Making bread pudding is like cheating at culinary skills! It’s SO easy and SO satisfying. We created a super simple caramel-inspired recipe that anyone can master on the first try. Promise. Impress your friends with amazing cooking skills you never knew you had! You’ll be the most popular kid in the book club (or whatever club)! We won’t tell anyone how easy it was if you won’t…
The recipe instructions are in the text below but check out this video for the step-by-step…
We highly recommend you use a “Good” sugar! You know, an organic one that isn’t over processed so you get all the nutrients and enzymes your body needs to digest it well. For example: coconut palm nectar, evaporated cane juice, honey, brown rice syrup, agave, etc. Keep in mind, depending on the type of sugar you use, it may be more or less sweet. You can change the quantity of the GRANULATED sugars in the recipe to your liking without affecting the way the dish turns out but be careful with the SYRUPs – they add more liquid. If you substitute with one of the syrups, we recommend you use ~1 cup of syrup and use ½ c LESS of either cream or milk.
You can use ANY of our delicious caramel chews in this recipe. Just remember, if you are using a variation with vanilla bean, chocolate, nuts and/or spices, you might want to omit one of those ingredients below.
Now, let’s do this thing!
Ingredients:
1 loaf fresh, soft bread (like brioche or challah) cut into ¾” – 1” cubes
3 Eggs
4 Egg yolks
¾ c. Sugar
3 c. Cream + 2 c. Milk (or 5 c. Whole Milk if you’re skimping on fat)
4 T. Sweet butter (aka unsalted), melted
¾ t. Salt
1 Vanilla Bean Pod, scraped (optional)
1 t. Ground Cinnamon (optional)
10-15 Salty Dog caramel chews cut into quarters
½ c. Chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
½ c. Chocolate chips (optional)
Lots of LOVE (Mom’s secret ingredient; works like magic.)
Equipment:
Small saucepan
Cutting board + knife
Baking sheet(s)
Medium mixing bowl
Large prep bowl
Electric beater or wire whisk
Greased 9×13 Baking Pan
Directions:
Gettings Started..
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Preheat oven to 325°.
Spread your bread cubes out in a single layer on one or a couple of baking sheets.
Bake for 15 minutes to dry them out a bit.
Remove from oven and let cool. Set aside in large prep bowl.
In small saucepan, melt your sweet butter and set aside.
Use small amount of melted butter to grease your baking pan and set aside.
Scrape your Vanilla Bean! Not sure how? Watch Sugar demonstrate or just cut it open the long way and fold it out flat. Then use the back part of your knife to scrape the tiny little “seeds” out and set them aside. The skin is potent so don’t throw it away! Add it to a jar or bag of sugar and in no time at all you’ll have yummy Vanilla Sugar. No vanilla bean pods?? Substitute with 2 t. Vanilla Extract.
Unwrap your caramel pieces and cut them into smaller pieces by quartering them. Set aside for later.
Now for the custard!
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Separate your eggs! Not sure how?? Check out Sugar’s video demonstration or google it! It’s easy. You can save the remaining egg whites in the fridge for up to FOUR days to use in other things or just cook with a little salt and pepper for breakfast.
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In medium mixing bowl, beat egg, egg yolks and sugar until a little bit frothy, about 1 ½ to 2 minutes.
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Add in the cream and milk to your eggs as you mix.
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Add vanilla bean (or extract), salt and cinnamon and mix until combined.
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(Just be nice to your custard and don’t over-beat it!)
The final pre-cookin’ steps!
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In your large prep bowl, drizzle melted butter over your bread cubes and toss with your hands to get them all good and coated. You can do this in stages, drizzling a bit then tossing, then drizzling some more, and so on.
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Add caramel pieces, nuts and chocolate chips and continue tossing with your hands to coat as well.
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Transfer your bread and goodies to your baking pan, making sure the goodies don’t all fall to the bottom of the pan but are evenly dispersed throughout the bread.
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Pour your custard evenly over the top of the bread mixture, smooshing it in there nice and good with your hands. The bread is going to act like a custard sponge so make sure they all soak plenty up!
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Cover and store in the refrigerator for at least an hour (or up to a day).
Cook it up!
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When you’re ready to cook it up, take your puddin’ out of the fridge while you preheat your oven to 350° and cook for 30-45 minutes or until it is cooked through (custard should be “set” or not runny) and golden brown on top.
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Serve warm! You can even add a scoop of your favorite ice cream or any dessert sauce if that suits your fancy.
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Enjoy! :)
