By Jodee Weiland

I have always wanted to make bread pudding, simply because I love it! Bread pudding is a great way to make a dessert out of day old bread. I often serve crusty loafs of fresh bread with a meal, so when I had a half loaf left from the day before, I decided to make bread pudding. First, I researched tons of recipes, and then I took what I liked about all of them and blended it into a recipe I thought would taste good. I altered a few options somewhat, but nothing that would take away from the basics of bread pudding. With the decisions I made, I wasn’t wrong because the results were delicious. My Classic Bread Pudding with Fruit and Nuts turned out great, and we’ll be enjoying this recipe for a long time to come!

For one thing, I decided to use light brown sugar in my recipe and less of it. Why? Because with all the sauces available to put on top of bread pudding, I felt this dish would be sweet enough. Since I decided to use a drizzle of salted caramel topping I had purchased earlier, I felt that would definitely add sweetness. Personally, I love bread pudding with or without sauce. I also used almond milk in place of milk. The bread I used was from a crusty loaf of freshly baked bread as well. In addition to the bread, I added a mixture of raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts, almonds, and other nuts. Again the dried fruit would add to the sweetness of the bread pudding, and the whole almonds plus other nuts add a crunch. Together, all of the ingredients made a wonderful bread pudding!

Classic Bread Pudding with Fruit and Nuts

• 1/2 loaf fresh baked crusty bread or 5 to 6 slices
• 2 tablespoons melted unsalted whipped butter
• 3/4 cup mixture of dried fruits and nuts (see above for what I used)
• 4 eggs beaten
• 2 cups almond milk
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut up bread into cubes and put them in an eight inch square baking dish. Sprinkle the fruit and nuts across the top of the bread. Melt the butter and drizzle it across the top.

In a mixing bowl, blend together thoroughly the eggs, almond milk, brown sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Beat together until mixed well. Then pour this mixture over the top of the bread, fruit, and nuts. Using a fork or spatula push down lightly on the bread pieces making sure all the bread is soaked well with the liquid mixture.

Bake the bread pudding 45 minutes or until done. Test by pressing a fork lightly on the top. It should spring back. Also, put a fork or toothpick in the center and make sure it comes out clean when removed. Once done, serve as is or with a sauce of your choice.

My Classic Bread Pudding with Fruit and Nuts turned out great, and we’ll be enjoying this recipe for a long time to come! As it cooked, the whole house smelled so good, we could hardly wait to try it. When we did, we weren’t disappointed. We drizzled a salted caramel sauce over the top, and that added to the flavor. You can use any kind of sauce you prefer or make one of your own. Since this was the first time I made bread pudding, I’m still working on that. Give this dish a try soon. You’ll love it, so enjoy!

By Jodee Weiland

The fall is a great time for apple recipes! Families love to go apple picking in the fall, only to return home and start digging out the favorite family apple recipes to make. My family is no different from everyone else. We, too, loved to take the children apple picking every fall and sure enough, when we arrived home we pulled out our favorite family apple recipes to bake. The one other thing we have done over the years is to add to those apple recipes with new ones we created or found along the way. The Awesome Apple-Delicious Recipes are just a few of our favorites! So if you are looking for some new apple recipes after apple picking, be sure to check out our five favorite family Awesome Apple-Delicious Recipes pictured above. You can find them at the following links for the pictures from right to left as follows:

Apple Strawberry Crumb Cobbler

Apple Cranberry Walnut Pie…Sweet, Juicy, and Delicious!

Apple Walnut Bread…For Apple Picking Time or Just Any Time

Apple Galette, the Versatile French Pastry We All Love to Eat!  

Sweet Juicy Homemade Apple Pie is Perfect for Apple Picking Time!

My Awesome Apple-Delicious Recipes are absolutely wonderful and definitely are our family favorites for apple picking time or any time. These apple recipes are great tasting and so full of wonderful flavor! You won’t be disappointed if you try any one or all of these recipes after your family returns from apple picking or any time of the year. So when you’re looking for a new apple recipe to try, give one or all of these delicious recipes a try, and enjoy!

By Jodee Weiland

Looking for an easy apple recipe? Apple cobbler is one of the easiest recipes I can think of for when I want an apple recipe that’s easy and delicious. A cobbler, by definition, is filling a baking dish with fruit or some sort of filling and then covering that filling with a batter of some sort, one biscuit or more biscuits, or a kind of pie crust topping before being baked. I decided to make an apple recipe that could be called an apple cobbler, but my recipe has a topping that is crumbly and tasty along with the addition of some fresh strawberries, so I decided to call it Apple Strawberry Crumb Cobbler.

When making my topping for my apple recipe, I used light brown sugar instead of regular sugar with the flour and other ingredients. I sprinkled this dry crumbly topping over the entire surface of my fresh apple and strawberry fruit filling. After covering the top of the fruit, I spooned melted butter across most of the top. I reserved part of the butter to spoon over any small spots on the topping that were still dry and the rest of the top area during the last five minutes of cooking. Doing the butter in this way gave me a golden brown topping that was both crumbly and had a rich buttery flavor as well. This lightly sweet buttery topping with contrast of the fruit tossed lightly in lemon juice gives this Apple Strawberry Crumb Cobbler an incredibly delicious flavor that will amaze you!

Apple Strawberry Crumb Cobbler

• 5 Gala apples (or any apple type) peeled, cored, and sliced
• 1 and 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup melted unsalted whipped butter (1/4 cup of this is for last five minutes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss gently the apples and strawberries with the lemon juice in a bowl. Spoon them evenly into a 10 inch round baking dish. In another bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and egg. Mix together until the mixture is crumbly and blended together. Sprinkle this mixture over the entire surface of the fruit in the baking dish. When done, melt 1/2 cup butter (not the whole 3/4 cup of butter) and then spoon the butter carefully over as much of the topping as possible.

There will be some spots not quite covered at this point, but you will be covering those in the last five minutes of baking, so don’t worry. Put the baking dish on a foil lined baking sheet in case any juices drip over. Bake your cobbler at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the topping is golden brown. Mine took 60 minutes to bake completely. When you think you have about five minutes left, have your remaining 1/4 cup melted butter ready to spoon on any dry spots in the topping and then over the rest of the top surface. After the last five minutes, remove from the oven and let it sit for a few minutes before spooning servings on to plates.

My Apple Strawberry Crumb Cobbler is an apple recipe filled with fruit that has a slight touch of lemon flavor to contrast the lightly sweet buttery crumb topping. The incredible flavor combination here is beyond delicious. We loved it! Serve this cobbler as is or top it off with ice cream or gelato. Either way, this dessert will soon become one of your family’s favorite apple recipes. It definitely is one of our favorites, and the best part is that it’s so easy to make. Give it a try, and enjoy!