tasted in my life but it does look like all kinds of delicious.  So I went out and bought some cheap whole wheat Weight Watchers cinnamon-raison bread that was on special at the grocery store.  I never usually buy that but if I messed up at least I’d know it was with unexpensive bread, right? Plus, it has to be healthy at the very least.

 

I got this recipe out of Looneyspoons cookbook.  Its by Janet and Greta Podleski and you know what funky name she gave this recipe? Puddin’ on the Ritz! Cute, right?

Here’s the recipe! Also I have put stars next to ingredients from the recipe that I changed and the alternatives will be after the recipe:

Serves 6 (if you cut it in bigger pieces than I did)

Ingredients:

4 cups cubed cinnamon-raisin bread

1 cup peeled and chopped Granny Smith apple*

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup 2% evaporated milk*

1/2 cup skim or 1% milk*

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

 

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven at 350F.  Spray an 8×8 inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside

2) Toss bread crumbs and apples together in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together brown sugar and eggs.  Add evaporated milk, skim milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Whisk again.

3) Pour milk mixture over bread cubes and apples.  Mix well.  Let stand for 15 minutes for bread to absorb liquid.

4) Transfer mixture to baking pan.  Make sure apples are evenly distributed throughout pan.  Bake for 50 minutes, until bread is a deep golden brown and puffed up.  A knife inserted in the center should come out clean.  Slice into 6 squares and serve warm.

 

It was relatively easy to make.  For the modifications, first of all, I did not have Granny Smith apples so I used Royal Gala.  As for milk, I replaced it with almond milk and as for the evaporated milk, it was melted vanilla coconut milk ice cream that I used.  I think it actually didn’t do it much harm.

I thought the taste was pretty good.  Not too sweet and the texture was pretty interesting.  I’m not exactly sure if its really that but I will try the banana bread pudding next.

Is this what bread pudding should look like? If you know, please tell me! It was a pretty good first experience.  Do you know any other substitutes for evaporated milk?

Raw Apple Muffins!

Ever since I saw this recipe earlier this year on a fellow blogger’s post, I’ve been wanting to make it.  I never actually had bought apples and when I did I always went and made the familiar pies.  It turns out my friends (and even myself) we’re not much of a muffin person.  Everyone always had other choices for apples, even if it meant just slicing it and eating it by itself.

Now, these muffins looked amazing.  They looked downright delicious.  Here is the link to her post on Raw Apple Muffins.

Recipe: http://saltandserenity.com/2012/05/28/raw-apple-muffins/

Last night, the initial plan was to make Pumpkin Spice Muffins, but I didn’t have time to head out to buy groceries after work.  So seeing as I had bought apples last week to make this and never got around to it, I thought it’d be the perfect time.  I have a gathering with my friends again.  I can’t believe its been a month (or so).  Remember last time, I made  Apple and Oat Scones, and before that it was Banana Gingerbread Slices? Other than dicing the apples took a crazy amount of time, this was a fun recipe.  I pretty much put on a movie and started chopping and mixing.

This recipe really suited my taste a lot.  I didn’t really have to change anything at all.  It turned out as promised to be moist and delicious from the apples.  I did have to make some little changes.  Salt and Serenity suggested to use Granny Smith and Macintosh apples.  I didn’t have those, so I used Cortland apples.  I think it didn’t make too much of a difference.  Second modification was that I replaced raisins with dried cranberries.  It added a little extra colour to each muffin and usually is a good replacement for raisins.

 

Wait before you go, there’s more.  There was one extra little part I had to change–the topping.  It was supposed to be dipped in melted butter than into the sugar.  I’m lactose intolerant for one and I had run out of butter and margarine.  So I just sprinkled the cinnamon-sugar mixture on the top.  Trust me, it still taste fantastic.  Honestly, I’m not sure melted margarine would’ve tasted the same as melted butter, maybe I’ll try it on one of them later on.

 

This was how they looked when they first got out of the oven.  Nice little muffins, eh?

I’d like to give a big thank you to Salt and Serenity for sharing this with everyone.  If you haven’t been to her blog, you definitely should, she has awesome recipes there.

So, just a little update: Those other muffins I talked about will be coming up soon.  As much as I’m not much of a muffin person, I think I’d prefer that over making a pumpkin pie or something.  Its going to be the first time I bake anything with pumpkin so, I’ll start it off in an easy fashion.

If you do have any suggestions for pumpkin recipes, I’d love to hear it.