Turning failure into success

Before the apple muffin disaster, there was the apple bread failure. The monkey had run out of banana bread for his sandwiches, and I didn't want to make another batch. So I turned to the apples sitting in my fridge, and an apple bread recipe from allrecipes.com. Substitute flour, add xanthan gum, and we were good to go. It looked and felt like the banana bread recipe. I put it in the oven with no other thought than it smelled wonderful. I had no idea it would come out a crumbly mess. Grrrrr! What a waste of time and ingredients. Not to mention that I now had no bread to make the monkey pb & j on for his field trip the next day nor time to make something else. I put the bread in a bag in the fridge with the thought that I should use it somehow to not waste. Earlier this week I hit upon what I was going to do...Bread Pudding! This is just a variation on my tropical one that I had previously posted.




Apple-Apricot Bread Pudding

2 large loaves of apple bread, cubed
10 dried apricots, soaked overnight and diced
1/8 Cup slivered almonds
4 eggs
1 Cup vanilla coconut milk
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Teaspoon hazelnut extract

Combine eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and hazelnut extract in a large bowl. Add bread, apricots and almonds until all bread is wet. Place in a greased 9 x 11 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-60 minutes or until the custard is set and bread is crisp on top. Pour brown sugar sauce over the top. Serve warm.

Brown Sugar Sauce (taken from Berry Bread Pudding with Brown Sugar Sauce)

1/2 Cup unsalted butter
1 Cup brown sugar
1/3 Cup water
1/4 Teaspoon apple pie spice

Melt butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Stir in brown sugar, water and spice. Cook stirring constantly for about three minutes. Serve hot over bread pudding. (Note: I omitted the egg as I am not a big fan of it in my sweet sauces. Theoretically, one could use tapioca starch or arrowroot starch to thicken it a bit more.)

Crumbly Pre-Pudding Bread