Joy the Baker

Bread and Butter Bread Pudding

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Bread and Butter Pudding

Working in a restaurant kitchen means a few things.  You wear the same shoes as hardworking nurses because standing for prep afternoon and service night is no joke.  You speak at least enough Spanish to insult someone’s kitchen speed or hairline and enough Spanish to ask for food nicely.  You know that the best salads are tossed by hands likely not wearing gloves, that the dishwasher is king, and that the bread pudding in the walk-in cooler is likely very good day one from the oven and decreases in goodness the longer it sits in the walk-in cooler next to the blue cheese.  

When you work in a restaurant kitchen you learn NOT to order the bread pudding on a rare night out at another restaurant.  

…Unless, of course, you’r eat Ffiona’s in London where the bread pudding is served fresh, warm, and wobbly.  It’s that jiggle that points to freshness, that means the bread pudding hasn’t languished next to stinky cheese and lost it’s luster.

This is London inspiration in New Orleans.  All puffed and wobbly and this time, chocolate-drizzled.  

Bread and Butter Pudding

A whole pan; puffed and fresh from the oven?  This gives new meaning to the term ‘hot and heavy’.  

(Really satisfied with that dad joke, thanks.)

Bread and Butter Pudding

Here’s how we start!

Very fine bread pudding starts with very fine stale bread and a rich, creamy custard.  I think brioche makes the bread pudding of dreams, but the heart of this dish is that it’s made easily with whatever bread you have on hand that’s tired out and ready for cream.  It’s just really nice and supremely delicious if that bread happens to be brioche.  You pickin’ up what I’m layin’ down? 

Toasted to dry and golden brown because dry bread is absorbent bread. 

Eggs + whole milk  + cream + ground cinnamon + dried cherries (or orange zest, or raisins, or chocolate chunks, or none at all).

Bread and Butter Pudding

The toasted bread is buttered reverently.  

Buttering bread is like praying.  Amen. 

Bread and Butter Pudding

Buttered.  Nothing too precious.  Just right. 

Bread and Butter Pudding

Right and ready to tear by hand into bite-size pieces.  Big bites.  

If you’re feeling like this is a messy endeavor, you’d be right.  

Bread and Butter Pudding

Dried cherries if you fancy a bite of fruit.  

I think these are a nice compliment to the chocolate sauce.  Did I mention there was chocolate sauce? Yes / heck yes. 

Bread and Butter Pudding

Torn toasted and buttered bread:  Check!

Up next: egg cream custard!

Bread and Butter Pudding

Six eggs, a cuppa sugar, a whisk whisk whisk.  

Bread and Butter Pudding

Vanilla extract, a good glug.

Bread and Butter Pudding

Ground cinnamon, a good shake.  

Bread and Butter Pudding

Bread and Butter Pudding

A 5 cup mixture of whole milk and heavy cream in whatever proportions you’re feeling.

Obviously the more heavy cream we use, the more we’re teetering on the edge of decadence.  

I like more whole milk than heavy cream.  We’re savages, but we still like balance. 

Bread and Butter Pudding

Poured big and bold over the toasted bread bites. 

Bread and Butter Pudding

Here’s the trick, before the bread pudding goes in the oven it’s best to let the mixture sit, soak, and chill in the refrigerator.  The bread will absorb the custard making it exactly moist and tender when it finally does emerge from the oven.  

Bread and Butter Pudding

Glory be.  Really!  

Bread and Butter Pudding

While the bread pudding bakes to tender and puffed, I whipped together a super simple chocolate sauce and you absolutely should too. 

We’re talking sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, milk, and butter.  Very simple.  The ability to make a quick chocolate sauce is a deeply valued life skill.  Tuck that right in your back pocket and ease on down the road with it.  

I love this bread pudding served, wobbly (as Ffiona insists), just slightly warmed, and served alongside a small dish of chocolate sauce for extra dipping. 

Photos with: Jon Melendez

Print

Bread and Butter Bread Pudding

  • Author: Joy the Baker
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Cook Time: 40
  • Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
  • Yield: 9 1x
Scale

Ingredients

For the Bread Pudding

  • 16 to 18 ounces brioche bread, sliced
  • 1/2 cup dried cherries, optional
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened and divided
  • 3 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • scant 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Chocolate Sauce

  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup bittersweet or milk chocolate pieces, whatever you have on hand that’s not unsweetened

Instructions

  1. Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bread slices in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and toast until golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes, but keep an eye on the bread to make sure it doesn’t burn.
  2. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
  3. Butter each slice of bread with the stick of butter, reserving 2 tablespoons of butter to grease a 9×13-inch pan.
  4. Tear the buttered bread slices into large, bite-size pieces and place in the buttered dish. This may prove to be a rather messy endeavor, but that’s ok… sure is worth the messy fingers.
  5. Add the dried cherries, if using, and move the bread around a bit to ensure the cherries are dispersed throughout.
  6. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, cream, vanilla, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk until well combined and smooth.
  7. Pour the creamy egg mixture over the buttered bread in the pan. Press the bread down just slightly to ensure that it’s all well coated and the majority of it is soaking. Wrap lightly in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour (or even overnight).
  8. Just before baking, place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unwrap bread pudding and place in the oven to bake until toasted, puffed and golden brown, about 40 minutes.
  9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.
  10. Make the chocolate sauce while the bread pudding is baking. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together cocoa powder, sugar, and milk. Once warmed and just beginning to bubble around the edges, add butter and chocolate pieces. Stir until completely melted and glossy. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before serving.
  11. If you need to thin the sauce again before baking, just reheat over low heat lightly and add a splash more milk.
  12. To serve, generously scoop bread pudding into bowls and drizzle lightly with warm chocolate sauce. Store remaining bread pudding covered in the refrigerator.

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Comments

  1. stump

    Is whole milk particularly important to custard? I normally use almond milk in, y’know, everything, but I’m not sure this is a case where a 1:1 substitution will work out.

    p.s.
    this isn’t, like, a vegan thing; it’s an irrational thing about buying straight-up cowmilk. I just don’t. Cream, fine. Buttermilk, fine. Just milk? Weird. No.

    Reply

  4. Brian Cohen

    Great recipe! (As a matter of fact, we made it our Recipe of the Week!) I made it this weekend, and the whole family loved it!

    The only thing I did differently than the recipe is that I waited to make the chocolate sauce until the bread pudding was out of the oven and cooling (toward the end of the 30 minute wait time). That timing seemed better to me…

    Also, I reheated the bread pudding yesterday at 275 degrees for about 15 minutes. For the chocolate sauce, I added a splash of milk, stirred, and reheated the sauce gently in the microwave. It all came out great!

    Reply

  5. Kat

    Could I make it in smaller ramekins and freeze or save some in the fridge. I want to be able to eat it warm all week ;)

    Reply

  10. Libby

    My mom used to own a bakery and she’d make bread pudding out of the day-old cinnamon rolls.
    Maybe this is silly but I literally didn’t know that you could make bread pudding out of regular bread. I mean, look, it makes sense! I just didn’t know! :D

    Reply

  11. Jessica @ Citrus Blossom Bliss

    So I never worked IN a restaurant kitchen, but I was a server/bartender for quite a stint and they always let me poke around in the kitchen. My chef friend made us Irish soda bread pudding (we worked in an Irish pub) and it was fabulous. I can get down with this version made at home. You know it hasn’t been sitting under plastic wrap for a minimum of 2 nights!

    Reply

  12. JD

    Call it what you want. It’s your variation on a recipe and I’m sure it is as yummy as the rest of your recipe shares. I am definitely going to make this for a pot luck I have been tasked with bring a dessert to.
    Thanks for sharing all the great recipes and the thought provoking browsing selections

    Reply

  14. JD

    Call it whatever you wish. It is your variation on a theme and I am betting it will be every bit as yummy as all your other recipe shares.
    I am definitely going to make this for a pot luck I am tasked with making a dessert for. And maybe a small side dish to have at home for seconds.
    Thanks again for sharing your always interesting and uplifting trip through life.
    JD

    Reply

  16. katemai

    Isn’t Ffiona a dear? We spent four months in Notting Hill last fall and she fed us many a delicious meal, including Thanksgiving lunch and Christmas Eve dinner (on the 23rd). Did you try her pancakes????

    Reply

  17. Laura Costello

    This looks sooooo good–this week it will happen here in my house. Portuguese sweet bread also makes incredible bread pudding and french toast.

    Reply

  22. Abby

    Ooooo I made challah over the weekend and noticed yesterday that the last loaf is going a bit stale, so I’m definitely going to make this!

    Reply

  23. Chrissy

    Bread pudding is like, my favorite thing in the entire world (more than french fries), and I will be eating it on my death bed so I can have one last sweet memory of this life.

    Reply

  24. Marsha -SOCAL

    Joy, do you think I could use those dark Morello cherries you can buy at Trader Joe’s, if they were well drained, instead of the dried, or would they be too mushy textured in the finished pudding?

    Reply

  32. Maryse HOARAU

    I’ve always seen this recipe but yours’ going to make me do it. I’m already salivating. Very nice thank you :)

    Reply

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