This easy oven-baked Custard Bread Pudding Recipe is rich, velvety, and can be made with or without raisins. It is an old-fashioned bread pudding with an Italian bread base that’s perfect for breakfast, brunch or dessert.
Old fashioned, New England style bread pudding is one of my favorite classic desserts. My mother in law is the one who first introduced me to this recipe when I was just 15 years old.
At first, the thought of “bread pudding” was so odd to me. How could bread possibly be considered a pudding? I was slightly grossed out by the thought.
However, at first bite I was hooked! She made her bread pudding recipe with raisins, but since my kids are a little picky, I opted to leave them off for this pudding. I will be sharing a few different versions of bread pudding in the next few weeks though.
What is Bread Pudding?
Bread pudding is a recipe that features chopped up bread that is soaked in a custard mixture. It has a similar concept and taste to french toast, but is not made over a griddle.
It’s a delicious and easy to make custard-based dessert, and it sits among the ranks of some of my favorite custard based desserts like custard pie!
Bread pudding is typically oven-baked, although there are some slow-cooker and pressure cooked recipes available.
Bread Pudding a Dessert?
Despite it being a classic New England dessert, bread pudding can also double as a brunch or breakfast meal. Like pie, this sweet dessert can be enjoyed any time of day.
Best Bread for Bread Pudding
The beauty of bread pudding is that you can use pretty much any bread to make it. For this recipe, I used a thick, day-old Italian loaf. You can also use sweet bread, challah, stale American bread, Portuguese Bread, or anything you have on-hand.
However, you do want to make sure you have at least one pound of bread to keep your custard to bread ratio good.
How to Make Bread Pudding from Scratch
To make bread pudding, there are some ingredients you will need to have on-hand to make this recipe.
1 lb of day old Italian Bread pulled apart into small pieces.
5 eggs slightly beaten
4 cups of whole milk
1 tablespoon + 1 tsp of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons of whole milk
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
Spray a 9 x 13 casserole dish with nonstick spray.
Pull apart your bread into smaller chunks and add them to the casserole dish.
Using an immersion blender, lightly blend the eggs, milk, extract, sugar and spices.
Add the custard to the bread and use a spoon to mix all the bread with custard.
Allow the bread to soak up the custard for at least 5 minutes before baking.
Bake for 50-55 minutes. The center of the bread pudding should be springy. Use a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean when inserted.
Allow pudding to sit for 10 minutes before icing.
For icing, mix the milk, powdered sugar, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract until thick and creamy.
Pour over the bread pudding and enjoy warm.
What to Serve with Bread Pudding?
This bread pudding is delicious with the icing and can be eaten as is. But, it also tastes delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or real whipped cream.
Does Bread Pudding Need to be Refrigerated?
This bread pudding recipe needs to be refrigerated. It can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.
To reheat, place a portion in the microwave and heat for 1 minute or until warm.
This oven-baked Custard Bread Pudding Recipe is rich, velvety, and can be made with or without raisins. It is an old-fashioned bread pudding recipe with an Italian bread base that is perfect for brunch or a dessert.
Eggs: Four eggs ensure a creamy, thick, and velvety texture. Sugar: Sweeten things up with ½ cup of white sugar. Cornstarch: Cornstarch thickens the custard.
Texture: A classic custard is heavier and firmer than pudding, retaining its shape when turned out of a mold or ramekin. You can thin some custards, such as crème anglaise, to make a dessert sauce. Pudding is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon without being runny, but you can't form it into a shape.
While most custard and pudding recipes both typically call for eggs, the main difference is that pudding uses a starch for thickening, whereas custard's thickening agent is the egg itself (or egg yolk, in most instances). Custard's texture also tends to be firmer than pudding.
Both custard and pudding are sweet, goopy desserts made mostly from cream and then cooked. However, custard (and therefore flan) is made with eggs and sweetened milk alongside the cream, and flan itself includes caramel.
Starch can be used to thicken the liquid as well. Custards can also be flavored in a variety of ways and eaten both hot and cold. Some are served alone as a dessert, and some are used in a filling or topping. They can even be an accompaniment for pies, pastries and cakes.
All custards are made basically the same ingredients: mainly eggs and/or yolks, as well as cream or milk, sugar and usually salt and flavorings. A small amount of thickening starch such as flour, cornstarch, arrowroot and potato starch can be found in some custard recipes, while not in others.
There are three main varieties of custard: baked custard, stirred custard, and steamed custard. The first two are both popular in Western cuisine. Baked custard is typically firmer and made with whole eggs, while stirred custards can be much runnier and often only contain the yolks.
American puddings are closer to what the Brits would call "custard." A British pudding is a dish, savory or sweet, that's cooked by being boiled or steamed in something: a dish, a piece of cloth, or even animal intestine.
Custard is set in one of three different ways: with eggs, starch, or gelatin. Crème brûlée, pots de crème, and flan are thickened with egg; in contrast, pastry cream and American-style cheesecake often employ cornstarch or flour. Gelatin is used to add a gel-like consistency to Bavarian cream and most mousse recipes.
Puddings made for dessert can be boiled and steamed puddings, baked puddings, bread puddings, batter puddings, milk puddings or even jellies. In some Commonwealth countries these puddings are known as custards (or curds) if they are egg-thickened, as blancmange if starch-thickened, and as jelly if gelatin-based.
Put simply, pastry cream is a type of custard. Adding cornstarch to the vanilla custard will give you a thick, firm substance (almost like vanilla pudding) that will hold its shape when piped. Custard that you can pour, which is only thickened with eggs, is actually called crème anglaise.
Custard is like pudding and while you can't make custard from pudding powder you might be able to substitute pudding for custard if it works with whatever you are making. Custard also can be bought powdered that you can easily make at home.
The simplest dessert and one of the best are fruits because they are nutritious, appetizing, and easy to prepare and serve. Baked and soft custards vary in so many ways. Creamy, delicate, baked custards may be served in their baking cups or may be unmolded and served with fruit garnishes or with dessert sauces.
What's the difference between pudding and custard? Both of them are sweet, creamy and thick. The differences between them: Pudding is made with sweetened milk or cream-based mixture thickened with corn starch or flour that is cooked on the stove. Custards are milk or cream-based and uses eggs.
Add the mixture into your custard ingredients as they cook on the stove. Use cornstarch as an alternative to flour. Cornstarch, like flour, requires cold water as a mixing agent. For 1 cup (240 mL) of custard, use 1 tablespoon (7.5 g) of cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of cold water.
Measure an alternative starch-based thickener, such as arrowroot powder, tapioca powder or rice starch, and combine it with the sugar called for in your pudding recipe. These alternative starches are comparable to cornstarch in thickening power, and twice as potent as wheat flour, so measure accordingly.
Many custard recipes/formulas use cornstarch as the thickening agent. The amount of liquid a starch grain can attract (absorb) and how concentrated the starch grains are in the liquid affect the thickness of the final product.
Introduction: My name is Merrill Bechtelar CPA, I am a clean, agreeable, glorious, magnificent, witty, enchanting, comfortable person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
