Apple Pie Bread Pudding

Somehow, in the 4 years that we’ve been doing this blog, we’ve never posted a bread pudding.
I’ve had it on the calendar so many times (just wait…truffles…pumpkin…chicken…I’m not sure why it hasn’t happened, but when it does, it’ll be awesome), but it seems like it always gets bumped. Or I don’t want to make it. Or it’s too hot. Or some kind of lame excuse.
Well, no more excuses, I just wanted to share this recipe while you’re still craving apples. (You are still craving apples, and things made with apples, and bread, and pudding, and caramel….aren’t you? . . . Good. Me too.)
It starts with a bread cubes (If you can leave them out for a few hours so they get nice and dry, that’s great. If not, just place them on a baking sheet and bake them at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until they’re dry but not toasted.), eggs, apples…as well as vanilla yogurt, milk, and spices.
Your kitchen is going to smell really, really good while this baby’s baking. Just warning you.
And the caramel sauce formula is a simple adaptation of similar recipes, they always seem to be called either “caramel sauce”, “brown-sugar sauce”, “butterscotch sauce” or “brown-sugar butter sauce” or some variation thereof. I think this one tastes more caramel-like than anything else, so that’s what we’re calling it here, okay? Okay.

Ingredients :
8 cups bread, cubed
3 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped
4 eggs
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup milk
2 tsp cinnamon, divided
½ tsp nutmeg
½ c sugar + 2 Tbsp
½ cup raisins
Sauce
1 cup Unsalted Butter
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup Brown Sugar

Instructions :
Preheat oven to 350°.
Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk, eggs, 1 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, and ½ cup sugar.
Stir in the apples, raisins, then gently fold in the bread cubes. Pour into the prepared pan.
In a small bowl, stir together 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.
Sprinkle on top the bread pudding. Bake 30-40 minutes until puffed and golden brown.
While the bread pudding is baking, make the caramel sauce.
In a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, stir together the butter, heavy cream, and brown sugar; bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low, simmer until the sauce thickens, for about 5 minutes. Pour over bread pudding to serve. Top with vanilla ice cream.
* If you can leave bread cubes out for a few hours so they get nice and dry. If not, just place them on a baking sheet and bake them at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until they’re dry but not toasted.
* You can make this the night before and pop it in the oven for breakfast – it actually gets better if it sits overnight!