Apple-Nut Bread Pudding -- The Pie We Ate in Gayle's Kitchen After Everything

Easter Sunday. Seven people at the table, no masks, no distance, no pandemic rules — just people, just food, just the grace that Justin said and the ham that I glazed and the deviled eggs that Gayle declared 'acceptable,' which from Gayle is a James Beard Award. We ate inside, at the dining room table, with the good plates and the cloth napkins that come out three times a year (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter — the holy trinity of fabric napkins). Josie wore a dress, which she does approximately never, and the dress was floral and too big and she looked like a flower that was still growing into its pot, and the growing was the morning.

I hid eggs in the yard for Josie — not because Josie is still young enough to believe in the Easter Bunny (she is not; she announced the Easter Bunny's nonexistence in February with the matter-of-fact cruelty of a ten-year-old who has done the math) but because the hiding and the finding are the tradition, and the tradition does not require belief, it requires participation, and Josie participates in everything with the full commitment of her small, loud, enormous self.

After dinner I drove to Gayle's house and we sat in her kitchen and ate pie — the leftover pie from dinner, apple, warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that Gayle said was too much and ate entirely. We talked about Larry. About how Larry used to hide eggs for me and Darla, and how his hiding places were terrible because Larry was a truck driver and his sense of scale was calibrated for interstate highways, not backyards, and he would hide eggs behind the garden shed and under the porch and once, memorably, on the roof. 'The roof, Brenda,' Gayle said. 'The man put an egg on the roof.' We laughed. The laughing was the Easter. The Easter was the laughing.

Sitting in Gayle’s kitchen that night, eating warm apple pie with too much ice cream and laughing about Larry and the egg on the roof, I kept thinking about how the best desserts aren’t really about the dessert at all — they’re about the table you’re sitting at and the voice you’re hearing across it. This Apple-Nut Bread Pudding is what I make when I want that same warmth: apples and something toasty and soft, the kind of thing you serve warm and eat slowly, because you’re not really in a hurry to get anywhere. It’s the dessert version of staying just a little longer.

Apple-Nut Bread Pudding

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 6 cups day-old white or French bread, cubed (about 1/2-inch pieces)
• 2 cups peeled, cored, and diced apples (about 2 medium apples)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter or nonstick spray.
2. Combine bread, apples, and nuts. Spread the bread cubes evenly in the prepared baking dish. Scatter the diced apples and chopped nuts over the top and gently toss to distribute.
3. Make the custard. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until well combined and the sugars are mostly dissolved.
4. Soak the bread. Pour the custard mixture evenly over the bread, apples, and nuts. Press down gently with a spatula or the back of a spoon so the bread absorbs the liquid. Let sit for 10 minutes.
5. Add butter and bake. Drizzle the melted butter over the top of the pudding. Bake uncovered for 40–45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the custard is set in the center (a knife inserted in the middle should come out mostly clean).
6. Rest and serve. Let the pudding rest for 5–10 minutes before scooping. Serve warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream if you’re feeling the way Gayle was feeling that night — which is to say, generous.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 310 | Protein: 8g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 45g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 260mg