Banana Apple Bread Pudding with Yogurt and Honey sauce

The other day was very cold and I did not feel like cooking something major. Even though I was craving for a nice warm healthy savory dinner. There was still some leftover Ratatouille, a basket of mix stale breads and grated mozzarella cheese. We also had nice fresh salad leaves we bought on the same day...not everything we had was old. 

I put together a casserole with cooked pasta and ratatouille by adding some black Provencal olives, anchovies and a bit of tomato sauce. I mixed them all up and topped with grated mozzarella cheese and baked it at 170 degree Celsius for ca 30 minutes. That was the main course and we had green salad with fantastic extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar. For desert I used up all the stale bread we had – small baguettes, corn bread and sour dough bread to make a bread pudding and jazzed it up with banana and apple to give me a healthy feeling. I served this lovely warm desert with nice light yogurt sauce. A liter tub of thick yogurt is a regular resident in my fridge.

This Bread Pudding recipe can use any mixture of stale bread you or your neighbor has. It is easy to make and it tastes really good. We also breakfast with this sweet leftover. A YUM indeed!

Banana Apple Bread Pudding with Yogurt and Honey sauce

Ingredients:

4-5 cups of stale bread – tear into pieces

3 large Eggs at room temperature

2 cups Milk

½ cup melted Butter

1 cup Raw Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

½ teaspoon ground Cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground Nutmeg

Pinch of Sea Salt

1 Ripe Banana, mashed

2 small Apple, chopped

Chopped nuts - Optional (Walnut, Pecan or Almond)

Sauce

2 cup of Thick Yogurt such Greek – can substitute with thick creamy regular Plain Yogurt

1/3 cup Honey – runny

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instruction:

Bread Pudding

Heat the oven at 180 Celsius degree

1.       Beat the egg vigorously with hand whisk until it turn pale yellow about 3-4 minute

2.      Add Raw Sugar, Melted Butter, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, salt into eggs and continue beating until it well blend

3.      Add milk into the egg mixture and mix well

4.      Add bread into the pudding mixture. Stir well and let it sits for 30 minutes or until the bread pieces absorb

5.      Add chopped Apples, mashed banana and nuts if use and mix well

6.      Grease the baking pan or dish with butter and bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Until the Bread Pudding is nice and brown and fluffy

Sauce

1.       In a bowl mix Yogurt, Honey and Cinnamon well with whisk

2.      Cover with plastic wrap and keep cool in refrigerate until ready to use

Serving tip: it tastes best when serve warm with sauce.

Spontaneous Casserole

Jårg always says that I am the master of universe of cleaning out the refrigerator, using the rest of fresh and available ingredients to create a fantastic meal. He is just too kind and hungry ;-) Well, I usually do this when we are leaving for the trip. I stop buying fresh grocery and use up whatever there. We did not go shopping this time when we came back from Berlin. The trip was short just a week. I packed all fresh vegetables properly and froze whatever that had to. Last night we were hungry and too lazy to go out. I gather my fresh produce: organic carrot, fresh bulb of fennel, small potatoes, some grated Emmental cheese. I always have the most fun and become very creative in this situation. I like to eat good food. So I created a light but hearty casserole meal for the cold weather.

Potatoes, Carrots and Fennel in Cheese sauce with Spicy bread crumb topping. 
I turned on the oven for 200 C degree. I washed and sliced carrots and fennel bulb into ca ¾ cm thick and steamed them separately they need different time: carrots 8 mins and Fennel 4-5 min. Boiled potatoes in salted water for about 20 mins. Mixed about a cup of bread crump I have in the cupboard with spices: 1teaspoon each oregano, thyme, cayenne pepper, onion and garlic powder and 11/2 teaspoons of paprika and salt about ½ teaspoon of ground black pepper. Mix well and then add about 2-3 table spoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil - stir it until there is no crumb stick to the spoon and set aside. 
I make a cheese sauce using a Roux basic recipe – heat butter till brown add some flour mix well for 3-4 minutes the add milk cook it but not let it boil then add grated cheese slowly and stir well. The sauce should not be too thick I added a cube of vegetable bullion some freshly ground pepper and salt.

I drained the steamed vegetables and boiled potatoes. Cut potatoes in half. Layer the glass or ceramic casserole dish first with halved potatoes, cheese sauce, then vegetables, cheese sauce then sprinkle mixed bread crumb evenly on top and bake it for about 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubble and the topping is nicely brown and crispy. 

Personally I like casserole when the textures are combined – soft and crunchy or soft and chewy. Nice table red wine such Minervois made a perfect dinner last night and we still have left over for lunch today.