Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding

❤️ Why I Like This ...

• no intricate ingredients
• perfect for using up stale soft-white bread, baguette or brioche
• ideal for utilizing old(ish) apples
• can be served as a dessert or a main dish
• easy recipe for children to help with

🍰 What is This Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding Like?

Bread pudding is generally a humble recipe, traditionally utilizing stale bread. It has countless variations, as it is common in many cuisines.

I took inspiration from my home country Czechia, where the bread pudding is called 'Žemlovka'. But there are other variations like the well-known English Bread and Butter Pudding, Hungarian Máglyarakás or German Kirschenmichel.

Czech bread pudding has layers of soft white bread (rohlík or baguette) dipped in vanilla-flavoured milk with cinnamon-spiced apples in between. It is possible to add all sorts of other ingredients to the recipe - like raisins, nuts, lemon or orange peel, various spices, curd cheese, cream cheese, double cream, or even meringue.

I decided to keep things simple and make this dish the way I remember it from my childhood; no tricky ingredients or complicated flavours. The only fancy swap I made is replacing soft white bread with brioche.

The cooked pudding has a soft custardy inside with a crispy bread layer at the top (if you eat it freshly baked). The moist, heavy texture might not be for everyone, but it is our favourite part.

📃 Recipe Ingredient Overview and Easy Substitutions

Here are the recipe ingredients and the specific products I usually use (in the UK) to make this brioche bread and butter pudding.

• gala apples
• caster sugar Silver Spoon Caster Sugar
• cinnamon Schwartz Ground Cinnamon
• full-fat milk
• medium free-range eggs
• vanilla extract Taylor & Colledge Fairtrade Organic Vanilla Bean Extract (optional)
• brioche loaf Tesco Finest Brioche Loaf
• butter  Lurpak Unsalted Block Butter

Apples

The apples are vital as they add sweetness and refreshing fruit flavour to plain neutral bread.

Pay attention to the apple variety. I like apples that soften when cooked instead of those that stay firm.

Are you looking for inspiration on what to do with apples? Try our Apple and Raspberry Crumble or No-bake Apple Custard Pudding.

My favourite varieties are Gala or Empire.

Brioche loaf

We like soft and sweet brioche loaf, but it can be replaced with white bread, baguette or croissant.

⌛ Hands-on Time and Equipment

The recipe directions consist of 4 steps:

• preparing the apples (peel, core and grate or cut into small pieces) - 20 minutes
• making the vanilla-milk-egg dipping - 10 minutes
• assembling the pudding - 20 minutes
• baking - 50 minutes

Equipment:

• deep baking dish - ceramic, glass or metal - approx size 26 x 19 x 6 cm
• a cooking pot (to heat the milk)

📷 How to Make My Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding in Pictures

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan and butter the baking dish (approx. 26 x 19 x 6 cm).

• Grate or finely slice the peeled and cored apples.

• Heat up the milk in a pot until reasonably warm but not piping hot.

• Whisk the eggs with vanilla in a large bowl.

• Pour the warm milk over the beaten eggs and keep whisking until the ingredients are properly combined.

To assemble the pudding:

• Cut the brioche into 12 slices (the pudding has 3 brioche layers - 4 slices per layer)

• Dip the first 4 slices of brioche in the warm milk and arrange them over the bottom of the buttered baking dish.

• Spread half of the apples over the first brioche layer. Sprinkle them with ½ the amount of caster sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.

• Repeat the process by dipping 4 brioche slices in the milk and layer them on top of the apple filling, covering the entire area.

• Spread the remaining apples across the second brioche layer; sprinkle them with the remaining sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.

• Dip the last 4 brioche slices in the milk and lay them on top of the apples; it is the top layer of the pudding.

• Place a slice of butter on each brioche and pour any remaining milk over the pudding.

• Bake at 180°C/160°C fan for approximately 50 - 60 minutes or until the pudding is nicely golden brown.

• Serve it while the pudding is still warm, or let it cool down to room temperature.

⚡ Troubleshooting and Handy Tips

• Choose the right size baking dish - the bread you are using should cover the surface nicely.

• The baking vessel has to be deep, with the sides at least 6 cm tall. The bread needs space to rise (it expands during baking and deflates once out of the oven). If the dish is too shallow, some liquid can escape over the sides and char on the bottom of the oven.

• You may need to cut the brioche slices in half or quarters to sufficiently cover the whole surface of the dish.

• We like our bread and butter pudding sweet - I recommend 7 tablespoons of caster sugar for 500 grams of grated apples, but you can reduce the sugar if you wish.

💡 How to Alter the Recipe

Gluten-free

Do you need to make this recipe gluten-free? It's easy. Replace the brioche loaf with gluten-free soft white bread. We like Promise Gluten Free Soft White Loaf.

🍽️ How to Serve This Bread and Butter Pudding

This bread and butter pudding is good for dessert, breakfast, or the main course. It can be served still warm, at room temperature or cold from the fridge. The choice is yours.

Once the pudding cools down, it holds its shape quite nicely. Cut it into individual portions and serve in a bowl or on a plate. You can accompany the pudding with custard, cream or ice cream or dust it with icing sugar.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding

This Czech-style brioche bread and butter pudding won't disappoint as a dessert, sweet breakfast or main dish. It's made of several layers of brioche and cinnamon-spiced grated apples.

Prep Time50 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: Czech

Keyword: apple dessert

Servings: 6 people

Calories: 524kcal

Author: Lea

Ingredients

• 500 g apples peeled, cored and coarsely grated or cut into thin pieces
• 3 eggs whisked
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• 500 ml full-fat milk
• 1 brioche loaf cut to 12 slices
• 7 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 50 g butter to grease the dish and for the top layer of the pudding

Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan and butter the baking dish (approx. 26 x 19 x 6 cm).
• Coarsely grate or thinly slice the peeled and cored apples.
• Heat the milk in a pot until quite warm but not too hot.
• Whisk the eggs with vanilla in a large bowl.
• Pour the warm milk over the beaten eggs and keep whisking until the ingredients are properly combined.
• To assemble the pudding:
• Cut the brioche into 12 slices (the pudding has 3 brioche layers - 4 slices per layer)

  Tip: You can cut the brioche slices in half or quarters or squash them into place to make them cover the whole surface.
• Dip the first 4 slices in the warm milk and arrange them over the base of the buttered baking dish.
• Spread half of the apples over the first brioche layer. Sprinkle them with ½ the amount of sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.
• Repeat the process by dipping 4 brioche slices in the milk and layer them on top of the apple filling, covering the entire area.
• Spread the remaining apples across the second brioche layer; sprinkle them with the remaining sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.
• Dip the last 4 brioche slices in the milk and lay them on top of the apples. These slices make the top layer of the pudding.
• Place a generous slice of butter on each brioche and pour any remaining milk over the pudding.
• Bake at 180°C/160°C fan for approximately 50 minutes or until the pudding is nicely golden brown.
• Serve it while the pudding is still warm, or let it cool down to room temperature.

Nutrition

Calories: 524kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 195mg | Sodium: 422mg | Potassium: 219mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 1039IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 147mg | Iron: 1mg