Caramel Apple Bread Pudding
A delicious and decadent warm apple treat made with fresh Italian Panettone bread! Your guests will be delighted with this sweet, comforting bread pudding made with apples, raisins, cinnamon, crunchy nuts, cream, and sugar. For the ultimate taste experience, drizzle it with a sweet caramel sauce and your guests will beg for seconds. Served warm with scoops of vanilla ice cream this Caramel Apple Bread Pudding can be enjoyed year-round.
Servings: 10 Servings
Ingredients
- 4 cups of 1" cubes of day-old* Italian panettone bread apple cinnamon was used in this recipe, brioche, challah, French or Italian loaf bread can also be used
- 1/2 can apple pie filling primarily use the apples
- 1 cup walnuts chopped (or your choice of nuts)
- 1 cup golden raisins
For The Apples
- 8 Honeycrisp apples peeled, sliced, seeds removed, cut into 1 inch chunks
- 1 large bowl filled with ice and water
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice for the apple water bath
- 1 stick of butter
- ½ cup of granulated sugar
- 2 tsps. cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp. corn starch
For The Bread Pudding Sauce
- 1 stick of butter
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 8 large or jumbo eggs
- 1-½ tsp. vanilla
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed into measuring cup
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- Pinch of Salt
For The Caramel Sauce
- 1 cup of cream
- ⅔ cup butter melted
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Following the step-by-step photos on the blog, cut the panettone bread into 1" cubes.
- Dry out the bread cubes by spreading them out on 1 or 2 baking sheets and set them out overnight OR place them on the baking sheets in a 300-degree oven and bake for 10 minutes, flipping them over and baking the other side for 10 more minutes. Do not burn. When nicely toasted remove the dried bread cubes from the oven and the baking sheets.
- In a medium saucepan on a medium-hot stovetop add the butter, cream, eggs, sugar and brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Stir and heat up.
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Fill a large mixing bowl with ice water and lemon juice.
- Peel, slice, and core the apples. Cut the apple slices into 1/2" cubes, placing them into the ice water as you go.
- Place either a large saucepan or frying pan on a medium-hot stovetop. Melt butter, add the apple cubes, cinnamon, and corn starch.
- Prepare a large baking pan (9 x 12") with cooking spray.
- Evenly lay half of the bread in the dish. Evenly lay half of the apples, raisins, and nuts all over the top of the apple cubes. Drop large dollops of apple pie filling all over the top. Evenly lay the second half of the bread cubes on top of the apple mixture. Gently press down on the ingredients.
- Pour all of the butter/cream/egg mixture over the entire apples and bread mixture.
- Evenly spread the remaining sauteed cinnamon apples all over the top.
- Cover with aluminum foil and keep overnight in the refrigerator.
- Bake the bread pudding in a 350-degree oven for 55 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes.
Prepare the Caramel Sauce
- In a medium saucepan on a moderate hot stovetop, whisk together the cream, butter, brown sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and salt.
- Heat and stir until the sauce clings to a spoon. This is one of those things that you have satisfy yourself in terms of how thick you want the sauce to be. Just know that you need to take this off of the heat when it begins to get too thick. But it's a forgiveable sauce. You can always add more cream and butter to thin it down.
Serving
- Serve with vanilla ice cream (OR cinnamon ice cream).
- Pour the caramel cream sauce on top.
- Enjoy the 'wow's'!
Notes
A variety of breads can be used instead of Italian panetonne: Brioche, challah, French bread, Italian bread.