13 Ways To Take Your Bread Pudding To The Next Level

Bread pudding is a traditional dessert that originated as a way to use up bread past its best. The bread is torn or cubed and then an uncooked custard of milk or cream, sugar, and eggs is poured over before baking it all until it sets. It's undeniably delicious but it can get a bit stale — and we're not just talking about the bread. If you're looking to bring your dessert into the current century, there are all kinds of ways to take your bread pudding to the next level.

You might see this retro classic as the type of dessert your grandma would make. While we can't argue with that — it definitely is — it's also ripe for an upgrade. By using pastries instead of bread or making a coffee custard, you're keeping the essence of the dessert while making it new and fresh. That way, it tastes like something you might find at an upscale restaurant, while still feeling comforting and nostalgic. Here are some of the tastiest ways to level-up your bread pudding.

It's called bread pudding, so it stands to reason that you should use bread in it. But, do you have to? Actually, no. You can give this old favorite a contemporary twist by using croissants or pastries in place of bread. You still get that dense, custardy, starchy center but the flavor is elevated because you're using delicious pastries instead of a stale sliced loaf.

Using croissants gives you a fresh take on bread pudding, plus they go stale pretty quickly, so it's a great way to use up any that you didn't get to before they stopped being fresh. But you don't have to stop with croissants. You could also use pain au chocolat, Danish pastries, cinnamon rolls, cardamom buns, or any other pastries you happen to have lying around.

What's great is that it not only improves old, stale pastries but also ones that were never that great to begin with. So, if you make some canned cinnamon rolls, for instance, and aren't all that happy with them, you can make them tastier by turning them into bread pudding. Just bear in mind that, if you're using sweet pastries, you might need to reduce the quantity of sugar in your custard to stop the dish from turning out overly sweet.

We've already explained how you can ditch the bread and replace it with pastry, but maybe you don't want to part with tradition altogether. In this case, you can branch out by trying other types of bread from the norm. Many bread pudding recipes call for a basic sliced white loaf, but this might not be the best choice. There are plenty of other varieties you can try.

Sweetened, enriched breads make for an extra tasty dish. So, rather than a basic sliced white, brioche or challah are both excellent choices. However, you might be thinking more about texture than taste. In which case, something robust like French bread or an Italian loaf are ideal. They're close to a classic white loaf but elevated.

But you don't have to stop there. You can experiment with pretty much any bread, each one bringing its own qualities. For instance, sourdough loaves have a nice chew and are slightly tangy to contrast the sweet custard. Bagels are chewy and flavorful, with varying options, like plain or cinnamon raisin. English muffins absorb the custard well, so they end up nicely dense and moist. Trying out a range of options can help you find the one you like most.

The citrussy, floral notes of Earl Grey tea are distinctive yet delicate. This makes it a perfect addition to bread pudding. The resulting dessert tastes amazing without the Earl Grey flavor overwhelming it.

To make an Earl Grey bread pudding, you need to infuse the custard with Earl Grey. You can't simply add brewed tea to the custard or it won't firm up properly in the oven. Instead, before you mix all the custard ingredients together, you heat the milk, stir in some Earl Grey tea leaves, and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to infuse. You might think the longer, the better, but this is the sweet spot. Leave it to brew for too long and the tea will become tannic and bitter. Using tea leaves will give you a better flavor than tea bags, so it's worth the splurge.

Once the milk is infused with that Earl Grey flavor, strain out the tea leaves and carry on making the custard by whisking in the eggs and other ingredients. Then, pour it over your bread of choice and bake. This is especially good with pastries, brioche, or challah. It's also possible to do this with other types of tea, but Earl Grey is one of the best.

Bread pudding can seem a bit boring at times, but throw some chocolate chips in there and it's ready to start turning heads again. It's amazing how just one ingredient can transform a dessert from the least popular on the potluck table to one that has people coming back for seconds. But, then again, chocolate can be that way.

You can use your usual go-to bread pudding recipe but all you need to do differently is to layer some chocolate chips in with the bread. Dark and milk chocolate are the most common additions, but white chocolate is the creamy, vanilla-laced addition that you didn't know you needed.

If chocolate chips aren't up to your standards, you can also chop up bar chocolate and use it in your dessert. This tends to be of higher quality than chocolate chips and since the rest of the recipe is fairly simple, it can make all the difference. Plus, you can opt for chocolate bars that are infused with other flavors, such as orange, mint, coffee, or sea salt. These bring an extra dimension of yum.

The thing that can make bread pudding somewhat monotonous to eat is that the texture is pretty much the same all the way through. In some recipes, it's slightly crispier on top, but usually it's wall-to-wall dense and custardy. But when you mix in some nuts, you not only get flavor but variation in texture.

Pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts — the list goes on. Basically any nut works in bread pudding. Even legumes masquerading as nuts, like peanuts. You'll get a better flavor and a crunchier texture if you toast them before putting them in your bread pudding, though. Otherwise, only the ones peeking out of the top will get toasted. Any folded into the custard will be insulated and stay pale and soft rather than golden and crisp. You can toast them in a dry pan or in a baking tray in the oven until they get brown and fragrant.

You can combine nuts with fruits and other mix-ins, such as in this cherry pecan bread pudding recipe. Nuts also go nicely with chocolate chips and an array of spices. Think about the flavor combinations you're putting together and you can make something special.

Bread pudding might seem pretty austere. All leftover bread and basic ingredients like milk and eggs. However, you can make it more decadent and less Prohibition-era with a boozy twist. Spike it with a little of something from your liquor cabinet and you've got yourself a grown-up, elevated dessert that's worth writing home about. And the great thing is how adaptable it is.

The secret ingredient in The Pioneer Woman's bread pudding is whiskey. While she doesn't mix it into the pudding as it bakes, she incorporates it into a sauce that's used to soak the dessert when it comes out of the oven. It adds sweet, slightly smoky notes. However, you can get different flavor profiles from using different types of booze. Gin has clean, slightly herbal notes from its botanicals, while dark rum has that rich sugarcane complexity.

You don't have to make a separate sauce, either. Mixing the alcohol into the custard works just fine. You can experiment with different alcohols and the combinations of other ingredients that go with them. For instance, gin works well with citrus or Earl Grey tea, while whiskey pairs beautifully with coffee or chocolate.

Sometimes, a small change is all you need to elevate a dish. Adding orange zest to bread pudding takes it to the next level with very little effort. It lifts and brightens what can be a fairly stodgy, one-note dish.

And it's not just us who like to add orange to this classic dessert. Martha Stewart's bread pudding has a zesty twist. She adds orange zest to bring a touch of acidity. But she doesn't stop there. Stewart's recipe also contains cognac. But if you wanted to carry on the orange theme, you could use an orange liqueur like Grand Marnier.

What's cool about orange zest is that it plays well with other flavors. It's great combined with chocolate, particularly dark chocolate to balance out the sweet fruitiness. It also goes nicely with a range of spices. Additions like cinnamon and allspice with the orange gives the dessert a somewhat festive feel.

While orange zest is the obvious choice for bread pudding, you could also experiment with other citrus flavors. Lemon zest could also work nicely in this dessert. Lime zest is harder to pair with classic flavors but could be tasty as part of a tropical twist with ingredients like coconut milk and mango. Grapefruit zest has a refreshing tartness to balance out particularly sweet ingredients.

Donuts are incredible when eaten fresh out of the fryer. They're even passable on day two. But after that you get diminishing returns. They end up dry, stale, and not particularly worth eating. Rather than wasting them, though, you can give them a new lease of life as bread pudding. In fact, it's Duff Goldman's tasty solution for leftover donuts.

They work brilliantly in this dessert, soaking up all that custard mixture and making a sweeter, more intense version of the classic recipe. Yeasted donuts have the most bread-like texture, but cake donuts work perfectly well too. Both have a robust enough texture to keep from falling apart while resulting in that dense, soft texture you want from good bread pudding.

And you can use any donuts you have on hand. Filled, ring, glazed, powdered — they can all make their way into this dessert. Classic cinnamon sugar donuts are a brilliant choice. The sweet spices work perfectly in bread pudding. But, then again, the fruity twist that comes from using jelly-filled donuts is also pretty incredible. Any fillings and toppings will just blend into the recipe, bringing more flavor and all-round deliciousness. Just be mindful of the sugar content. A slightly less sugary custard can help balance out the extra sweetness that comes from the donuts.

Fall is the time for pumpkin everything. But you might find yourself getting bored after the 10th time you've eaten pumpkin pie or pumpkin ravioli during the season. But, adding canned pumpkin to bread pudding is a new and tasty way to use up winter squash. And, of course, you can make it any time of year. You don't have to wait for fall to roll around.

Pumpkin bread pudding is easy to make. You basically just mix pumpkin purée into the custard mixture and make it as normal aside from that. However, you might want to add in extra spices to really lean into the seasonal vibes. A pumpkin spice mix is the obvious choice, but you can also use any combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Spices like mace, allspice, and cardamom also taste great.

Making this dessert is a great way to use leftover pumpkin purée or get rid of the can that's been languishing in your pantry since last Thanksgiving. But, you don't have to use canned pumpkin. If you have unseasoned cooked pumpkin, you can blend it into a purée and use that in your recipe. It's usually moister than the canned stuff, though, so you may need to adjust the liquids in your recipe slightly.

The great thing about bread pudding being a custard-based dessert is that you can easily flavor the custard to mix things up. Making a coffee custard instantly changes the vibe of this classic. It becomes complex and sophisticated and worthy of a spot on a dinner party menu or at a special occasion meal.

It's ridiculously easy to make a coffee custard. Along with the other ingredients, like eggs, milk, and sugar, you add a shot or two of chilled, brewed espresso. Just like regular bread pudding, you don't cook the custard before it goes in the oven so that's it. All you need to do is pour it over your bread and bake.

If you're serious about coffee, you can easily tailor the beans you use to match what you want from your dessert. For instance, choose darker roasted beans with a chocolatey flavor profile to pair with chocolate chips in your pudding or a caramel sauce to go over the top. Fruitier, more acidic beans might work well with citrus zest or dried fruits. Alternatively, you can save time and use instant coffee or espresso powder.

Dried fruits are a tried and true addition to bread pudding. However, not everyone is a fan of their intense flavor. If you're looking for something lighter and fresher, why not switch dried fruits for fresh ones?

It's not just us who think this is a good idea. Martha Stewart has an apple bread pudding recipe that was a big Instagram hit. And you'll find plenty of other recipes for fresh fruit bread puddings around too. You probably already have fruit at home, so if you're trying to make do with what you have on hand, it's a great choice.

The amazing thing about using fruit is that no two fruits will give you the same results. You can stick with everyday options like apples, pears, and bananas. Or, you can opt for tropical fruits and lesser-used varieties, such as mango, pineapple, or persimmon. Berries, like strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, also taste delicious in bread pudding.

You may want to pair fruit with other ingredients, but think about what works. Apples work well with warm spices or caramel sauce, while pear works beautifully with dark chocolate, and banana is delicious with toasted pecans.

It's not unusual to have a dash of cinnamon or a hint of nutmeg in bread pudding, but you can take it to the next level by using a chai spice blend. Drawing inspiration from this spiced tea gives you a warming, comforting dessert that's familiar but also somehow new.

While there's no set recipe for chai, it usually contains a blend of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and star anise. It can also contain black pepper, fennel, nutmeg, and allspice. In India, where spiced chai originated, most families have their own go-to blend with different combinations and ratios of spices. So, it's fine for you to experiment and find a combination you like.

Alternatively, you can buy a premade chai spice blend. Another option is to infuse the milk for the custard with loose leaf chai tea, in the same way you would do with Earl Grey. This gives you the flavor of black tea too, which might be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective.

Bread pudding usually has vanilla extract in it to bring extra sweetness and complexity of flavor. This is pretty nice but not all vanilla extract is equally good. There's everything from the cheap, artificial vanilla that isn't worth buying to the pricey, much tastier stuff. But all of it pales in comparison to real vanilla beans.

The flavor of these magical pods is so much more delicate and nuanced. Using vanilla beans is the perfect choice if you want to keep your bread pudding simple but make it extra delicious. You'll get a complex vanilla flavor that's so much nicer than extract that you'll never want to go back, even if your bank balance will force you to.

There are a couple of ways to use vanilla pods in bread pudding. You can either infuse the pods in milk and cream for the custard, heating them together, then letting the mixture sit for a while to soak up the flavor. Or, you can split the pods and scrape those tiny vanilla seeds into the custard. Either way, it will be delicious. Using vanilla bean paste is another option if you want a better flavor than extract but don't want the hassle of dealing with the beans.