Birds' Nest Pudding...

Yesterday the girls and I made a special dessert. (Sarah had found the recipe in the back of one of her library books.) It was a sweet maple treat made with tart apples! It turned out very yummy and everyone enjoyed it so I thought I would share the recipe here. All of the ingredients are things that we have on hand most of the time, so I imagine we will making this one again! The only tool we could have used was an apple corer....but I was able to cut out the center core of the apple with a knife...although a corer would have done the job much faster!

6 tart apples
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon maple flavoring (we used syrup)
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
whipping cream or ice cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2 quart baking dish with butter or PAM spray. Peel and core the apples. Place apples in the baking dish and fill the holes with brown sugar. Slightly press the sugar into the holes. Sprinkle the nutmeg over the apples. (Cinnamon tastes just as good!) Place baking dish in the oven and let the apples start baking while you prepare the batter. Crack eggs into mixing bowl. Beat with a fork til foamy. Stir in milk and maple flavoring. Measure out flour, cream of tartar, baking powder and salt sifting them together into a separate mixing bowl. Stir in remaining brown sugar. (We had about 1/2 cup remaining after filling the apples.) Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Remove baking dish from the oven and pour the batter evenly over and around the apples. Bake for about 45 minutes more, or until the crust has browned. Serve each serving onto a plate so that the apple is "nested" in the crust. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. ENJOY!