Bread Pudding Recipe: An easy old fashioned recipe is the BEST! It resembles the old-fashioned dessert recipe that we all love! It’s basic, and uses everyday ingredients and an optional 3-ingredient brown-buttered vanilla sauce, or this vanilla sauce for bread pudding, to drizzle on top!
Looking for quick and easy dessert recipes to add to your Pinterest boards? Then you’ll also LOVE this peach cobbler made with Bisquick, the BEST Banana Bread, and this easy pound cake recipe!
Jump to:
- What is Bread Pudding?
- Ingredients for Bread Pudding
- What Kind of Bread is Best for Bread Pudding?
- How to Make Stale Bread
- How to Make Bread Pudding from Scratch
- How Long to Bake Bread Pudding
- FAQs and Expert Tips:
- Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding
- What to Serve with Bread Pudding?
- Amazing Bread Pudding Vanilla Sauce
- How to Make 3-Ingredient Buttery Sauce:
- How to Make Vanilla Sauce for Bread Pudding
- Related Recipes:
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
I’m so glad that you’re here for this bread pudding. It may just change your decadent dessert life.
But if this is your first time here, you’re going to find tons of quick and easy recipes around here!
What is Bread Pudding?
Well it’s not the “pudding” you’re probably thinking of. Rather it’s a recipe that uses old, stale bread, combined with a creamy custard that consists of things like sugar, butter, milk, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla, and then bake it all. The outside edges may have a slight crisp, while the middle is a soft, custard-like texture.
Where did bread pudding come from?
I do believe bread pudding originated in New Orleans. (Or at least, New Orleans is famous for its bread pudding!)
But my grandma used to make this old-fashioned dessert and I fell in love with it from the first moment I had it!
When I wanted to make this for the first time, I found a few good recipes for bread pudding in my old cookbooks, but they all had something that didn’t tickle my fancy. (Such as raisins – although you can add these if you like.)
So… I gathered all of the recipes up and came up with my own plan and I have to admit, using simple ingredients helped make this the BEST bread pudding!
Ingredients for Bread Pudding
Look at these easy ingredients… I mean, you probably already have all, if not almost all, of the ingredients on hand!
- 6 slices (or about 4-5 cups of broken bread pieces or cubes) of stale bread buns, french bread, rolls, donuts, challah bread, toast, or another type of bread
- 3 Tablespoons of butter 1 tablespoon + 2 Tbsp
- 4 Beaten eggs
- 2 cups milk (or feel free to try half & half or heavy cream if that’s what you have!)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
What Kind of Bread is Best for Bread Pudding?
French bread is a great bread for this recipe although I’ve used leftover sandwich bread, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, and more, and it always turns out great! (Or if you have stale donuts, you may want to make this donut bread pudding recipe!)
How to Make Stale Bread
If you’re craving bread pudding, but don’t have the leftover bread or the stale bread to use for it, no worries!
Grab some fresh bread and either pop it in the toaster for a bit, or cut in to bread cubes (about 1-inch pieces) and bake it in the oven on 350 for about 5-10 minutes. (Don’t burn it or turn it brown. You’re just removing as much moisture from it as you can.)
I love this recipe, and I really do think it’s the best because it only includes items I usually have on hand, resembles the old-fashioned recipe that we’ve all known to love, and I had it all put together and in the oven in a matter of minutes.
How to Make Bread Pudding from Scratch
- Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
- Then you’ll start by buttering your 8×8 baking dish (or 9×13 casserole dish if doubling the recipe) and breaking up the bread into about 1-inch cubes.
- Toss the bread into the buttered dish.
- Melt your remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, and drizzle melted butter over bread pieces and set aside.
- Next, in a large mixing bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.
- Next, simply pour the egg mixture over the bread pieces and make sure each piece has been covered or submerged to let that bread soak up that amazing custard mixture!
Oh my… doesn’t that photo of the egg mixture just make you drool!? It does me, every stinking time I look at it.
How Long to Bake Bread Pudding
- Toss that baby in the oven and let it bake the bread mixture uncovered for 40-45 minutes at 350º.
FAQs and Expert Tips:
Just like almost any dessert, or bread that you’re baking, insert a clean knife into the center and see if it comes out clean!
Well, it’s stale bread. Not super hard, and crispy… but bread that just wouldn’t be your favorite to use to make your favorite sandwich.
The reason you want day-old or stale bread is because you’ll want the bread to soak up the batter/custard of the bread pudding mixture.
Yep! It’s actually a great idea to make some of this ahead of time in case you need a last-minute dessert idea or to take a care package to a friend in need!
Just bake it as normal, and once cooled, place in the freezer for up to 2 months. When ready to thaw it, place it in the refrigerator to thaw it out.
You can enjoy bread pudding cold or warm, but if you prefer it warm after freezing/thawing, gently warm it to reheat.
Absolutely! I love make-ahead meals about as much as anyone, especially when entertaining! So if you want to make this ahead of time, feel free to!
You can either mix it all together and refrigerate it overnight before baking, or bake it, let it cool, and then refrigerate.
For best results, if you have left-over bread pudding, cool it until becomes room temperature and store in an airtight container (or cover the dish with plastic wrap) for up to 5 days, in the refrigerator.
Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding
That golden-brown bread pudding will remind you of grandma’s old-fashioned recipe as soon as you pull it out of the oven.
Serve it warm alone, with ice cream, or top it with the super-easy bread pudding sauce that I tell you about below…
What to Serve with Bread Pudding?
If you’re looking for a little something extra to serve with your new, easy bread pudding recipe, you might consider:
- chocolate sauce
- caramel ice cream topping
- ice cream
- whipped cream
- candied nuts
- raisins
- dried fruit
- powdered sugar
- or this crazy-easy and delicious bread pudding sauce I whipped up for you…
Amazing Bread Pudding Vanilla Sauce
For years I shared this recipe without a sauce or a drizzle. But there have been tons of you who have made this recipe and left so many amazing reviews and comments below saying you’ve made a bourbon bread pudding, caramel sauce, or vanilla sauce, and I must say… you’ve inspired me.
So when I remade this recipe to take new photos for the blog, I decided to whip up a quick buttery vanilla sauce to see how it would taste, and have also provided a creamy vanilla sauce recipe that you can top it with.
The bread pudding is great as a stand-alone, but I’m a fan of this addition now, in a BIG way!
How to Make 3-Ingredient Buttery Sauce:
You’ll need the following, everyday ingredients:
- butter (I used salted but unsalted butter works just fine!)
- brown sugar
- vanilla
It’s super easy. Grab a small saucepan, and melt (on high) 3 Tablespoons of salted butter.
Once melted, turned it down to medium heat and wait a bit to let the butter brown. (Browned butter is my JAM!)
Then, I add in a tablespoon or so of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Stir to combine and remove from heat. Let rest about 1-2 minutes, use the whisk to mix up the brown sugar and butter mixture and pour on top of the cooked bread pudding.
The little chunks of brown sugar candied and let a bit of a crunch, which was the PERFECT addition to this soft texture that the bread pudding has. (You can see how it turns out with the sauce, in the image below.)
How to Make Vanilla Sauce for Bread Pudding
Get the creamy vanilla sauce recipe if you prefer a creamier option, instead of the buttery vanilla sauce that I’ve made above.
Bourbon Bread Pudding
If you love the taste of bourbon in your bread pudding, you can easily add bourbon to the vanilla sauce recipe above by adding in a tablespoon of bourbon (less or more, depending on your taste) when you add in the sugar and vanilla.
Related Recipes:
We have a major sweet tooth and are HUGE fans of bread pudding recipes so make sure you check out our chocolate bread pudding recipe, donut bread pudding, sweet potato casserole bread pudding, and banana bread pudding to see which one is your favorite! Or, you may even love trying this croissant bread pudding!
So tell me… did you make this bread pudding? Did you like it? Let me know below in the comments with the others, and give this a rating to let others know how much you love it!
📖 Recipe
The BEST Bread Pudding Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 slices stale bread (Or about 4-5 cups of broken bread pieces or cubes. Some ideas to use are: french bread, buns, rolls, donuts, challah, toast or another type of bread.)
- 3 Tablespoons of butter 1 tablespoon + 2 Tbsp
- 4 Beaten Eggs
- 2 cups Milk
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Optional Buttery Vanilla Sauce
- 3 tablespoon butter salted (but unsalted is ok too!)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional Creamy Vanilla Sauce
- vanilla sauce get my vanilla sauce recipe
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and use 1 Tablespoon of butter to coat the inside of your 8 in. square baking dish.
- Break your bread (I made larger pieces, rather than crumbling it up) in to the buttered baking dish.
- Melt your remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, and drizzle over bread pieces.
- In a bowl, mix remaining ingredients (don’t forget to beat your eggs first) until mixed well.
- Pour this mixture over the bread, making sure to evenly coat each piece.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top of the bread pudding springs back after lightly touching it with a fork.
Optional Vanilla Sauce
- Grab a small saucepan, and melt (on high) 3 Tablespoons of salted butter.Once melted, turned it down to medium heat and wait a bit to let the butter brown.
- Then, I add in a tablespoon of brown sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.Stir to combine and remove from heat. Let rest about 1-2 minutes, use the whisk to mix up the brown sugar and butter mixture and pour on top of the cooked bread pudding.The little chunks of brown sugar candied and let a bit of a crunch, which was the PERFECT addition to this soft texture that the bread pudding has.
Video
Notes
- How do you know when bread pudding is done? Just like almost any dessert, or bread that you’re baking, insert a clean knife into the center and see if it comes out clean!
- What is day-old bread?
Well, it’s stale bread. Not super hard, and crispy… but bread that just wouldn’t be your favorite to use to make your favorite egg-salad sandwich.
The reason you want day-old or stale bread is because you’ll want the bread to soak up the batter/custard of the bread pudding mixture. - Can you freeze bread pudding?
Yep! It’s actually a great idea to make some of this ahead of time in case you need a last-minute dessert idea or to take a care package to a friend in need!
Just bake it as normal, and once cooled, place in the freezer for up to 2 months. When ready to thaw it, place it in the refrigerator to thaw it out. - Do you eat bread pudding warm or cold? You can enjoy bread pudding cold or warm, but if you prefer it warm after freezing/thawing, gently warm it to reheat.
- Can I prepare bread pudding the night before?
Absolutely! I love make-ahead meals about as much as anyone, especially when entertaining! So if you want to make this ahead of time, feel free to!
You can either mix it all together and refrigerate it overnight before baking, or bake it, let it cool, and then refrigerate. - How to store leftovers For best results, if you have left-over bread pudding, store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Megan Ellam says
Thanks for remaking a perfect old fashioned favourite new again. Delicious!
Jessica says
Aww, thank you! I’m so glad you liked this bread pudding recipe!
Loreto Nardelli says
I love this bread pudding great vintage flavors. I like mine warm with some heavy sweetened cream. Maybe some fresh berries or jam. You gotta love these vintage recipes that stand the test of time. Decadent and comforting at the same time! Thanks!❤
Jessica says
Hi Loreto!! I’m so glad that you liked this bread pudding! Thank you so much for taking the time to share and review this with us!
Jessie says
I’m in the process of making this now. I’ve never tried to make bread pudding but so far this has been wildly simple to make. I used kings Hawaiian rolls for a sweeter bread and added about 1/2 tsp of nutmeg to the batter for that hint of “christmas” flavor. It smells delicious and I can’t wait to see how my first bread pudding turns out! I’m going to use your vanilla sauce this time around to try that, but do you have a recipe to make an amaretto sauce? That goes wonderfully over vanilla ice cream served on warm bread pudding.
Jessica says
Hi Jessie! I’m so glad you’re giving this bread pudding a try. I think you’ll love it for sure. I don’t have an amaretto sauce but it sounds amazing!
Linda B says
I was wondering if you could use Lactaid (Lactose free milk) since someone mentioned they used almond milk. Plan on making this for our 5th Sunday Lunch at church on Sunday. Can’t wait to try it out!
Jessica says
Hi Linda! You know, I’ve never tried it but I’ve heard of so many substituting milk with a lot of things and it always seems to work out, so if you give it a try… I’d love for you to let me know!
Buster Barnes says
First, I don’t like the idea of melting butter on HIGH heat…and I don’t like the butter to be browned. You lose a lot of butter flavor and add a “Burned” taste. So I just warmed it in the microwav until melted and mixed the butter in with the liquids before adding the breadcrumbs.
I used a homemade cinnimon raisin bread that didn’t come out well enough to slice so we saved it a week to get it to the stale point, then dried it in the oven for about 20 minutes.
Instead of 2 cuts of milk, I substituded 1 cup of cream and added 3/4 cup of homedistilled Butter Pecan Whiskey with 1/4 cup Apple Pie Whiskey.
I like more than just bread in the pudding so I added 3/4 cup of raisins and 1/4 cup of pecans.
I also let the bread and raisins soak in the liquic mix for abot 15 minutes on the counter before adding the entire combination to the baking dish. After adding the bread/liquid mix to the baking dish, I placed the pecans on top.
Turned out delicious.
Bren Fisher says
O.M.G.! I absolutely love, love, love bread pudding!! And I was so thrilled when the baguette that was barely used, needed to be used up!
So, I prepared this lovely desert (with plenty of my excitement). I added raisins (necessary) and I also added some melted orange marmalade (about 2 tbsp).. I just loved the marmalade addition to this amazing bread pudding!
Jessica says
Oh yum!! Adding orange marmalade to this bread pudding sounds AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Gloria says
I made this bread pudding and it’s delicious I Love it now this will be my go to bread pudding . It is so simple and I had everything I needed to make it .Thank you so much for posting this awesome recipe.
Jessica says
Hi Gloria! I’m so glad that you found this recipe and loved it too! Isn’t it so wonderful! It’s my favorite way to use leftover bread. 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to drop a note and let us know! If you want to leave a star-rating to help let others know you loved it, I’d be so appreciative of that! Thanks again!
Debi says
So simple to make. My mom and grandma used to make bread pudding all the time. Both have passed away and this brought back so many warm, loving memories. I had stale Hawaiian rolls so I used them, also used Almond milk and added chocolate chips and chopped walnuts. I didn’t have raisins otherwise I would have used them as well.
Jessica says
This all sounds so delicious, and I’m so glad this bread pudding brought back those great memories. Thank you so much for sharing and for leaving a review!
Yvette says
Thanks for the recipe.!
One thing I could add, for my Mexican compatriots is that you can also use two day old Three Kings bread!
Turns out really good.
Also, for the last step after browning the butter, I would let it rest for a couple of minutes then add the brown sugar and vanilla and quickly stir and add to bread pudding before the brown sugar starts caramelizing and clumping up. Which is what happened to me.
Love bread pudding.
Jessica says
So glad you liked it Yvette! Thanks for the feedback!
Sue says
This recipe brought me right back to my childhood. Tastes just like my mom’s! ❤️❤️❤️
Jessica says
That’s so exciting! So glad you liked this bread pudding recipe too. Thank you for sharing!
Sue says
I am going to make this again this weekend and I’m going o bring it to my son and grandsons. They have never tried bread pudding, they say that it sounds terrible and I’m going to use it to convince them that that they are wrong. 😄
Jessica says
Oh yes!! Haha. I have a feeling you’ll be proving them wrong!
Jennifer Kus says
Bread Pudding is one of my Dad’s favorite desserts and it also happens to be one of my boyfriend’s favorite desserts too. I tried this recipe out but I doubled the recipe and added raisins to it. My mom and dad both liked it so hopefully my boyfriend will enjoy it too as a part of our Christmas Eve dinner.
Jessica says
That’s so great!! I hope he loves it too. Thank you so much for sharing!
Yari says
This looks so good! Would brioche be ok for this recipe? And how would I dry out my bread? Just leave it out a couple days or in the oven I have no clue lol
Jessica says
Brioche would be amazing for this! Honestly, you don’t have to dry it out TOO much. I’ve used leftover hamburger buns that weren’t really stale and it still turned out amazing. But if you want to let it sit out for a little while before making it, you sure could! But it doesn’t have to be hard by any means. I hope that helps!
Lacey says
The bread pudding was delicious. The sauce kind of separated and all the sugar came out last after the butter in a big pool on top. Not sure if I would even bother next time with that part next time but I will definitely make this again.
Jessica says
So glad that you liked this bread pudding too! Oh yes, we like to stir right before pouring that sauce on top so it’s as even as possible before pouring. But it is delicious without it too!
Ang says
Make it!!! It was amazing.
Jessica says
Fantastic! I’m so glad to hear that you liked this bread pudding. Thank you for sharing!
Faith Palmer says
Amazing! First time making this and turned out soooooo yummy!
Jessica says
I’m so glad you liked this bread pudding Faith! Thank you SO much for letting me know!!
Patricia says
This is delicious made it for Thanksgiving but wanted to know if you have to put the sauce on or keep in a air tight container and use as needed
Jessica says
Hi Patricia! So glad that you liked this bread pudding! You definitely don’t have to use the sauce! You can save it in a container and pour it on the leftovers if you like! Or, if you pour it over the whole thing, it’s still delicious reheated and eaten later. 🙂 Or… just eat it without the sauce. It’s delicious all the ways. Haha.
Maggie says
This is delicious. I always add chocolate chips. But then again I try to add them to every recipe. Thanks so much!
Jessica says
I’m so glad that you like it Maggie! I’m actually getting ready to add a chocolate chip bread pudding recipe to the blog!! So I’m glad to hear you say that Thank you for sharing!
Chandice says
This is the BEST bread pudding I’ve ever had! I even used gluten-free bread and it still turned out so wonderful. Nobody even knew it was gluten-free! This is so great for breakfast or dessert. Seriously, thank you, we love it!!
Jessica says
Awww! I’m so glad to hear this. Thank you for sharing!!
Willow says
Making this right now and I was out of vanilla extract so ended up scraping some vanilla beans that I had and it smells amazing! I wanted to ask about the sauce because the brown sugar does not want to melt into the butter am I doing something wrong? I’ve had it at a low heat and whisking constantly. Thanks for the recipe, I was able to use old brioche and hot dog rolls!
Jessica says
Hi Willow! I hope you ended up loving it! The brown sugar doesn’t really dissolve much… and gives a slight texture to the sauce that I love so much! That little “crunch” combined with the browned butter is my FAVE! I hope you loved it too!
Karina says
The girls asked me for a recipe I had when I was their age but haven’t made since they were born. The bread pudding was my grand-ma staple. I came across your recipe last weekend so we decided to make it. WOW! Absolutely delicious. I will be making this recipe again and again for sure.
Jessica says
Aww, I’m so glad Karina! Thank you so much for letting us know!
Molly says
Oh my goodness!!! This is amazing! My grandma used to make bread pudding a lot when I was growing up. I haven’t had it in such a long time and it was so simple to make!