Caramelized Apple Bread Pudding

I went home after my trip to the US, and my mom told me to do something with a bag of sliced bread that was sitting around. She feared that it would start molding in the near future. My dad then chipped in, saying a bunch of apples were sitting around. When there is dried bread or a lot of bread to use up, my only thought is something along the lines of a bread pudding.

Therefore, I made a thin custard with soy milk, sugar, some vanilla, and corn starch. Since the bread wasn't dried, I cut it up and dried it in a toaster oven. After that, I poured the custard on top of the bread and let it sit. In the meantime, I started working on a basic caramel.

From past experiments with caramel, I feared it would not turn out so well. I generally have a hard time with caramel. Yet for once, this one turned out beautifully. I did burn my finger when I accidentally touched it while it was in the pan (be careful, caramel is extremely hot!) After taking care of my burn, I poured it all into the bottom of a greased loaf pan. Then I cut some thin apple wedges and laid them on top of the hardened caramel.

I then poured about 1/3 of the bread mix, sprinkled some diced apples, and repeated until I reached the top. There was a bit of custard liquid and a end slice of bread left, so I layered that on the very top. The whole thing was baked until browned.

My parents didn't get home until late, so I left the whole bread pudding in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I plated it onto the biggest, long plate I could find, and still it could barely fit! I think overall it was a bit soft. Next time, I probably would add less custard to the bread. It most probably also would benefit from even more apples throughout the middle.

Tarte Tatin

Do you know the story of the Tarte Tatin? From what I hear, it is about how two sisters named Tatin once baked an apple tart while forgetting to put the dough under the apples. Thus, they decided to put the dough on top of the apples, then flip the whole thing after the baking was done. This resulted in very caramelized apples that were cooked uniformedly.

The apples in this recipe were first poached in a vanilla and butter syrup, then arranged on top of a caramel layer. The whole thing was covered in an homemade, inverted puff pastry, then baked.

This was how the tart looked before I flipped it over (with a shower of liquid syrup and caramel):

The recipe was adapted from La Pistacheraie's recipe (with many pictures).

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TARTE TATIN RECIPE

  Ingredients

     Inverted Puff Pastry

• 200 g (150 + 50) all-purpose flour
• 135 g pastry flour
• 220 g unsalted butter
• 6 g salt
• 1 tbs white vinegar
• 165 g cold water

     Caramel

• 200 g sugar

     Poached Apples

• 1 L water
• 150 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100 g butter
• 6-8 apples

  Procedure

     Inverted Puff Pastry

1. In a large bowl, mix 150 g all-purpose flour with the pastry flour, salt, cold water, and vinegar.
2. Mix until just combined. Flatten into a rectangle, film, and refrigerate until used.
3. In another bowl, combined softened butter with remaining 50 g all-purpose flour.
4. Using a baking sheet, fold so that a square section forms in the middle.
5. Put butter mix in the square, fold in flaps, then using a rolling pin, flatten into a square.
6. Refrigerate at least 15 mins.
7. Take out both doughs, and remove the paper and film.
8. On a well floured surface, roll out the butter square until it becomes a large rectangle.
9. Put the flour mix on the middle portion of the rectangle, and fold in the two remaining flaps in order to close the flour dough into the butter one.
10. Turn the dough 90°, and flatten it by pressing a rolling pin into it successively. Roll out until about 60 cm long. Fold into 3rds and turn 90°. This is a simple turn.
11. Repeat steps 10, then refrigerate 45 minutes.
12. Repeat as to obtain 5 turns total, refrigerating after every 2 turns.
13. Cut the dough in 2 equal pieces, film one and store it in the fridge.
14. With the second half, roll it out until you can cut a circle that is 1-2 cm wider than your springform pan. Poke it with a fork.
15. Refrigerate.

     Caramel

1. In a heavy-bottomed pot, spread a thin layer of sugar (about 1/4 of the total amount).
2. Heat gently until melted, and beginning to color.
3. Add another 1/4 of sugar, shaking the pot to spread it.
4. Repeat until all the sugar has caramelized.
5. Pour it into the bottom of your springform pan. It will harden and become glass-like.

     Poached Apples

1. In a pot, mix water, sugar, vanilla, and butter. Bring to a boil.
2. Peel and cut apples into quarters. Put them in lemon water to keep them from browning.
3. Put about half the apples in the syrup, and cook about 6-8 minutes, or until tender, but still holding shape.
4. Repeat with the remaining apples.

     Assembly and baking

1. Preheat oven 220°C.
2. Arrange apples tightly in concentric circles on top of hardened caramel.
3. Put the circle of dough on top of the springform pan. Gently push it down until it is in contact with the apples.
4. With a skewer or a thin knife, poke a hole (chimney) in the middle of the dough.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180°C, sprinkle the dough with sugar, and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Put another pan under the tart, as caramel syrup will leak out of the springform pan while baking as the caramel becomes liquid again.
6. After cooling a little (the tart should still be warm), flip onto a plate. A lot of syrup will flow out!
7. Tilt the plate to remove excess caramel syrup. Glaze with some watered-down apple jelly.

Vegan Flan/Crème Brulée

In my plum tart post, I mentioned a vegan custard recipe, which I used as a base for the fruits on the tart. I had put the leftover custard into small oven dishes and filmed them to prevent the formation of a weird skin.

I then put a layer of brown sugar on top and broiled them in the oven until melted and slightly toffee-like.

Unfortunately, either because I took too long between the making of the custard and the caramelizing/toffee-ing, or because of the reheating and re-cooling, the texture of the custard wasn't the smooth creaminess I found in the tart base. The flavor, however, was wonderful, especially with the melted brown sugar that became both a small film of crunchiness and a delicious caramel sauce. This will be something to try again, maybe with tweaks to the recipe.

Rest assured, the recipe was fine in the tart~

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VEGAN CUSTARD RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 500 mL milk of choice (I used unsweetened soymilk)
• 2 tbs honey/syrup/unrefined sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs cornstarch (which I didn't have so I subbed with 6 tbs wheat flour)

  Procedure

1. Mix milk, sweetener, and vanilla in a pot and heat until almost boiling.
2. Make a slurry out of starch and a bit of water, and add to the pot, stirring.
3. Simmer until thickened.
4. Consume as fast as possible.

Apple Cake with Whipped Cream and Caramel

On a weekend with guests over, my brother made some homemade pizza while I made a cake. I originally intended to make jam-topped almond butter cookies, but due to time constraints, I settled for egg-free cake with diced apple inside.

Turns out after I baked it and decorated it with whipped cream and caramel sauce (caramel always fails with me...), the inside was not cooked enough. So I had to scrape off the cream and re-bake the cake some more... Just goes to show that I have a lot of failures as an amateur baker...

I also accidentally left all my baking decoration tools at my dorm, so I had to make do with a plastic bag to try and pipe designs on top. As usual, when I use a plastic bag, I cut the hole too large, so it makes for sloppy decorations.

All in all, this cake was a pretty bad failure, though the end result was tasty enough.