Brioche Bread Pudding
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The tastiest brioche bread pudding made with French sweet bread, raisins and chocolate chips and served with plenty of bread pudding sauce. Pro tips, substitutes and add-ons are included.
This is a simple bread pudding recipe with brioche that is best enjoyed for breakfast or dessert.
Brioche bread pudding is the perfect recipe for a leftover brioche. Easily customizable and very easy to make!
How to make bread pudding with brioche
Prep the brioche for baking by slicing it into chunks, about 1-inch wide. Transfer them to an oven-proof dish greased with butter or oil. Add raisins and chocolate chips and pour over the custard mixture which is a combination of eggs, milk, cream, sugar, and spices.
The bread pudding will expand (puff up) once the custard mixture is set which is the best indicator to know that it is ready. Baking time may vary. This will depend on your oven, on the size of your dish on what rack the bread pudding is cooked on.
For better understanding: In a smaller dish, the bread pudding will more likely be crumped together, so it will need more time in the oven.
On a top rack, the bread pudding with brioche will brown faster than on the bottom one, but it does not mean it will be cooked through.
What is a good substitute for brioche bread?
The best substitutes for brioche are challah or Hawaiian sweet bread. Both are sweet and have a similar texture to brioche bread, which makes them the best options.
You can also use panettone or a combination of these (perhaps you have some ends or leftovers on hand so using those to make brioche bread pudding would work well).
Tasty bread pudding add-ons:
Pecans – either whole or roughly chopped.
Sliced banana served on top or alongside bread pudding makes this breakfast more filling which means you should be able to feed more people from one batch.
Fresh blueberries – use them as a topping after your bread pudding is being cooked or add them in before cooking.
Possible substitutions:
- Blueberry sauce instead of cinnamon sauce (or together).
- White sugar – brown sugar is a great option.
- Dried cranberries are an excellent substitution for raisins.
Pro tips
- Brioche bread is sweet as is, so the bread pudding needs only a little sugar to sweeten it. Also, the cinnamon sauce is rich and complements the pudding well and adds more sweetness to the brioche bread pudding. Simply pour it over before slicing (or afterward). When serving this without any sweet topping, more sugar can be added to the custard mixture.
- It’s good to push the dried fruit down. That way it will stay juicy and won’t dry out.
- Note that bread pudding will start shrinking once taken out from the oven and cooling.
Other sweet breakfast recipes for you to try:
They are all perfect for lazy Sunday breakfast or sweet brunch and serving them with a cup of hot chocolate just makes it an extra special way to start a day.
Brioche Bread Pudding
Ingredients
For the brioche bread pudding:
- ½ pound brioche bread , a day (or two) old, see note 1
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
- ¼ cup raisins , see note 2
- 3 medium eggs , see note 3
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ cup milk (60 milliliters)
- ½ cup heavy cream (120 milliliters)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- a pinch of nutmeg or ground cloves, see note 4
Instructions
- Brioche bread pudding: Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit (175 Celsius).
- Meanwhile: Grease a 9×7-inch (24×19-centimeter) oven dish with butter (or spray with oil). Cut brioche bread into chunks (about an inch/2.5-centimeter thick) and transfer into the oven dish. Add chocolate chips and raisins.
- In a bowl (or jug), whisk together eggs, sugar, milk, heavy cream, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour this mixture over the brioche pieces. To make sure every single one is covered in the liquid, use kitchen tongs (or a spoon) to move the bread around. Also, push the raisins down so they won’t get burnt during cooking.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the egg mixture is set and nicely puffed.
- Cinnamon sauce: In a saucepan, melt the butter (on low heat). Add cinnamon, honey, and lemon juice. Stir until smooth. Pour in heavy cream and increase the heat to medium-high. Stir until you bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for a minute before turning the heat off. Note: If you find the sauce too thin, thicken it with cornstarch slurry (1 teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in 1-2 teaspoons water). You will need to bring it to a boil again in order for the sauce to thicken.
- Pour the warm sauce over your baked bread pudding and serve.
- Best enjoyed warm!
Notes
- ½ pound (225 grams) = ½ loaf.
- Raisins can be substituted with cranberries.
- Large eggs will also work.
- You can add more spices if you like. Just note cloves and nutmeg are quite strong so a little goes a long way.
- I needed ½ medium lemon to get 2 tablespoons out of it. This can vary depending on the lemons.
- This brioche bread pudding recipe can be easily doubled, tripled…
- If in doubt or looking for more tips, serving suggestions and add-on ideas, please read the full post above this recipe card.
Hello. On the cinnamon sauce it says and add the milk but there is no measurement of milk in the ingredients for the sauce?
Hi Brandy. Sorry about the mistake and the late reply. Not sure why I mentioned milk there. It’s just the cream you use and I have already fixed the recipe card.
I love the brioche in this pudding. Perfectly sweet and soft and fluffy
Thanks for your feedback!
Since panettone season is almost upon us here in Italy, I’m bookmarking this bread pudding recipe. We always end up with so many extra panettone as my hubby is a doctor and he receives so many from his patients! This is going to be a delicious way to use some of them!
Absolutely! Enjoy! :)
Mouthwatering! This is heaven I wanna try this asap
That’s great to hear, Maria!
Starting with brioche adds a level of goodness to this bread pudding for sure! I’m making mine with chocolate chips, dried cranberries and pecans. Perfect for the holidays!
I too sometimes use pecans. It’s delicious!
Your brioche bread pudding looks delicious. I love the sound of the cinnamon sauce served with the pudding, thanks for sharing.