Strawberry Brioche Bread Pudding

The genesis of this summertime dessert happened about a month ago when a student of my husband’s gifted us with a loaf of homemade challah and a jar of homemade strawberry jam (Thank you “Y”!). After devouring several slices simply toasted with butter and the homemade jam, we still had a few slices of the challah remaining.

Bread pudding is one of the desserts I can make on short notice without making a trip to the store. Bread, check. Milk, heavy cream, and/or half and half; check.  Eggs, sugar, and vanilla; check, check, and check. This time of year, I nearly always have fresh strawberries on hand too – purchased weekly from my favorite organic farmers (Tomatero, Ledesma, and Rodriguez) at the Grand Lake Farmers Market.

Being the dessert-person I am, it was an easy step to think of using up the few pieces of challah, combine them with strawberries on hand, and make a small batch of bread pudding for two. In that version I used ripe strawberries, slightly past their prime, and dolloped a few bits of the strawberry jam atop the pudding before baking. Dare I say: “Winner!”.

Whilst challah was a perfectly delicious choice, using brioche would result in a lighter finished pudding. Of course, it depends on the challah and brioche loaves you use, but typically brioche is an airier, fluffier bread than challah. Go with what’s easily available to you: a sweet bâtard, country white bread or day-old croissants will be fine.

A couple of batches later, it’s time to share this recipe with a wider audience. I plan to make a version using peaches soon. Hopefully you are seeing that several summer fruits can be substituted for the strawberries. Just make sure they are very ripe and flavorful, so they take center stage in your bread pudding.

A few notes:

• The amount of added sugar is minimal here as the brioche is already sweet. Other breads may be less sweet, so add more granulated sugar to your taste, up to another 1/8 – 1/ 4 cup.
• Baking in a bain marie (a larger pan of hot water) is optional. I have baked bread pudding using a bain marie and with direct heat from the oven. Both methods will bake up a delicious pudding. The bain marie does protect the custard whilst baking, so that bread pudding may come out a bit silkier. One baked with direct baking (no water bath) will also result in the bread pudding’s bottom and sides getting browned and form a crust.
• Bread pudding is traditionally served with a crème anglaise, fancy talk for a thin custard of cream, egg yolk, sugar and flavoring cooked on the stovetop. Guess what: a super-premium ice cream (no fillers or emulsifiers) has the same ingredients! So a quick shortcut is melting some ice cream and using it to serve with the bread pudding. I used strawberry for this photo shoot, but I usually have vanilla ice cream in the freezer and it’s the classic flavor. Since it’s summer, we also enjoy a frozen scoop of ice cream atop. Some of it melts when it meets the warm bread pudding, and the rest is a nice chilly contrast.

Store any leftovers in the refrigerator. It’s also enjoyable cold but reheat if that’s your preference.

Strawberry Brioche Bread Pudding

Serves 6 - 8

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Ingredients

  

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter divided 1 tablespoon to grease the pan and 2 tablespoons to dot onto the bread pudding before baking
• 8 ounces brioche bread about five 1+ inch slices
• 3 extra large eggs
• 3 cups half and half or use 2 cups whole milk and 1 cup heave cream (I do not recommend low fat milk in this recipe. It needs the richness for a creamy custard texture.)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 10 medium strawberries halved. About 1-1/4 cups. Use very ripe fruit. A few days past their prime is fine as they will still bake up nicely.
• Crème anglaise Substitute melted (super-premium, no-fillers or emulsifiers) ice-cream or still frozen ice cream to serve.

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 300° F. Cut the brioche into 1-1/2 inch cubes. Spread the bread cubes in one layer on a 9 x 13-inch baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, turn the cubes and bake for an additional 3-ish minutes until the cubes are dry but still pale. Take care to not get them very browned at this stage. (Brioche’s sugar content means the cubes will brown quickly.). Remove from the oven, set aside. This is all the baking for the time being.
• Generously butter a 2-quart, shallow baking dish with 1 tablespoon of butter. Select a dish that is no taller than about two inches.  Transfer the brioche bread cubes to the baking dish.
• Whisk the eggs, vanilla, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl until the sugar is dissolved. Add the half and half and mix to combine thoroughly.
• Pour the custard over the brioche bread cubes. Nestle in the strawberry pieces, distributing evenly. Press the brioche and strawberries into the custard mixture for even absorption. Cover in plastic wrap and let soak in the refrigerator at least an hour or two, up to overnight is fine.
• When ready to bake, bring the bread pudding to room temperature or close to it. This helps for even baking. Once at room temperature, position an oven rack in the center position of the oven and preheat the oven to 350° F.
• Remove the plastic wrap then dot with bits of the remaining two tablespoons of butter.  Cover with aluminum foil, wrapping around the edges of the casserole dish snugly. Cut a few slits in the top to vent.
• Place the bread pudding-filled casserole dish into a larger pan and fill the larger pan with very hot water to halfway up the sides of the casserole, making a bain marie, common in baking custards. The foil should protect from any water splashing into the bread pudding but avoid splashes in any event. Carefully transfer both to the preheated oven.
• Bake covered with foil for 40 minutes. At that point, remove the foil and bake an additional 25 – 35 minutes until the bread pudding is golden brown, fully puffed to the center, and the edges just begin to pull away from the sides of the casserole dish. You can also insert a clean, dry knife into the center of the pudding, and test it is done when the knife comes out clean (no eggy coating).
• Remove (carefully!) and allow to cool slightly. Serve warm with crème anglaise, melted (super-premium) ice cream or still frozen ice cream.