Recipe: Cranberry-Apple French Toast Casserole

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups diced Granny Smith apple (about 2 apples)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Dash of ground cloves
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, divided
• 1 pound dinner rolls, quartered
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
• 1 1/4 cups apple juice
• 1 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
• 3/4 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 6 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Preparation

Preheat oven to 250°.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add apple, cinnamon, and cloves to pan; cook 10 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Stir in 2 tablespoons brown sugar; cook 2 minutes or until sugar melts. Remove from heat.

Place quartered rolls on a jelly-roll pan; bake at 250° for 15 minutes. Arrange rolls in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle cranberries evenly over rolls; top with apple mixture. Combine apple juice and the next 5 ingredients (through eggs) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Pour egg mixture over roll mixture; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Uncover dish, and sprinkle with almonds. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes or until golden.

Cooking Light, November 2007

Recipe: Baked Apples with Ginger

Serve these apples warm but have cold, heavy cream to pour over them at the table--or vanilla ice cream is super, too.

Core 6 large baking apples almost to the bottom, and peel halfway down. Mix 1 cup chopped candied or preserved ginger with 1 cup chopped filberts or almonds. Fill cavities with this mixture; put in a baking dish.

Combine 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, and a 6-ounce glass of currant jelly, and pour into the dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, basting occasionally with the syrup in the pan. Sprinkle the apples with granulated sugar and put under the broiler until brown.

Makes 6 servings.

Recipe from ~ Adventures in Food published by Sunset Magazine © 1964.