Bread Pudding with Vanilla Cream Sauce is classic recipe, this Old Fashioned Bread Pudding is easily made with chunks of French bread coated in a deliciously spiced custard! Perfect for a dessert, breakfast or brunch!
Bread Pudding with Vanilla Cream Sauce is dense and flavorful comfort food that is loaded with pieces of brioche and plump raisins, baked, and topped with a sweet homemade vanilla glaze.
For another delicious bread recipe, try my fabulous monkey bread recipes! you will find sweet as well as salty
Old Fashioned Bread Pudding
Centuries ago, people would look for ways to not waste any leftover food, including bread, which led to bread pudding. It was referred to as ‘poor man’s pudding’, but has evolved to be included in many upscale restaurants as a dessert. With all the variations of bread pudding recipes, it’s fun to play around with the recipe and try other kinds of bread and added ingredients.
Bread Pudding Ingredients
There are two main parts to the recipe–the bread pudding and my secret Old School Vanilla Cream Sauce …
Raisins: Raisins are optional.
About my Old School Vanilla Cream Sauce
This Old School Vanilla Cream Sauce has a perfect consistency, not too thick, not too thin. Deliciously smooth and just the right amount of sweetness. It’s fantastic as a bread pudding sauce, tastes incredible drizzled over fresh fruit, or paired with any baked good.
How to Make Old School Vanilla Cream Sauce:
You Need:
- milk
- half and half
- vanilla bean paste
- sugar
- egg yolks
Steps:
- Add the milk and half and half to a pot and bring to a slight simmer. Remove from heat.
- Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in a medium bowl. Slowly ladle all the warm milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture while whisking quickly.
- Adding it too quickly will cook the egg yolks and cause the sauce to curdle.
- Return to the mixture to the pot and heat over medium low until the sauce thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
- About 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat, add the vanilla once it cools.
- Strain the sauce if desired. Serve warm or chill in the refrigerator.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Is bread pudding a New Orleans thing?
If you’ve ever been to the French Quarter, you will find this dish served everywhere it seems. Bread pudding, however, is not a New Orleans or an American “thing”. It has roots in England and many other countries have similar versions. It was simply a frugal and tasty way to use up stale bread.
Is bread pudding the same as breutad and bter pudding?
No they are slightly different in their preparation. Bread pudding uses thick bread chunks (from French bread, challah or brioche) along with milk, eggs, spices and usually some sort of alcohol. Bread and butter pudding is made by spreading butter on top of a lot of smaller slices of bread. Usually just standard white bread. They are then placed into a baking dish and a custard like sauce is poured on top then baked. Similar concepts but different preparations.
Can I add alcohol?
Absolutely! you can add ½ cup dark rum or whiskey or if you want to keep the alcohol flavor in the bread pudding, but not use alchool, then you can add 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract and 1 Tablespoon of rum extract or you can just use the vanilla if you are wanting to omit the flavor all together.
How to Store Bread Pudding
To store leftovers, keep the pudding in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days. If you are planning to freeze the pudding, freeze it WITHOUT the vanilla glaze.
Let it come to room temperature before cutting it into individual pieces. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, or store the pieces in airtight, freezer-safe containers. Label and date the containers; the pudding will last up to three months.
Variations to Bread Pudding
As I mentioned, there are lots and lots of bread pudding recipes because of the versatility of the recipe. Here are a few things you could try:
- Use different kinds of bread (like cinnamon rolls, baguettes, artisan, or white bread).
- Toast the stale bread pieces in the oven for a few minutes before adding the custard ingredients.
- Make individual bread puddings by dividing the bread and custard evenly between ramekins before baking. Just be sure to check them after 20 minutes or so since the bake time may be a bit different.
- Add granola, dried fruit, cereal, or even marshmallows!
- Top with ice cream, caramel, or a whiskey sauce.
More About Bread Pudding.
Bread pudding is a bread-based dessert popular in many countries’ cuisines, including that of Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, France, Germany, Ireland, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands,Slovakia, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, as well as the Creole people of Louisiana and others in the southern United States. In other languages, its name is a translation of “bread pudding” or even just “pudding”, for example “pudín” or “budín” in Spanish; also in Spanish another name is “migas” (crumbs). In the Philippines, banana bread pudding is popular. In Mexico, there is a similar dish eaten during Lent called capirotada.
There is no fixed recipe, but it is usually made using stale (usually left-over) bread, and some combination of ingredients like milk, egg, suet, sugar or syrup, dried fruit, and spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, mace or vanilla. The bread is soaked in the liquids, mixed with the other ingredients, and baked.
It may be served with a sweet sauce of some sort, such as whiskey sauce, rum sauce, or caramel sauce, but is typically sprinkled with sugar and eaten warm in squares or slices. Sometimes bread pudding is served warm topped with or alongside a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. In Canada it is often made with maple syrup. In Malaysia, bread pudding is eaten with custard sauce. In Hong Kong, bread pudding is usually served with vanilla cream dressing. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, black bread is used to make “black bread pudding” (Schwarzbrotpudding). In Hungary it is called ‘Máglyarakás’ which is baked with whipped egg whites on top of it. In Puerto Rico, bread pudding is soaked over night in coconut milk and served with a guava rum sauce.
Ingredients
Bread Pudding
- 1 loaf brioche bread cut or torn into 1" pieces
- ½ cup raisins
- 5 large eggs
- 2 cups 490g whole milk
- ½ cup 100g brown sugar
- ¼ cup 50g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Vanilla Cream Sauce
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup half and half
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- 4 large egg yolks
Instructions
- Place bread in an even layer in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Let bread sit out, uncovered, overnight to harden slightly.
- Pour raisins over bread and fold in slightly.
- In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, milk, sugars, cinnamon, and vanilla. Once mixed, pour over bread. Press down to coat all bread. Let soak for 20 minutes.
- After soaking, preheat oven to 350°F.
- Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean (or internal temperature is 160°F).
- After the bread pudding has baked for about 10 minutes, start making the vanilla glaze. The glaze takes about 20 minutes to thicken.
Vanilla Cream Sauce
- Add the milk and half and half to a pot and bring to a slight simmer. Remove from heat.
- Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in a medium bowl. Slowly ladle all the warm milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture while whisking quickly. Adding it too quickly will cook the egg yolks and cause the sauce to curdle.
- Return to the mixture to the pot and heat over medium low until the sauce thickens and coats the back of a spoon. About 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat, add the vanilla once it cools.
- Strain the sauce if desired. Serve warm or chill in the refrigerator.
Video
Notes
- Makes a little over 1 cup of vanilla sauce.
- To reheat, add the vanilla sauce to a small pot and reheat it on the stovetop over very low heat, while constantly stirring. Remove it from the heat once it's warmed through.
- Overheating can cause the sauce to curdle so keep stirring and watch it closely.
- Keep it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Cover the top surface with a layer of plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.
- Avoid freezing this as it can alter the texture once thawed.
Nutrition
