Pumpkin Bread Pudding Stuffed Apples

  AGAIN... remember the pumpkin muffins and those muffins made into croutons???  Here is yet another way to use left over muffins.  My dad doesn't like muffins (unless they are lemon poppy seed) so 12 muffins are too many for me and my mom to finish by ourselves.  That is why there are two left over recipes.  I cannot begin to tell you how awesome these stuffed apples are.  These were our dinner the night I made them... we each ate one then split another.  I tried this recipe with two different apples:  Granny Smith and Arkansas Black.  Arkansas Black's have an amazing flavor but the skin is naturally a little waxy.  The flesh didn't bake as well as I had hoped and they aren't exactly readily available at most grocery stores.  (I bought them at the Franklin Farmers' Market from Scott's Orchard.)  The Granny Smiths were absolutely perfect though!  Which is great, because they are cheap and available in supermarkets all year long.
   If you didn't make pumpkin muffins, but still want to make this recipe see note at the bottom of the page!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding Stuffed Apples
4 medium-large Granny Smith apples
3 pumpkin muffins, cut into small cubes
1 egg
3/4 C milk
1/4 C pumpkin puree
1/4 C brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 C raisins

   Lightly toast muffin cubes in a 300 deg F preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.
   Combine egg, milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Soak toasted muffin pieces in mixture until all the liquid is absorbed.  This will take about 15 minutes.  (If mixture seems a little too dry, add an extra 1/4 C milk.)  Fold in raisins.
   Cut off the tops of the apples.  Using a melon baller or small, sturdy spoon hollow out the core of the apple.  Do not go all the way through the bottom of the apples.

Hollowed out apple

   Cut 4 slices down the sides of the apple in an "X" formation.  Do not cut thought the center of the bottom of the apple.

  My attempt at being instructional

   Stuff apple with bread pudding mixture.  Lightly pack pudding in, be careful not to break off pieces of apple.

   Bake 350 deg F for 45 minutes.

   4 servings. 

NOTE: Don't have pumpkin muffins?  Use about 4 C stale French bread cubes (lightly toasted) and up pumpkin puree amount to 1/2 C.