This bread pudding recipe is easy to make with just a few simple ingredients. This is one of our family’s favorite recipes and is perfect served with a big scoop of ice cream!
Do you have any family recipes that you absolutely love? This bread pudding recipe is one that has been in Josh’s family for years and comes from his Grandmother Linda. Josh loves this recipe so much that his grandma used to bake it for him instead of a cake for special occasions. And honestly, I would choose this recipe over a cake any day too.
Speaking of Josh’s grandma, I really feel like I could write a million blog posts about how wonderful she was. She was such a kind person and had the best sense of humor. It was literally impossible to not crack a smile when you were around her.
My favorite memory of her was the time she got up on the dance floor at our wedding and danced like no one was watching. Although she’s no longer with us, one thing that we will always have is the memories and her amazing bread pudding recipe.
I mean, you know a recipe is good when it comes from grandma. Right?
To start this recipe you’ll need some bread, hence the name bread pudding. I like to use a loaf of challah bread when it comes to making this recipe. I think Josh’s grandma used slices of toasted white bread when she would make it. But, I really love challah bread in this recipe so that’s what I always use.
You do want to use day-old bread or bread that’s dry and doesn’t have much moisture in it. If your bread is still fresh or not dried out you can cube it into smaller pieces, place them on a baking sheet, pop it in the oven, and bake it for about 8-10 minutes. You don’t want to completely toast the bread, just dry it out.
Then you’ll whisk together some eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and spices. You’ll be using 5 whole eggs and 4 cups of milk, which may seem like a lot. Trust me, the first time I made this recipe I sat there wondering if it was too much. As it bakes the bread will absorb the liquid, so don’t worry.
As for the spices, there’s just a little bit of ground cinnamon and nutmeg mixed in. Whatever you do don’t leave them out! I feel like the spices, especially the nutmeg, really make this bread pudding.
Once you mix up the wet ingredients, you’ll pour it over the bread in your pan. Then you want to let it sit for about 15 minutes, so the bread can absorb some of the liquid before it goes into the oven. What I like to do is prep the bread pudding, then once I’m done I preheat the oven. I just let it sit and soak up the mixture while the oven preheats, which is usually right at about 15 minutes. Easy, peasy.
You do want to let it cool for just a little bit once you remove it from the oven so that it’s easy to handle. I really love this bread pudding served with a huge scoop of ice cream and some caramel sauce. But honestly, it’s delicious just by itself.
Grandma's Bread Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 loaf day-old challah bread cubed into 1-inch pieces*
- 5 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Spray a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place the cubed challah bread into the prepared baking dish and spread it around into an even layer. Set aside.
- In a very large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon until fully combined. Pour the mixture evenly over the bread in the prepared baking pan, making sure all of the bread is coated. Allow to sit and soak up the mixture for about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F. Once the 15 minutes is over, place the bread pudding in the oven and bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes or until the top is set.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.
Notes
Hi there. Would this recipe turn out if I used 1c maple syrup instead of sugar ?
Thanks
I haven’t tried it, but I wouldn’t suggest it for this recipe.
I have done similar things using Maple syrup. You may need to adjust the liquid, but you always have to do that dependent on the dryness of your bread and the size of your eggs. Maple syrup is a delicious substitute. I might leave out some of the spices to let its flavor shine through.
How many cups of bread would that first ingredient equal?
About 9-10 cups.
If I want to double the recipe and add raisins do I need to lessen anything or cook for longer? Or should I make it in 2 pans 13×9
Hi, Jean! If you want to double the recipe, I would just use two 9×13 pans and keep the baking time the same. You can also just add the raisins, no need to adjust to lessen anything else.
Can you use skim milk?
Yes, that’s fine!
Thanks so much for this recipe. I’ve been looking for a bread pudding recipe exactly lile this, as it’s the same type my Southern grandmother used to make at every single family gathering growing up. She unfortunately now has dementia and is no longer able to remember the recipe or what I’m talking about, so finding and making this brought back a lot of memories for me. I’ll be making it again and taking some over to her soon, maybe she’ll remember once she tastes it 🙂 Thank you again.
So happy to hear that it brought back those wonderful memories, Courtney! I hope your grandmother enjoys the bread pudding!
Can we use a loaf of bred for this instead? And what would be the measurements?
That would be fine! You can use about 12 slices of bread, it should be 9-10 cups.
I’m looking forward to making this for next week’s Mary Kay meeting.
It was great! I tried a few substitutions on the 2nd batch. I used 2 loaves cubed french bread, dried in oven on 125 for an hour. I buttered a 13x9x2 pan, put in the bread cubes, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, 1/2 cup whole oats, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/4 cup Chia seeds and tossed to disperse. I mixed together 5 eggs, 1 c coconut water, 2c soymilk and 1c lactose free milk, 4 Oz coconut creme concentrate- grated fine, 3/4 c stevia powder, 1/4 c light brown sugar, 1 tbsp vanilla, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger and 1 stick melted butter. I poured the wet mix over the dry and let it soak in while I preheated the oven to 325. I pushed in some pineapple chunks all over. I then put tin foil over the pan and baked it for an hour. It was so yummy warm from the oven, and hopefully a little lighter on the carbs!
Gloria, With all the changes you made on this recipe you completely changed the recipe. I’m trying to figure out where you saved the carbs. other then the sugar. I agree using truvia or stevia will save. However, adding all that fruit adds a lot more carbs. I’m diabetic so I find just reducing sugar and adding truvia has helped alot. Although, I have not made caramel sauce with the truvia. I need to try doing it. I’ve been cooking for over 50 yrs and enjoy trying new recipes. Especially since my kids are grown and out of the house.
Hi, Is this photo of the bread pudding you actually made? The reason for this strange question is I am looking for a bread pudding recipe that can be cut like a cake not a bread pudding that is mushy and more like pudding with chunks of bread. Thanks!
Yes, I would never a post a picture on my site of something that wasn’t the actual recipe 🙂
I made the bread pudding and it was dry is there anything I can do to moisten it? The taste was good with apple sauce. If I can correct this please answer
Thank you
Susan
Sorry to hear that, Susan. You can top it with some caramel or vanilla sauce or even some ice cream and that should help.
Could you be so kind, and convert cups from this recipe into mililiters, please.
(I’d do it by myself, but I’m not sure what „cup” means in US.)
Best regards
Reader from Europe
The cup of sugar is equal to 200 grams and the 4 cups of milk are equal to 960 ml. Hope that helps!
Can I not use any vanilla extract?
Yes, you can leave it out.
I made this bread pudding and it came out a little soggy. What do you think I did wrong ? I think I might not have used enough bread. The flavor is good.
Did you make sure to use a similar size loaf or amount of bread? If so, you can try adding a little more next time or increase the baking time slightly.
How do you make the caramel sauce?
I linked to my salted caramel sauce recipe right above the recipe.
This was amazing! I used sourdough and followed the recipe the rest of the way. It was Sunday dessert at the “Doll House”. Will make this again, that’s for sure. My daughter wanted raisins, but I was out. That’s only thing that would do differently. And just happened to have caramel sauce on hand!
I was recently gifted two loaves of short-dated bread. I turned one of the loves into bread pudding using this recipe. I’ve never made bread pudding before, and this was so good. Thank you for sharing it.
Just made this….OMGOODNESS!!! Delicious doesn’t even begin to describe it…phenomenal!! Although I did modify it. I love things rich. So used half and half instead of whole milk and added chopped golden raisins and walnuts…. Thanks so much for posting this…
sounds delish! will try it soon.