Easy Apple Bread Pudding

I hate wasting food and I love dessert! I adapted an old-fashioned bread pudding recipe to use the heels of bread that my family inevitably leave behind. I didn't let my family know for a long time that "old bread" was the basis for this dessert so they love it almost as much as I enjoy making it!

The first step I have to take when making this dessert is to save the bread crusts. When my family has finished a loaf of bread, I take the remaining crusts, put them in a bread sack, and throw it into the freezer. The bread crusts keep collecting there until I am ready to use them. I find it amazing how quickly I can collect these crusts.

• There are a number of things that I can do with the bread, so it does not stay in the freezer long.
• During the winter I will often throw breadcrumbs out to the wild birds that hang out at my bird feeder. Even when the feeders are full, they will leave the feeders for these crusts.
• Sometimes I lay bread crusts out on a cookie sheet and put them at about 160 degrees Fahrenheit in the oven and let them dry thoroughly. I then use them to make foods that require bread crumbs such as meatloaf, and meatballs, or mixed with butter as a crunchy topping on casseroles. Then I lay them on a breadboard and roll over them with a rolling pin.
• Sometimes I take the bread crusts, cut them into one-inch squares, season them with garlic and other herbs and toast them under the broiler in the oven and make my own croutons.
• One of my favorite ways of using my stockpile of old bread crusts. However, making apple bread pudding is a treat we enjoy on cold crisp autumn evenings.

3 cups milk

¼ cup butter, melted

3 eggs—slightly beaten

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon sea salt

½ cup sugar

6 cups course bread crumbs

2 apples pared and cut into small chunks

8x11 cake pan

Pan spray

Preheat oven and pan spray the cake pan with Pan Spray. Combine milk, melted butter, eggs, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a bowl. Into the cake pan mix breadcrumbs, sugar, salt, and apple chunks. Pour liquid ingredients over the ingredients in the cake pan. Put into the preheated oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a butter knife inserted into the pudding comes out clean. Serves 10.

Serve warm, with or without sauce or cream.

If taking to a potluck event, make individual portions. Put muffin papers into muffin pan and spoon in bread mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Of course, I use bread heels for making other foods other than just bread pudding. I like to use them as the base for homemade stuffing.

I also dry them to make my own croutons.

It used to be that once dried, l crunched the dried bread up with my rolling pin to use as breadcrumbs in other dishes such as meatballs and meatloaf or as a crunchy topping for casseroles. However, lately, I have been grinding them in my food processor which takes just seconds to grind the dried bread into crumbs instead of it taking minutes. There's less mess too.