Let’s talk about bread pudding recipes!
We’re sure that you’ve heard of brioche bread pudding, but what about Hawaiian bread pudding?!
We thought using sweet and soft King’s hawaiian rolls would be a perfect ingredient swap for this sweet dessert.
Bread pudding was a bit of a polarizing dessert for us as a couple. Gavin was a bread pudding fan while Karen’s experience (likely a sad, raiseny scoop of mush at a buffet) was everything less than stellar.
This bread pudding recipe changed Karen’s stance and she’s officially a bread pudding fan. Therefore, this might just be the best bread pudding recipe!
For this recipe, we swapped out traditional bread for Hawaiian bread and also add in some fresh blackberries from Oregon.
We took our first trip to Oregon two years ago for the Feast Food Festival (you should consider joining us at Feast Portland this year!) and extended our stay to find some of the best things to do in Willamette Valley.
One thing stood out, the northwest cultivates some amazing produce and they are known for their Oregon berries!
The volcanic soil of Oregon, the surrounding mountains and fresh ocean air make for some prime growing conditions for berries.
Of course they are amazing fresh, but we also always have a bag of frozen berries on hand for smoothies, baking, and cooking.
Adding pump blackberries to your bread pudding helps to add a mild acidity and tartness to offset the sweet bread and cream.
This bread pudding is technically a desert, but we won’t tell anyone if you make it for breakfast as well.
Psst… Did you catch us cooking in our bathrobe in our of the photos?!?
How to make bread pudding
Making bread pudding is essentially covering pieces of day old bread with a custard mixture and baking it in the oven.
To start, it’s important to make sure your bread is a few days old, or take it out of its bag the day after you buy it to dry it out.
Having day old bread is important, because the drier your bread is the more it will suck in the liquid custard mixture, without turning into a goopy mess.
Once your bread is ready for its custard bath, you simply need to tear or cut your bread into even 1 inch cubes and put them in a buttered baking dish.
For the custard mixture, combine your mixture of eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, whole milk, heavy cream, and a touch of cinnamon. Pour it over the bread.
Let the bread soak in the custard for at least two hours in the fridge, but you could easily let them soak for 24 hours.
Once the mixture has soaked for a few hours it is ready for the oven.
The bake time will depend on the depth of your baking ramekin, but for ours we cooked it for a total cook time of 45 minutes at 375 degrees.
Two important elements to do prior to putting in the oven is covering the bread pudding for the first 20 minutes with aluminum foil so the bread on top doesn’t burn.
The second and most important need is to cook the bread pudding in a water bath. The water should come up halfway up the sides of the ramekin so the custard cooks evenly throughout the bread pudding.
We like to check on our bread pudding after cooking for 30 minutes with a toothpick, and when it starts coming out clean it’s ready to come out of the oven.
Bread pudding sauce
Our berry bread pudding is great on it’s own, but do you know what takes it over the top?
Berry sauce and ice cream, duh!
A simple bread pudding sauce can be created in no time at all by heating up some frozen blackberries with sugar and lemon in a saucepan. The sugar and heat draws out all the luscious juices from the berries, making a simple sauce for your dessert.
Try it on pancakes and waffles too!
Berry Bread Pudding
Serves 8
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 8 slices of day-old Hawaiian bread, ripped into pieces
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup of frozen blackberries
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- Squeeze of lemon
- ½ cup of frozen blackberries
- Ice cream or whipped cream for garnish
Butter your casserole pan or ramekin.
Tear or cut your bread into even 1 inch cubes and put them in the baking dish.
Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, whole milk, heavy cream, and a touch of cinnamon.
Pour the custard over it over the bread. You may choose to let the mixture sit for 2 hours in the refrigerator to soak up the custard.
Gently fold in the frozen blackberries.
Place the ramekin in a larger baking dish filled with ½ inch of water to serve as a water bath.
Bake for 20 minutes then top with aluminum foil.
Cook for an additional 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
While the bread pudding is resting, combine the frozen berries, lemon and sugar in a saucepan at medium-low heat. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the mixture turns into a sauce.
Serve the bread pudding with ice cream and top with the blackberry sauce.
Easy Bread Pudding with Blackberries
Bread pudding made with sweet hawaiian bread complemented with blackberries.
Ingredients
- 8 slices of day-old Hawaiian bread, ripped into pieces
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup of frozen blackberries
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- Squeeze of lemon
- ½ cup of frozen blackberries
- Ice cream or whipped cream for garnish
Instructions
- Butter your casserole pan or ramekin.
- Tear or cut your bread into even 1 inch cubes and put them in the baking dish.
- Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, whole milk, heavy cream, and a touch of cinnamon.
- Pour the custard over it over the bread. You may choose to let the mixture sit for 2 hours in the refrigerator to soak up the custard.
- Gently fold in the frozen blackberries.
- Place the ramekin in a larger baking dish filled with ½ inch of water to serve as a water bath.
- Bake for 20 minutes then top with aluminum foil.
- Cook for an additional 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- While the bread pudding is resting, combine the frozen berries, lemon and sugar in a saucepan at medium-low heat. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the mixture turns into a sauce.
- Serve the bread pudding with ice cream and top with the blackberry sauce.
3 Comments
Courtney
July 20, 2024 at 7:45 pmThis very well might be a stupid question, but I was wondering if there would be any difference in the baking time/temp if I use one of those flimsy disposable aluminum foil baking pans, as opposed to a ramekin. I am bringing it to a pot luck style gathering and am worried about how much thinner the aluminum pan is.
Also, am I supposed to cover it with foil during the first or last half of baking? The introduction says the last half, but the recipe card seems like it’s saying the first half.
coupleinthekitchen
August 12, 2024 at 4:48 pmNot a stupid question! You’ll be fine swapping out the ramekins for aluminum pans, the bread pudding is delicous when the crust gets some texture so it’s a very forgiving dessert, regardless! Add aluminum foil during the second half to stop the browning on the top to ensure it doesn’t burn while the rest of the baking is happening.
Lena Molina
November 4, 2024 at 2:24 amWhat size pan? Is this a 9×13 recipe? 8×8?