Cut the bread into 1 inch by 2 inch pieces. Chop the apples into ½ inch pieces.
Place the chopped apples in a saucepan with ½ cup maple syrup, vegan butter, and salt.
Heat until the apples express their juices, cover and continue to cook until the apples are soft.
While the apples are cooking, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, make the custard by whisking together the milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, chia seeds, corn starch, remaining ½ cup maple syrup and vanilla.
Stir half the cooked apples into the custard.
Add the chopped bread to the bowl and gently mix, taking care not to squish the bread too much.
Pour the bread and custard into a 9 X 13 inch baking dish coated with oil or cooking spray. Spread the remaining apples on top.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake 20 minutes. Then remove the aluminum foil and strew the sliced almonds on top of the pudding. Continue baking another 25 minutes until the bread is puffy and the almonds are toasty. If you wish you can start the broiler for a couple of minutes at the end to add some more crunchiness to the almonds and the bread.
Let the pudding stand at least 15 minutes before serving.