Bejeweled Bread Pudding

For D's class holiday breakfast, he wanted to bring bread pudding. He wanted to use quinoa bread, but I didn't have any more and didn't feel like making any. Sorry. But, I stirred in some cooked red quinoa and it looked just the same. He was satisfied; I was relieved. Off it went.

I was inspired to bake a re-do since I didn't get to try any of D's bread pudding. I added some caramelized apples, fresh persimmon, and pomegranate arils that reminded me of carnelian and garnets. The bread pudding looked bejeweled.

Ingredients

• 8-10 C cubed bread (I used a mixture of a French loaf and a wheat loaf)
• 3/4 C cooked red quinoa
• 4-5 large eggs
• 2 C eggnog
• 3/4 C + 2 T organic dark brown sugar
• 2 T pure vanilla extract
• 2 T organic almond extract
• butter
• 1 T spices (I used a mixture of ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cardamom, and ground ginger)

topping

• 1 T butter
• 1 T organic granulated sugar
• 2 apples, sliced
• 2 Fuyu persimmon, peeled and sliced
• pomegranate arils
• eggnog for drizzling

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggnog, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and extracts. Stir in the spices, then blend in the bread cubes and quinoa until moistened.

Press the mixture into the buttered baking stone. Cover with foil. Bake for 50 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with 2 T sugar. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is firm and golden.

While the pudding bakes make your topping. Place sliced apples in a saucepan with butter and sugar. Heat until the caramel forms and the apples are softened.

To serve, slice the bread pudding and place them on serving plates. Top them with the caramel apples, sliced persimmons, and a sprinkling of pomegranate arils. Drizzle with eggnog.