Brioche Bread Pudding

If you have leftover brioche bread, you need to make this brioche bread pudding! Bread pudding made with brioche bread is the best ever. Rich, and full of flavor, delightfully crispy on the outside with creamy custardy insides. I used my cranberry orange braided brioche for this recipe.

Ingredients:

Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:

• Brioche bread – the best would be stale brioche bread – dry bread will soak up the custard making your pudding super creamy. If you don’t have stale brioche bread you can cut it into cubes and toast in the oven to dry it out.
  What is brioche bread? This is a French bread that contains lots of butter and eggs in comparison to regular yeast bread recipes. This makes it rich, buttery, and very delicious.
  Instead of brioche, you can use challah, or other leftover white bread.
• Milk – many brioche recipes opt for a mix of milk and cream, but I prefer to use just milk when making brioche bread which is already very rich and buttery. You can swap 1 cup of milk for heavy cream if you wish.
• Eggs – are needed to set the custard and also make the custard rich and creamy.
• Sugar – healthier alternatives like xylitol, coconut sugar, or maple syrup can also be used.
• Vanilla + Cinnamon are added to flavor the custard.
• Salt – I add it to all of my sweet recipes, it enhances the sweetness.

What you could also add: I didn’t add anything else to my recipe because my brioche was already flavored with orange zest and dried cranberries but if you’re using plain brioche for this recipe you could add 1/2 cup of dried cranberries or raisins and 1 tablespoon of orange zest. Fresh blueberries (about 1 cup), chopped nuts, chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) would also be a lovely addition.

Step by step instructions:

STEP 1: (photo 1) Grease your baking dish with butter. Cut the brioche bread into cubes (about 1-inch/3cm), add to the baking dish.

STEP 2: (photo 2+3) Make the custard: add all the ingredients for the custard into a large bowl (milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, salt). Whisk (or mix with an electric mixer) until smooth.

STEP 3: (photo 4) Pour the custard into the baking dish. Move the bread cubes to ensure they are coated with custard on all sides, press them in slightly. The tops of the bread cubes should be above the custard – these parts will be crunchy after baking.

STEP 4: (photo 5) Bake the bread pudding until the custard is set (about 40 minutes at 350°). Baking time may vary depending on your oven or baking dish. The custard should not be jiggly in the middle. You can check if it’s ready and insert a knife or a wooden stick in its center, it won’t come completely clean but you shouldn’t see runny custard on it. If you have a meat/candy thermometer you can also measure the temperature of the custard, which is the quickest and easiest way to make sure if it’s set and safe to eat. Insert the thermometer into the center of the pudding. The temperature should be 160°F/71°C. Try not to overbake it!

Enjoy!

What to serve it with:

• just a sprinkle of powdered sugar
• drizzle of maple syrup
• just on its own – it’s delicious!
• for a breakfast, I like to serve it with fresh berries and plain yogurt or apple sauce / strawberry sauce
• as a dessert, I serve it bourbon salted caramel sauce and whipped cream

Storage and reheating instructions:

This dish reheats very well. You can reheat it in the oven or in a microwave. It makes a great make-ahead breakfast.

How to reheat it in the oven: put the baking dish in a cold oven and set it to 350°F/180°C, bake for about 10-15 minutes or until warm.

It also freezes very well. Place it in closed containers and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and warm up in the oven. You can also bake it straight from the freezer.

Make ahead: This recipe is also perfect to make ahead! You can prepare it the night before, let it sit in the fridge overnight, and bake in the morning.

If you liked this recipe, you may also like this panettone bread pudding or croissant bread pudding.

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!

Brioche bread pudding

Creamy bread pudding made with leftover brioche bread.

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5 from 15 votes

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 6 servings

Calories 535kcal

Author Aleksandra

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 (1lb/450g) brioche loaf
• ▢ 4 large eggs
• ▢ 4 1/2 cups (1080g) milk
• ▢ 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ▢ 1 tablespoon butter for greasing the form

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Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C / Gas Mark 4 (if you have a convection/fan oven, reduce the temperature by about 20° or follow the manufacturer's instructions).
• Grease a 9×13-inch (23x33cm) oval baking dish with butter.
• Cut the brioche into roughly 1-inch (3cm) cubes and add to the baking dish.
• In a large bowl, whisk (or mix with an electric mixer) all the other ingredients: milk, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, salt.
• Pour the custard into the baking dish. Move the bread cubes to ensure they are coated with the custard (milk-egg mixture) on all sides, press them in slightly. The mixture should cover almost all brioche cubes but the tips of the cubes should be above the milk mixture (they will crisp up nicely).
• Bake the pudding for about 40 minutes or until the pudding is golden and crispy on top and custard is set and not jiggly (you can measure the temperature of the bake to make sure it's baked through, it should be 160°F/71°C in the center of the pudding).
• Enjoy!

Notes

• Instead of brioche, you can use challah, or other leftover white bread. Your brioche bread should be stale and dry. If you don’t have stale brioche bread you can cut it into cubes and toast in the oven to dry it out, then pour over the custard and bake again.
• If your pudding is starting to brown too much, cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.
• If you’re using plain brioche (I used my cranberry orange brioche for this recipe), you can add 1/2 cup of dried cranberries or raisins and 1 tablespoon of orange zest to this recipe. Fresh blueberries, chopped nuts, or chocolate chips/chopped chocolate would also be a lovely addition.
• Calories = 1 serving (1/6 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine American

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