Day-old brioche or French bread cubes wait while milk, cream, eggs, both sugars, bourbon, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and melted butter whisk into a custard.
Bread and pecans soak in that custard for fifteen minutes before baking forty to forty-five minutes until puffed and set, while a separate bourbon caramel sauce simmers on the stovetop and finishes with a splash more bourbon and vanilla, stirred in off the heat and spooned over the warm pudding.
Why This Recipe Works
- Day-old bread, specified deliberately. Fresh bread is already moist and turns to mush in a custard soak; bread that has dried out slightly actually absorbs the custard rather than dissolving in it.
- Fifteen minutes of soaking before the dish goes into the oven. That rest is what lets the custard reach the centre of each cube rather than just coating the outside.
- The sauce is built and finished separately from the pudding, using its own smaller measures of the same core ingredients — brown sugar, cream, butter, bourbon, vanilla. It is a related recipe, not a byproduct of the bake.
- Bourbon goes into the sauce OFF the heat, after the caramel base has already simmered. Added earlier, over direct heat, more of the alcohol and its flavour would cook away.
- A puffed top with a set centre is the doneness cue, not a fully firm custard throughout — a bread pudding this rich continues to set slightly as it cools.
Two Custards, Built From The Same Ingredients Twice
Bourbon, brown sugar, cream and butter all appear twice in this recipe, once in the pudding and once in the sauce — two related mixtures that meet only at the very end.
In the baking dish
- 0 minutes
Milk, cream, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, bourbon, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and melted butter whisked into a custard.
- 15 minutes
Bread and pecans tossed into the custard and left to soak before transferring to the dish.
- 40 to 45 minutes
Baked until puffed and set in the centre.
In the saucepan
- During or after the bake
Brown sugar, cream and butter simmered three to four minutes, then bourbon and vanilla stirred in off the heat.
Serving
Warm bread pudding is served with the sauce spooned generously over the top.
How to Make It
Heat the oven, butter the dish
Heat oven to 350°F and butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
Whisk the custard
Whisk milk, 1 cup cream, eggs, 3/4 cup brown sugar, granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons bourbon, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and melted butter.
Soak the bread
Add bread and pecans, toss well, and let stand 15 minutes. Transfer to the dish.
Bake
Bake 40 to 45 minutes until puffed and set in the center.
Make the sauce
For the sauce, simmer 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup cream, and 3 tablespoons butter for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tablespoon bourbon, if using, and vanilla.
Serve
Serve warm bread pudding with sauce spooned over the top.
Ingredient Notes
- Day-old brioche or French bread cubes
- Ten cups. The recipe names both options, and either works because what matters is that the bread has dried out enough to soak up custard rather than fall apart in it.
- Bourbon, in two places
- Two tablespoons cooked into the custard, one tablespoon (optional) stirred into the sauce off the heat — two applications with different intensity of flavour.
- Chopped pecans
- One cup, tossed with the bread during the soak so they distribute through the pudding rather than sitting only on top.
- Heavy cream, in two places
- One cup in the custard, half a cup in the sauce — the same ingredient doing structural work in the bake and body work in the finished sauce.
Success Tips
- Use bread that is genuinely a day or two old, not fresh.
- Give the soak its full fifteen minutes before transferring to the dish.
- Watch for a puffed top and a set centre, not a fully firm custard.
- Simmer the sauce gently — three to four minutes is enough.
- Add the sauce's bourbon off the heat, once it is already off the burner.
Serving Ideas
Serve warm with the sauce spooned generously over the top, exactly as the recipe finishes. It needs nothing else, though a scoop of vanilla ice cream is a natural addition if you want one.
Storage and Reheating
Refrigerate
Refrigerate pudding and sauce separately in airtight containers for up to 4 days.
Freeze
Freeze baked, cooled pudding for up to 2 months. The sauce freezes well separately too; reheat both gently.
Reheat
Reheat individual portions in a low oven or microwave until warm, and warm the sauce gently on the stovetop or in short bursts before spooning over.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use fresh bread instead of day-old?
Fresh bread holds too much of its own moisture already and tends to turn mushy in the custard soak. If that is all you have, drying cubes in a low oven for a few minutes first gets closer to the texture the recipe expects.
Can I make this without bourbon?
You can leave it out of the custard and skip the optional bourbon in the sauce; the pudding will lean more toward a straightforward vanilla-caramel flavour without it.
My bread pudding came out too wet in the centre.
It likely needed a few more minutes in the oven — the centre should be set with a slight puff, not visibly liquid. Every oven runs a little differently, so check a minute or two past the stated range if needed.
Can I assemble this the night before?
You can soak the bread in the custard and refrigerate it, covered, overnight, then bake straight from the fridge, adding a few extra minutes to the bake time.
