Blueberry Bread Pudding Recipe and 4 Baking Tips

Blueberry bread pudding is a dessert made from stale bread and blueberries soaked in custard and baked until golden brown. Like French toast casserole, this comfort food is equally welcome for brunch or dinner. Make bread pudding at home by tearing up stale bread into bite-sized pieces and soaking them in a silky custard composed of milk, eggs, and sugar. Next, dot the mixture with fruits, nuts, chocolate chips, or raisins, and bake the bread pudding until tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Top the dessert with cream cheese, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or cranberry preserves for extra decadence.

Follow these tips to ensure you create a luscious pudding with crisped-up nooks and crannies.

1. 1. Always use day-old bread. Like homemade croutons and French toast, bread pudding is a great way to use stale or day-old bread. Stale bread seeps up the liquid custard while maintaining its shape and structure. On the other hand, fresh bread will get mushy and risks not crisping up. Here’s how to dry out fresh bread: Slice a few pieces into cubes and arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake the bread cubes in an oven on low heat until crisp, about ten minutes.
2. 2. Experiment with different kinds of bread. Different types of bread bring varying levels of chewiness and crunch to bread pudding. Traditional choices are challah, enriched French bread like brioche, or rustic loaves of sourdough or white bread. Denser whole-grain breads won’t absorb the milk and eggs the same way, so if you use a loaf like rye bread, adjust the amount of liquid to match.
3. 3. Use fresh berries. If possible, stick to fresh blueberries. If you’re using frozen blueberries, let them thaw thoroughly before adding them to the bread mixture. Otherwise, the frozen berries will melt and make the dish wet, rather than toasted and crunchy.
4. 4. Serve with a bread pudding sauce. Serve bread pudding with a drizzle of crème anglaise, caramel sauce, or butterscotch—or pair it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.