Breakfast Bread Pudding

Ok, while the baby is having some happy tummy time, I will post about the much requested Breakfast Bread Pudding. But first, why do I love my slow cooker?

It often involves that one dish, and no other dishes, which is amazing for someone like me who hates to do dishes.

The recipes are interesting and involve flavor that develops over a long period of time.

I can leave it on while the baby and I go for long walks, do errands, or meet fabulous people for lunch.

Its just fun!

This is from a cookbook called The Vegetarian Slow Cooker.

Start by lightly greasing your slow cooker. I just used cooking spray, but a lot of it, and make sure you get up the sides.

First you cube 4.5 cups of French Bread, which is not a whole loaf as I somehow imagined it would be. Its more like 3-4 large slices. Set that aside.

Then peel and chop 3 large apples, I used Macoun, but the recipe called for cooking apples, and a heartier apple probably would’ve been better, since my apples were pretty mushy, though maybe they were meant to be that way.

Combine the apples with:
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups milk (I used leftover whole milk, yum!)
1/4 cup maple syrup

Set that aside.

Then you have to cook 12 ounces of soy sausage. I just used a whole role (14 ounces). This is the most annoying part because it involves a pan and because that stuff is so hard to break up and brown.

Once all your components are ready you layer it like this:
half the bread
then half the apple/milk mixture, pressing down the bread to make sure it gets soaked
half the sausage
the rest of the bread
the rest of the sausage
the rest of the apple/milk mixture.

Then you cover and cook on low for 6 hours. My slow cooker finishes everything 30 minutes-hour early. So I turned it on at 12:40am and turned it off around 6:15am and it was perfect, any longer and the sides would’ve started to burn.

The only other thing about this recipe is that when you take a bite, you have to make sure you have some of each component otherwise it is too sweet or too savory, i.e. my first bite had too much sausage and it was overwhelming.

Let me know how if you make it and how it goes.

Okay, off to heat up some leftover Breakfast Bread Pudding and get the baby dressed for the day (we slept till 9am, after waking up every few hours since 2am). We are attempting a trip to Occupy Boston today. Hopefully we will make it and I can post about it, with pictures!