What to do with leftover sandwich crusts
your kids don't eat them either? Great! Make APPLE BREAD PUDDING
Got crusts?
We’ve gotten really into making “special sandwiches” over here for lunch boxes. It’s essentially just a sandwich but cut out with a special cutter to make it look like those frozen uncrustables. Difference here is you have total control over the ingredients. It’s pretty great. I buy Dave’s Killer Bread and fill them with cream cheese & Bonne Mamman jam then cut them out with these cutters. I’ll do 10-12 at a time and freeze them. When you’re packing lunch you just put the frozen sandwich in the box and my lunchtime it’s defrosted. If your kids don’t like crust it’s kind of a game changer. BUT, you’re left with a lot of leftover crusts. Even if you just cut off crusts with a knife, you’re still left with them. And the bread I buy is $5.99 a pop, so you better believe my gears were turning about what to do with these crusts.
I save mine in a plastic bag in the freezer. You could start a “bread pudding bag” and each time you have crusts or a little heel of stale bread or a leftover croissant, just pop it into the bag and into the freezer. When you have about 4 cups of combined bread, you’re ready to make this recipe! Waste not, want not!
Now, if your kids are weird like I was at 10 years old, and they’re having you cut crusts off of Liverwurst & tomato sandwiches, well them maybe this recipe isn’t going to work. We’re talking crusts from PB&J, Cream Cheese & Jam, buttered toasts. Even a touch of mayonnaise won’t hurt this.
Enter APPLE BREAD PUDDING. Bread pudding is one of those catch all desserts. Like any kind of bread, any fillings, pour over a super eggy sweet custard and bake. This is exactly that. And it’s not super sweet so it can totally pass as breakfast - think french toast casserole. But served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or honestly, even just a drizzle of organic heavy cream and you’re in heaven.
Flavor Experiments:
Adding warming spices like cloves, cardamom or ginger.
Adding a dash of bourbon to the custard
Adding pears
Adding rosemary or sage into the sautéed apples.
Apple Bread Pudding
serves 6
Pan: Use an 8” x 8” baking pan. Or something close to that. Even an oven safe skillet would work.
Bread: I used enough crusts, torn up to fill the 8” x 8” pan (about 4 cups). If you don’t have enough crusts you can supplement with any sandwich bread, sourdough, brioche, leftover croissants, even leftover plain bagels would work. Just tear them up into big pieces. The staler the bread the better.
Apples: peel & dice 2-3 large apples. Put 4 tablespoons butter into a skillet and add your apples. Saute them for 5-10 minutes, stirring often until they become softer.
Custard: Mix together 3 cups milk (you can sub cream for some of this, I did!), 4 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar (white or brown), 1 teaspoon vanilla, big pinch of cinnamon, small pinch of ground nutmeg and a pinch of salt.
Combine everything (bread, apples & custard) in the baking pan and let soak for at least 1 hour and even overnight in the refrigerator. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for about 45 minutes. The pudding should be slightly wobbly and puffed when touched with no liquid visible.
Serve it warm or at room temperature. Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.