This is where it all starts. One freshly washed, less than perfect, organic apple. A Braeburn, I believe. The humble catalyst that ends with one of the most soul satisfying desserts I know. Bread pudding. Guys, I can’t tell you how much I love bread pudding. It gets made more than several times a year in my house, and if I could eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, I’d make it every week. The variations and combinations are endless. I’ve made bread pudding with cake layers, with pieces of brownies thrown in, out of stale bakery goods of almost any kind (donuts, croissants, danish, and once with kinda stale turnovers that turned out so surprisingly delectable), out of almost any kind of bread, and various combinations of all of the above. And recently, I’ve been a bit fixated on savory bread puddings, but more on that later. So this is how it began. Standing in the kitchen, a bit antsy. I want to make something, but don’t have a plan in mind. Quite a few of the things that I’ve been planning for you would require a trip to the store for ingredients I don’t have. But I’m in my comfortable clothes, it’s really grey and cold out there, and it’s going to snow any second. Gah, I don’t want to go to the store! So, I stand in front of the open refrigerator, I stand in front of the open cabinets, I pull out the freezer drawer and peer into its depth for a couple of minutes. I contemplate the bowls of fruits and veggies on the counter, I pull out the drawers with all the baking pans and doo dads, I stare out at the park and watch the people running who are so bundled up against the cold they look like multi-colored Michelin Men. As all of what I’ve stared at for the last few minutes swirls around and starts to settle, the mental checklist comes up. Eggs? Check. Milk or cream? Check. Butter, sugar, vanilla? Check, check, check. Bread? Frozen brioche will do nicely, check. Then my gaze falls on the apples. And a vision of Tarte Tatin jumps to mind, nah….but, the caramelized apple part sounds good. So, apples? Check. That’s how this recipe came together. Not exactly rocket science, but it all worked out very nicely.
A Plate Full 