Have I mentioned yet how dreary our winter has been? Rain, snow, wind, hail, cloudy, more snow, more rain, a few showers (I didn’t know there was a difference before moving to the Pacific Northwest, but, yeah, there is a difference – I’ll take “showers” over “rain” any day.) Not that it is affecting me negatively or anything, but you can see my increased desire for comfort food right here on this page. And trust me, Brioche Bread Pudding With Chocolate Chips and Easy Butterscotch Sauce is definitely comfort food at its very best!
Brioche. Bread. Pudding. You can tell by the name, I didn’t put anything bad in it. I even tossed in some bittersweet chocolate chips. What’s more, I topped it with Salted Easy Butterscotch Sauce, the easiest, most delectable sauce that can be made. I think this bread pudding is easily in my “top 10” desserts of all time. One day, I’ll make a list for you. (The problem will likely be limiting myself to 10.)
There are many reasons this dessert goes on many a “top 10” list, but first and foremost, it is about as easy as it gets. Just a few minutes to put it together. Leftover bread? This is the best reason ever to hold onto that stale-ish loaf. Secondly, you probably have all of the ingredients right now: Milk, eggs, butter, vanilla, a handful of chocolate chips and a simple-to-make sauce. Third, the texture: rich, pudding-like cake on the bottom and a sweet, toasty top studded with chocolate chips. And, the flaaavor, so creamy, vanilla-y, with bits of dark chocolate, and that rich, salty butterscotch. Get me a fork! Right now!
I know what you are thinking – “This would also make a great breakfast!”, right? Seriously, bread, eggs, milk – why not? We all could use a little comfort food now and then. Enjoy!
Brioche Bread Pudding
You could use any leftover bread for this oh-so-easy dessert, or a whole brioche or challah. I usually throw bread that is on the verge of becoming stale in a zippered bag in the freezer. I had about 5 leftover brioche buns which I used for this Bread Pudding. This recipe was inspired by and...
- Prep Time: 15m
- Cook Time: 40m
- Total Time: 55m
- Serves: 12
- Yield: 1-13x9 pan
- Category: Breads, Breakfast/Brunch, Chocolate, Desserts and Sweets, Holiday, Make ahead, Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 c 3/4" bread cubes (leftover or loaf of Brioche, Challah or any other bread)
- 4 c Milk (whole milk is best)
- 4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) Butter
- 1 tbsp. Natural Vanilla
- 2/3 c Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
- 6 Large eggs, slightly beaten
- 1 c (Or more!) Chocolate Chips (Optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. (I baked at 340F in my convection oven) In a 3-qt. Saucepan, gently heat milk, butter, sugar, vanilla and salt until it simmers (steaming and small bubbles around edges of pan. While heating, butter the bottom and sides of 13x9 casserole dish, and pour bread cubes into the dish. Sprinkle chocolate chips over bread cubes if you are using them.
- Let the milk mixture cool slightly. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Slowly drizzle a small amount (1/4 c) of milk into the eggs while continuing to whisk. This should temper them, so you will be able to add the cooled milk mixture to the eggs without cooking the eggs.
- Pour combined milk-egg mixture over the bread cubes. Bake in preheated oven 35-45 minutes, until golden on top and still spongy in the middle. Serve warm or at room temperature. Top with cream or Easy Butterscotch Sauce.
Easy Butterscotch Sauce
This sauce was inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s Ridiculously Easy Butterscotch Sauce. We used the same ingredients but just tossed everything in the pan at once. It would be fantastic on ice cream, pound cake, or my Brioche Bread Pudding. Or saltine crackers. Or straight from the bowl. I like my butterscotch a bit more “salty” than...
- Prep Time: 5m
- Cook Time: 5m
- Total Time: 10m
- Yield: About 3/4 cup sauce
- Category: Desserts and Sweets, Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp. (1/2 Stick) Unsalted Butter
- 1/2 c Brown Sugar (Lt or Dark is ok)
- 1/2 c Whipping Cream
- 1 tsp. Natural Vanilla Extract
- 3/4 tsp. Flaky Salt, such as Fleur de Sel, or salt to taste
Instructions
- Put butter, sugar and cream in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until bubbling. Stir frequently while it bubbles 5 minutes or until desired thickness.
- Carefully (it is HOT!!!) taste and add the vanilla and salt to taste. We like this a bit salty so added about 3/4 teaspoon of flaky Fleur de Sel.
Once again, a wonderful recipe came up on my screen care of Hummingbird Thyme. My sister LOVES bread pudding and we’ve been working on our family Easter brunch menu so thought this would be a great recipe to give a trial run (to tell the truth – it was the salted caramel sauce that convinced us this was a must-try). Also, we are a family of raisin lovers (not that we’re NOT chocolate lovers). So – we wanted to try the recipe with half chocolate chips and half raisins to see which we liked better.
We started with a beautiful loaf of brioche from our local bakery. A splurge for sure – but great ingredients make great food! The only change we made to this SUPER SIMPLE recipe was, as mentioned, to do half with raisins and half with chocolate.
We tried the finished dessert out on a variety of young and old – some very discerning foodies and some who think cold pop tarts for dessert are perfect – so we had a nice spectrum of palates. The only consensus we came to regarding which version (raisins or chocolate) was better was that they’re both fabulous (I preferred the raisin by a small margin) but it was definitely the salted caramel sauce that put this dessert over the top. The sauce – also super easy to make – and with just a hint of salt – was delectable poured over the top of the pudding – rivelets of yummy sweet golden gooieness coating the pudding and pooling in the cracks between tender bites of bread and custard.
So good! So – we’ve decided to do one full pan each of the chocolate and the raisin (we’ll have 25 – 30 people attending Easter brunch – so a plentiful amount is required – we’re not complete gluttons!). And the caramel sauce – we’re making two double batches!! Yum. Thanks for another great recipe Mockingbird Thyme!!! Hippity hoppity – thank goodness Easter’s on the way!!
Kelly, Thanks so very much for you kind words! I’m so happy to hear you had a bake-off! I would love the raisins too! But I agree, it is the easy and yummy butterscotch that is star of this show. It is a bit of “gilding the lily” (but Ive never been against that). So glad it will grace your Easter table! I do think the bread pudding recipe is nice and simple, too, not too rich nor too sweet, so any additions are nice to have! Thanks for letting me know about the taste test! Hopefully everyone was happy to offer an opinion!
I had to laugh at your discussion of “showers” versus “rain.” I grew up in Oregon and I know exactly what you’re talking about! But this amazing bread pudding would get me through the greyest of winters 🙂
Thanks, Kelsie! It took me a while, but glad you can relate to this. Hope you live somewhere where “showers” aren’t a relief from rain. Ha!
We think alike. I agree, it is breakfast food. I learned that in Italy. Always last night’s dessert on the breakfast table. So delicious!
i definitely eat leftover bread pudding for breakfast. what can i say? it makes the cold early mornings a teensy bit more bearable, and the milk and eggs provide enough protein anyways (; and the salt in the butterscotch sounds perfect to help curb the sweetness a bit!