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    Home > Recipes > Custards

    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding with Hard Sauce

    Published: Apr 13, 2013 | Updated: Oct 2, 2022

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    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding with Hard Sauce Purple Border
    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding with Hard Sauce Fancy

    This Old Fashioned Bread Pudding is incredibly easy to pull together! You will love the rich, creamy texture of the pudding and the crunchy sweet topping! With or without a drizzle of hard sauce, this is a phenomenal dessert and a super easy way to use up older bread!

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    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding with Hard Sauce Slice Featured Image

    I am a bread pudding aficionado. If there is bread pudding on a dessert menu, I will order it without hesitation: it even trumps chocolate. Apparently bread pudding was one of those dessert staples in The New World, because there is at least one recipe in every heritage cookbook. My fiancé and I consider ourselves to be bread pudding connoisseurs – my ideal bread pudding is dense, but still fluffy, with discernable bread chunks, and a smattering of crunchy bread pieces on top. I like a hint of brandy in either the sauce or the pudding itself. Not picky at all.

    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding Overhead Full Dish

    I studied and compared over 15 different recipes before I settled on the recipe for the pudding and sauce below.  I chose a recipe for the pudding from “American Cookery” by Amelia Simmons, the first American Cookbook. Up until Mrs. Simmons published “American Cookery” American housewives used English cookbooks, which didn’t include practical uses for the native flora and fauna of the New World. Mrs. Simmons book included “receipts”, or recipes, for this new civilization and recorded our fledgling culture for posterity.

    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding Close Up Bite on Fork
    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding Plated Overhead Featured

    Most of the recipes suggested that bread pudding be accompanied by a “Hard Sauce”. It is basically icing with liquor. Yum. I made the recipe from The Joy of Cooking (First Edition).

    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding Active Hard Sauce Drizzle

    It took every ounce of will power within me not to soak the cherries in brandy before adding them to the pudding. If you are not trying to follow a heritage recipe to the letter, then I highly recommend doing this. Divine! I would then do a nice caramel sauce or a Hard Sauce made with 1 teaspoon of vanilla in place of the brandy.

    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding Close Up Hard Sauce Drizzle
    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding with Hard Sauce Slice Featured Image

    Old Fashioned Bread Pudding

    Chef Lindsey
    This Old Fashioned Bread Pudding is incredibly easy to pull together! You will love the rich, creamy texture of the pudding and the crunchy sweet topping! With or without a drizzle of hard sauce, this is a phenomenal dessert and a super easy way to use up older bread!
    PRINT RECIPE Pin Recipe
    Prep Time20 mins
    Cook Time40 mins
    Total Time1 hr
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine American
    Servings 16 people
    Calories 289 kcal

    Ingredients
     

    For the Bread Pudding:

    • 5 cups day old bread (cut into ½” cubes (I have use raisin bread and hot crossed buns))
    • 2 cups whole milk
    • 3 eggs (extra large, lightly beaten)
    • ¾ cup sugar
    • ¼ cup butter (unsalted, melted)
    • ⅛ teaspoon salt
    • ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
    • ½ cup cream
    • ½ cup raisins (I used ½ cup tart cherries)

    For the Topping:

    • 1 cup bread (cut into ½” cubes)
    • 1 tablespoon sugar
    • 1 tablespoon butter (melted)
    • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

    For the Hard Sauce:

    • ¼ cup butter (unsalted)
    • 1 cup powdered sugar (sifted)
    • 1 large pinch salt
    • 1 tablespoon brandy (or more to taste. I used 2 T)
    • 1 egg (see notes)
    US Customary - Metric

    Instructions
     

    Make the Pudding:

    • Preheat oven to 325F. Adjust rack to the middle of the bottom half of oven.
    • Butter an 8 x 8 baking dish. Distribute bread chunks evenly in the dish and sprinkle cherries evenly throughout the bread. Add Mix all ingredients after bread. Once completely incorporated, pour mixture over the bread & cherries.
    • Cover dish and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
    • Mix ingredients for topping and sprinkle over the top of the custard, pressing down slightly.
    • Bake at 325F for 40-50 minutes or until custard is set. The top will brown and it will only jiggle slightly in the very center.

    Make The Hard Sauce

    • Cream the butter until it is very soft. Add the sugar gradually, then the salt and beat these ingredients until they have a smooth, soft consistency. I could not get my sugar to the desired consistency, so I used the back of a wooden spoon to press the butter and sugar together until they were smooth and soft. Beat in the brandy (and egg) and chill the sauce thoroughly.
    • I used 2 tablespoons of brandy, which had a definite alcohol flavor. Every recipe I read said to chill “Hard Sauce” and serve it cold, but I found it unpleasant to eat chilled, so I warmed it up and drizzled it over the pudding. Much better.

    Notes

    Bread Pudding Recipe Adapted from American Cookery Hard Sauce recipe from The Joy of Cooking (First Edition) I converted the measurements to current standards.
     
    Hard Sauce: If you are concerned about the addition of a raw egg, then simply omit it. The egg loosens the sauce and makes it the perfect consistency. Without the egg, you will want to serve the sauce warm.
    Keyword make ahead dessert recipe, old fashioned dessert recipe, ways to use old bread
    Tried this recipe?Mention @cheflindseyfarr

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    Comments

    1. Mike says

      February 14, 2021 at 1:09 pm

      5 stars
      If you are doing a lot of heritage cooking rosewater is a staple from the colonial era. It has since been replaced in American baking by vanilla extract. Rosewater is still popular in Indian dishes and you can often find it in the international isle of your grocery.

      Reply
    2. ALICIA C says

      November 30, 2019 at 1:57 am

      Just made a half recipe of the sauce to go with a fruity cobbler, ran out of vanilla ice cream, used while TBSP Brandy, wow, thank you!

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        February 10, 2020 at 5:52 pm

        Haha! Way to improvise! That sounds fabulous!

        Reply
    3. JUDY says

      March 11, 2019 at 8:31 pm

      ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO I USED MAIDA HEATTER'S BOOKS THEY ARE GREAT! I HAD A HUGE COLLECTION OF
      COOK BOOKS - FINALLY DOWNSIZED AND GAVE THEM TO MY SYNAGOGUE
      THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME OF MAIDA HEATTER....AND I STILL USE MY JOY OF COOKING -
      MY VERY FIRST COOKBOOK I RECEIVED IT AT A BRIDAL SHOWER 60 YEARS AGO

      Reply
    4. Rong says

      July 06, 2014 at 9:15 pm

      This recipe was awesome. It's so easy (just mix all the custard ingredients together versus other recipes where you cook here, pour there) and everyone loved it so much haha. I really wasnt expecting much because it's the first recipe I'm trying, but it was amazing! And everyone was saying it's the best B&B pudding they've ever had (: Thank you so much! 😀

      It was deliciously rich, and yes everyone was talking about the crispy topping (:

      Some changes I made: I added some baileys into the custard! And used another vanilla sauce because I prefer the more liquidy flowy kind (: But I'm sure yours would be amazing too 😀 And you're right about serving the sauce warm! (: Thanks again for the awesome recipe!

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        July 07, 2014 at 10:25 am

        I'm so, so glad that you enjoyed it! It is certainly easy...once you get past cutting up all that bread! Any time I have a bread pudding without a crispy topping, it feels like something is missing. Mmmm baileys in the custard sounds delicious! I will absolutely have to try that! I prefer the liquid flowy kind of sauce too!

        Reply
        • Rong says

          July 07, 2014 at 10:31 am

          😀 thanks again for the great recipe! Will definitely go check out your others ^^

          Reply
          • Lindsey says

            July 07, 2014 at 10:32 am

            Thank you! I hope you do!

            Reply
    5. Heather says

      April 15, 2013 at 10:01 am

      I love bread pudding too! Wonder how this would be with an alternative milk (almond maybe?)-- I'm somewhat lactose intolerant

      Reply
      • Lindsey says

        April 16, 2013 at 8:37 am

        I could see bread pudding working with almond milk, but I can't say I would want to try soy. Coconut could also be an interesting partial substitute. A lot of the richness comes from the heavy cream and milk, so you might want to add more cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice to yours. If you try it, let me know how it tastes!

        Reply
      • Lena Langewiesche says

        May 05, 2019 at 5:06 pm

        I just made bread pudding using Almond milk. No particular recipe. Off the cuff. Hawaiian sweet bread, raisins, honeyed pecan bits. custard: Almond milk cardamom pods soaked in the hot milk with butter and a dash of vanilla. Since the Almond milk is sweet just a tsp of sugar. When still hot out of the oven drizzled with bourbon. So yummy! Plus very alcoholic hard sauce made also with Bourbon.

        Reply

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