ISO: NY Times Bread Pudding with Apples

[Silversage]

I'm trying to help a friend who has a worn, faded clipping of an old (20 or 30 years maybe) recipe from the New York Times. Here's what we can make out. If anyone can fill in the missing details (in italics), he'd sure appreciate it.

1 pound firm but sweet cooking apples
2 Tbls butter
1 1/4 c sugar
1/4 c currants or raisins
1/4 c Calvados or applejack
? - 20 slices of french bread, about 1/2 inch thick
?2? egg yolks
?2? whole eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
? cup heavy cream
? cups milk
?? confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 400. Peel apples; core, quarter, and slice them thinly. There should be about ? cups.

Heat the butter in a heavy skillet and add apple slices. Sprinkle the apples with 1/4 cup of sugar, and add the currants or raisins. Sprinkle with Calvados and ignite it.

Arrange the bread slices, slightly overlapping, over the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Do not crowd the bread and use only enough to cover the bottom, slightly overlapping, in one layer.

Spoon the apple mixture evenly over the bread. Blend the yolks, eggs, remaining cup of sugar, vanilla, cream and milk. Heat slightly and pour it all over the bread and fruit. Set the baking dish in a larger pan and pour boiling water around it. Carefully place in the oven and bake 40 minutes. Remove the pudding from the water bath and let cool to lukewarm.

When lukewarm, sprinkle the top wth the confectioners' sugar put through a fine sieve. Run the pudding under the broiler until the top is nicely glazed.

Thanks for your help.
Kathy

 

[Audeo]

I'll take a stab at this for a fellow Red Wings fan also lamenting the loss of the sport this year....

First of all, this is a bread pudding made with caramelized apples. I have a similar recipe that came from my mother...probably about the same time period that this one was published, although I doubt seriously that it is the same one. Likely, yours was from a NYC restaurant that was receiving raves at the time. Good food abounds in NYC!!!

A pound of cooking apples would be about 3 (large) to 4 (medium), each resulting in about 3 cups sliced.

The french bread MUST be a thin baguette to produce so many slices to still fit into a 9x13 dish! I woud venture a guess that this would be 15-20 slices, but use your own eye to create the layer described. A bigger loaf will use fewer slices....

Mom's recipe calls for 4 egg yolks and 4 whole eggs and I can't imagine fewer eggs producing enough custard for this recipe.

1 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cups milk (These are the ratios in Mom's and could match yours)

I would go with 2 tablespoons of confectioners sugar sprinkled over the top, or even a little less since the stuff is so sweet.

The one thing not mentioned in the second paragraph of the instructions is the amount of time it will take to caramelize the apples (about 15 minutes over medium heat), which you will want to do before adding the Calvados (apple brandy) and igniting.

This recipe is really delicious. I would only venture further by making a Calvados anglaise to dollop on the top when serving.

Best of luck!

 

[Silversage]

Hank thanks you... Judy thanks you... and I thank you.

Now if only they'd settle that darn CBA!

Kathy

 

[MelissaWinnetka]

I'm trying to help a friend who has a worn, faded clipping of an old (20 or 30 years maybe) recipe from the New York Times. Here's what we can make out. If anyone can fill in the missing details (in italics), he'd sure appreciate it.

1 pound firm but sweet cooking apples
2 Tbls butter
1 1/4 c sugar
1/4 c currants or raisins
1/4 c Calvados or applejack
? - 20 slices of french bread, about 1/2 inch thick
?2? egg yolks
?2? whole eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
? cup heavy cream
? cups milk
?? confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 400. Peel apples; core, quarter, and slice them thinly. There should be about ? cups.

Heat the butter in a heavy skillet and add apple slices. Sprinkle the apples with 1/4 cup of sugar, and add the currants or raisins. Sprinkle with Calvados and ignite it.

Arrange the bread slices, slightly overlapping, over the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Do not crowd the bread and use only enough to cover the bottom, slightly overlapping, in one layer.

Spoon the apple mixture evenly over the bread. Blend the yolks, eggs, remaining cup of sugar, vanilla, cream and milk. Heat slightly and pour it all over the bread and fruit. Set the baking dish in a larger pan and pour boiling water around it. Carefully place in the oven and bake 40 minutes. Remove the pudding from the water bath and let cool to lukewarm.

When lukewarm, sprinkle the top wth the confectioners' sugar put through a fine sieve. Run the pudding under the broiler until the top is nicely glazed.

Thanks for your help.
Kathy

 

[Aunt Bea]

Oops!

 

[MelissaWinnetka]

Hi, Kathy. I have this recipe but couldn't find it yesterday, so what you shared really helped. I've made it several times and have upped the apples to 20 oz. Yolks are four, eggs are two (though I happened to use two extra eggs yesterday, and the color was gorgeous). One cup cream and three cups milk. Instead of French bread, yesterday I cubed a pound of crusty Italian bread and let it dry out overnight. The published recipe doesn't call for drying the bread, though, so what I made would have benefited from an extra cup of milk or cream. (BTW, my notes say to push down protruding bread pieces after you pour the custard so that they soak through.) I don't bother with the powdered sugar step because it's sweet enough as is. So happy that you posted for your friend, and I hope many yummy bread puddings lie ahead.

 

[Silversage]

Wow! This is a blast from the past! How did you ever find it?
I posted the original post nearly 20 years ago. Funny, I'm one of the few oldtimers from back then still around.

I've made this a few times since then, and of course, tweaked it a little each time. It's still a great recipe.