If you love French toast, you’ll love this sweet and decadent Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce! It is shockingly easy to make, and guaranteed to satisfy your sweet cravings.
What is bread pudding?
If you’ve never had bread pudding, it’s essentially a French toast casserole. It consists of stale bread baked with a mixture of eggs, milk, and sugar.
Do you have stale bread sitting on your kitchen counter? Well, now is it’s time to shine! Bread pudding takes stale bread and turns it into a rich dessert.
When you bake it, it gets a custardy texture, similar to the center of a slice of French toast! What makes this bread pudding truly outstanding is the caramel sauce. It is perfectly sweet and sticky, and makes every bite feel super indulgent.
Ingredients and Equipment Needed
You also don’t need any kind of fancy equipment for this recipe. Just some classic stand-bys:
One reason why I love bread pudding is because it is made of simple ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen: milk (whole is best), eggs, sugar, cinnamon, butter, vanilla, salt, and cream! The only thing you may need to buy is the bread (more on that below).
The Best Bread for Bread Pudding?
I recommend using a soft, slightly sweet loaf of bread in this recipe. Brioche and challah are the best options for that classic bread pudding look and feel. But, no need to let other breads go to waste. If you have some hamburger buns or hot dog buns that have gone stale – use them! French bread, dinner rolls, Hawaiian Rolls, they’ll all work – once they’ve gotten stale.
The key to this recipe is super stale bread. I leave my bread on the counter with the bag open for two days before using it in this recipe. Fresh bread with too much moisture will result in a mushy bread pudding. Plus, the drier the bread gets, the more it will soak up the sweet batter, and the more flavorful it will get!
If you don’t have stale bread but you want to make your bread pudding right away, try drying your bread out in the oven. Simply cut the loaf of bread into chunks, spread them out on a baking sheet, and put them in the oven at 350℉ for 10 minutes.
Preparation
You don’t need to be a lifelong baker to make bread pudding. It comes together in a few easy steps. Chop up the bread into bite-sized cubes and put them in your greased baking dish. Then mix up the eggs, milk, vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. The cinnamon may float on top of the batter at first, but the more you mix, the more it will sink in and combine.
Pour the batter into the bread. Make sure that you move the bowl around as you pour so that it coats all of the bread on top. It might be helpful to pour the batter from the bowl into a measuring cup with a spout, then pour it from the measuring cup into the baking dish. This is completely optional, but it will make things easier and more precise!
Cooking
Simply stick the bread pudding in the oven and bake it for 40-45 minutes. When it’s done, the bread on top will look a little toasty and the batter will have a custardy texture. If you give the pan a little shake, the custard should jiggle around, but you should not see any liquid in the pan.
The Caramel Sauce!
While the bread pudding is baking, you’re also going to make your caramel sauce. The caramel sauce is really what makes this recipe great. Combine the butter and sugar in a small saucepan and mix over heat until the sugar is melted. If you’re not sure whether the sugar is melted, scoop some of the sauce out of the pan with a spatula. If you see any gritty texture on the spatula, you need to keep going. If it’s a pure liquid, then it’s time to move onto the next step! Pour in the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble up but don’t be alarmed, this is supposed to happen! Mix until the caramel is finished bubbling and all of the ingredients are evenly combined, then stir in the salt.
Serving
Bread pudding is best served warm. I recommend that you slice it up and pour the caramel sauce on each individual slice, rather than pouring the sauce over the whole casserole at once. This will make it easier to save the leftovers.
Make This Recipe Your Own!
Feel free to make this recipe your own by adding mix-ins. I like to fold some raisins or pecans into the soaked bread before baking.
Another way you can elevate this recipe is by adding a dash of bourbon to the caramel sauce. Mix 2 tablespoons in with the butter and sugar when you start making the sauce. The alcohol will cook off and the bourbon will impart an oaky, nutty flavor.
Storage and Reheating
Store leftover bread pudding in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat it in the oven at 350°F for 10 minutes, or in the microwave for 1 minute.
Store the sauce separately in an airtight container in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave for 30-second increments until it is warm and melted.
Recipe
Best Damn Bread Pudding
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 servings
Description
Enjoy the most delicious, homemade bread pudding with an unbelievable and simple caramel sauce. This classic dessert uses all pantry-friendly ingredients and easy steps for the perfect dish to bring to your next event or family dinner.
Ingredients
For the bread pudding:
- 1 loaf brioche or challah bread (approx 1 lb.), the staler the better
- 5 eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 cups milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For the caramel sauce:
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and grease a 9×13 casserole dish.
- Cut the bread into 1’’ chunks and place them in the dish.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
- Pour the mixture over the bread in the casserole dish, making sure to coat all of the pieces on top.
- Place the dish in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the liquid is set and the bread on top is lightly toasted.
- While the bread pudding is baking, make the caramel sauce. Add the butter and brown sugar to a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir over heat for 5-7 minutes, until the sugar is completely melted. Once the sugar is melted, add the heavy cream and stir until combined (the mixture may bubble up when you add the cream, don’t worry this is supposed to happen!). Stir in the salt then remove the sauce from heat.
- When the bread pudding is finished baking, cut it into slices and serve warm with the caramel sauce on top!
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 45 min
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Grace says
I made this for Christmas dessert and it was A BIG HIT!! Everyone loved it. It will definitely be on my repeat list.
RecipeTeacher says
I love it!! Thanks for the feedback, Grace and I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas!
A.B. says
Soooo Rich…yikes. Delicious but next time I think I’ll downsize a bit on the Sweet. Otherwise the flavors are delicious.
Would like to say however …Recipe Teacher…mix it up little with Intro….back off of ‘ best damn’ Everything… Lol
Jen says
I totally agree with A.B. about “best damn” everything, and replace it with “favorite” or no descriptive word at all. Let the name of the dish speak for itself. Otherwise, love your recipes!
RecipeTeacher says
I actually agree! Especially for the dessert recipes. “Best damn” DOES elicit excitement, but I’ll be changing things up.
Brit says
Left brioche bread out of packaging for 2 days,. Recipe is easy and sooo good.