I am a member of the Amazon affiliate program. If you click a link on this page and purchase something on Amazon, I may earn a small commission, at no added expense to you. Any proceeds go to purchasing groceries to keep cooking!
Bread pudding is the ultimate comfort food dessert. Years ago, I was trying to decide between buying Williams-Sonoma's Breakfast Comforts versus their Home Baked Comfort cookbook. Clearly, I wanted to cook some comfort food. I don't remember why I went with the latter, but the first recipe I made from Home Baked Comfort was this bread pudding because a certain someone loves good, old-fashioned desserts. It was an instant keeper, and I've made it (and the caramel sauce that goes along with it) many times since.
This recipe does produce a custard-y bread pudding. It's best eaten soon after it's made, because reheating it tends to make the egg flavor stand out more than some people like in their dessert. We've been discussing altering the recipe to make a bread pudding that's closer to decadent, crispy french toast - I'll post it someday.
Adapted from Home Baked Comfort
Ingredients
- 1 ½ loaves of bread Any plain baguette or country bread will work
- ½ cup 1 stick butter, melted
- 4 lg eggs
- 7 lg egg yolks
- 2 ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 cup cream
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
- ¼-½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼-½ teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
- Butter a 9x13 inch square pan.
- Slice bread into uniform pieces, approximately 1.5’’ x 1.5’’ squares. Be sure to further reduce the size of the ends so that they are able to absorb the custard.
- Dip each side of each piece of bread in melted butter, then place in the pan, forming a tight layer. After the first layer, order the second layer so that they cover the junctions in the first layer.
- Mix the yolks and eggs together, then stir in the milk, cream, sugar, salt, vanilla and spices.
- Pour over the bread so it is covered by custard. Cover with plastic wrap and carefully weigh down with several heavy cans (of beans, tomatoes, whatever you have) to ensure all bread pieces are soaking in custard.
- Let stand for 30 minutes to allow the bread to soak and flavors to meld. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325 F.
- Bake for one hour total, until bubbling and browned on top. In last 20 minutes, cover pan with tinfoil and raise the temperature to 350 F.
- Serve warm with caramel sauce.
