Description
A rich and creamy pumpkin bread pudding made with day-old French bread soaked in a spiced pumpkin custard, baked until golden and served with optional caramel sauce and whipped cream.
Ingredients
Scale
Base:
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- 1 loaf (about 16 oz) of day-old French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
Custard Mixture:
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- 4 large eggs + 2 egg yolks
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- 1½ cups half-and-half
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- 1 cup whole milk
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- 15 oz canned pumpkin purée
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- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
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- ½ cup granulated sugar
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- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
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- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
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- ½ tsp ground ginger
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- â…› tsp ground cloves
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- ¼ tsp salt
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- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional Toppings:
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- ½ cup toasted pecans
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- Salted caramel sauce
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- Whipped cream
Instructions
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- Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease that baking dish good. I use butter because it tastes better than cooking spray, but you do you.
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- Make the custard: Crack your eggs into a big bowl and whisk them up. Add the pumpkin – straight from the can is fine, no need to get fancy. Dump in both sugars and all those spices, then whisk until it looks smooth. Slowly pour in the milk and cream while whisking. It should look like orange custard at this point.
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- Add the bread: Toss in your bread cubes and stir gently. Don’t be aggressive here – you’re not making stuffing! Let it sit for 10 minutes. I usually clean up my mess during this time because the bread needs to soak up all that goodness.
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- Bake it: Pour everything into your greased dish. Bake for about 45-50 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the middle doesn’t jiggle when you shake the pan gently. The top should be golden brown and gorgeous.
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- Serve warm: Let it cool for maybe 5 minutes if you can wait that long. Serve with whatever makes you happy – caramel sauce, whipped cream, ice cream, or just eat it plain like I do sometimes.
Notes
The texture should be creamy but not soupy. If it looks too wet after soaking, don’t panic – it’ll set up in the oven. If it looks dry, add more milk.
Use real pumpkin purée, not pumpkin pie filling. The pie filling already has spices and sugar, so your flavors will be all wrong.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45-50 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice (about 4x3 inches)
- Calories: 285
- Sugar: 28g
- Sodium: 195mg
- Fat: 9g
- Saturated Fat: 5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 45g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 8g
- Cholesterol: 95mg