The Best Bread Pudding Recipes
Food & Wine's best sweet and savory bread pudding recipes
Slideshows: Bread Pudding Desserts
Slideshows: Savory Bread Pudding
11 Variations on Bread Pudding
To help balance the irresistibly crispy top, sprinkle the baking dish with turbinado sugar to give the bottom of the pudding a delightful crunch, too.
This gooey bread pudding made with caramel-like dulce de leche from Latin America is so much more than the sum of its five parts. To add even more flavor, throw in a handful of fresh or frozen raspberries or blueberries before baking.
This is an excellent alternative to pumpkin pie. Buttery brioche is soaked in a pumpkin crème brûlée base, then baked with a cinnamon sugar topping and served with a decadent caramel sauce.
Croissants add a greater richness than plain bread.
The lemon flavor makes this sweet bread pudding refreshing.
Amber Huffman tops her challah-based chocolate bread pudding with a caramel spiked with Kentucky bourbon.
Sweet golden raisins are added to this apple bread pudding.
Incredibly rich and impossibly indulgent, this bread pudding from the Palace Café in New Orleans delivers a double dose of chocolate—a triple dose if you garnish it with bittersweet chocolate shavings.
“This recipe was created over a breakfast of—what else?—Krispy Kremes,” says chef Govind Armstrong. The espresso-infused whipped cream makes a brilliant, and equally decadent, topping.
A recipe from Emeril Lagasse, from the 2007 Classic in Aspen.
The pudding can be refrigerated overnight. Rewarm before serving.
- Berry-Brioche Bread Pudding
- Dulce de Leche Bread Pudding
- Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Rum Raisin Sauce
- Warm Milk-Chocolate Croissant-Bread Pudding
- Lemon Curd Bread Pudding
- Chocolate Bread Pudding with Bourbon Caramel Sauce
- Raisin-Studded Apple Bread Pudding
- White Chocolate Bread Pudding
- Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding with Espresso Whipped Cream
- Lemon-Blueberry Bread Pudding
- Panettone Bread Pudding
Savory Bread Puddings
Spring Onion and Goat Cheese Bread Pudding
This rich, tangy version is packed with goat cheese and scallions.
Bread Pudding with Leeks and Garlic
“This is a wonderful recipe and we have now made it every year since it appeared in the Food & Wine special holiday guide (2004). It’s a keeper!”
—Posted by: CER24 on November 25, 2008
Artichoke-Heart, Spinach, and Mozzarella Bread Pudding
Using defrosted frozen vegetables can be a huge time-saver, since they’re already cooked, but don’t be in too much of a rush; you’ll need to take the time to drain and dry them, or the extra moisture will make the finished dish soggy.
Turkey and Swiss Bread Pudding
Bread pudding is one of the best vehicles for using up leftovers.
Tomato Bread Pudding
There’s no custard in this bread pudding, so it’s more like a hot, tangy bread salad—a super accompaniment to the lamb.
Kabocha Bread Pudding with Pisco-Soaked Prunes
Maricel Presilla, chef and owner of Cucharamama and Zafra in Hoboken, New Jersey, has been cooking with pisco, the South American aged grape brandy. This luscious, creamy three-milk (tres leches) bread pudding is flavored with kabocha squash and pisco-soaked prunes.
Cranberry-Pecan Bread Pudding with Bacon
A good loaf of cranberry-nut bread from a bakery has so much flavor that there’s no need to trick it up with lots of ingredients. As the pudding bakes, the bread becomes almost custardlike, with a crispy brown top.
