Bread pudding is one of those desserts that is perfect when you have leftover, stale bread laying around. It involves very similar ingredients to French toast and is very difficult to mess up. All you need to do is soak the bread in the milk/egg mixture then bake. I love adding extra fruits such as blueberries or strawberries.
What bread for bread pudding?
Any type of bread you have laying around will work for this recipe. The idea is to use leftover stale bread but since I didn’t have much, I bought a brioche loaf and left it out overnight to dry. Once the bread has been dried, it is much easier for the bread to absorb the milk and eggs.
What is in the bread pudding eggwash?
The egg wash mixture is a combination of milk, eggs, cream, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. This is a very similar mixture that you can use for French toast as well. The high amount of liquid being soaked in the bread will keep it moist and turning out more like a moist cake.
What toppings to add?
So you can really add anything you would like, I prefer to keep it simple and just go with blueberries. Since it does expand, I like to layer my blueberries in the middle and on top.
Easy Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Bread pudding
- 600 g stale bread
- 2 cups milk
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- ½ tbsp vanilla
- 1 cup blueberries
Custard
- 4 egg yolks
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
Instructions
Bread Pudding
- Cut your bread into 1.5 inch cubes. Let them sit out at room temperature overnight or until stale and hard like croutons.600 g stale bread
- In a large bowl mix together milk, eggs, cream, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.2 cups milk, 2 large eggs, ¼ cup heavy cream, ¼ cup sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon, ½ tbsp vanilla
- Add the hardened stale bread, mix and let it soak for 5 minutes.
- Pour half of the mixture into a baking dish, layer with blueberries, then top with the remaining half of the mixture and top with more blueberries. A baking dish about 10×6 inches will work fine. Keep in mind that the mixture will rise when baked.1 cup blueberries
- Bake at 350F for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. The larger the pan, the shorter amount of time it will take. I used a smaller circular dish which is why it actually took me 50 minutes.
- While this bakes, I made a custard
Custard
- Mix together egg yolks and sugar, then set aside.4 egg yolks, 3 tbsp sugar
- In a saucepan, heat up milk and cream and once it begins to steam or about 170F, remove and slowly stream it into the egg yolk mixture. You want to stream it while mixing to prevent the eggs from cooking.1 cup milk, ½ cup heavy cream
- Once full incorporated, transfer back into the saucepan and cook over low-med heat while stirring until thickened. Make sure to keep a constant eye on it as you don't want the eggs to cook and curdle.
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