I'm used to stratas being savoury dishes. Layers of bread, maybe some sausage and/or veggies, probably cheese, and then eggs or custard to bind it all together. Baked up into a tasty breakfast dish.

This one is a bit different. It's a sweet strata! Basically a layered bread pudding. Full of apples, raisins, spices, and a lightly sweetened custard. And served with maple syrup. Rather than cheddar or mozzarella (as I might normally expect for a strata), it uses cream cheese.

I think, on the whole, I prefer my savoury stratas. But this was definitely a nice way to mix things up a bit. And the Kidlet loved it!

Apple Strata

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• 6 slices stale bread, cubed and divided
• 125g cream cheese, cubed
• 2 apples, peeled and diced
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Directions

1. Grease a 23x23cm (9x9") square pan.
2. Place half of the bread cubes in an even layer in the bottom of the pan.
3. Scatter the cream cheese on top.
4. Layer the apples on top of this and sprinkle with the raisins.
5. Beat the eggs with the milk and mix in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
6. Pour the custard over the strata.
7. Cover and set aside to allow the bread to soak up the custard for at least an hour and as long as overnight. (Store in the fridge if there will be more than 2 hours between assembly and baking.)
8. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)¹.
10. Bake strata at 180°C (350°F) until custard is just set (60-75 minutes).
11. Serve topped with icing sugar and/or maple syrup.

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¹ The original recipe says to bake your strata at 190°C (375°F) for 55 minutes. Mine was very dark on top after only 45, but still raw in the centre. I ended up covering it with foil and baking it for another 10 minutes and then reducing the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and baking it 10 more minutes. So, I think next time I'd just start it out at 180°C (350°F) and bake it for a bit longer to make sure that everything gets cooked through without burning. ^Back