Bread pudding is really a casserole of bread and an egg custard. The pressure cooker does a beautiful job of cooking the pudding to be the perfect texture– not too dry, and not mushy. This bread pudding is buttery and creamy and, oh, so good! This could be a brunch dish or a dessert– served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a Creme Anglaise (fancy word for vanilla sauce). (If you don’t own a pressure cooker, you can adapt this by baking it in an oven.)
Year ago, a friend of mine and I discovered a local restaurant that served the most exquisite bread pudding. It was served just slightly warm and accompanied with a vanilla sauce that was creamy and “lick the bowl clean” good. Sadly, the restaurant sold and my friend moved out of state. Boo!
Fast forward a few years later. My husband I decided to revisit the restaurant to see if the new owners still served that amazing bread pudding dessert. Yes, indeed, they did– along with the vanilla sauce that I had grown to love. They even kicked it up a notch by adding apricot jam to the mix. I was swooning. I was smitten. I made a mental note that I wanted to see if I could recreate the dessert.
Bread pudding is really a casserole of bread and an egg custard– similar to the Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole that I’ve made, in the past. I’ve had bread pudding that is dry, and that’s no joy to eat. I’ve had mushy bread pudding that was more like wall paper paste. I wanted to recreate that memorable, exquisite, bread pudding that was moist, with a swirl of apricot flavor and a pool of vanilla sauce.
Since I’m sharing the recipe, with all of you, I can exclaim “I did it“! Yahoo!
The perfect bread, in my opinion, is a Brioche (or a dense bread)– at least a day old. I was reorganizing my freezer and I found a pack of French style Brioche milk rolls. Perfect!
The rolls were small, so I sliced them in half and generously buttered them. I have a 1.5 quart casserole dish with a glass lid that fits inside of my Instant Pot, that I also buttered. I didn’t get fancy with the layering– simply starting with the sides and then filling in the bottom.
I debated spreading the apricot jam on each slice, then changed my mind. So, I just spooned it on. I sprinkled a handful of golden raisins on top (if you’re a raisin hater, skip that!)
Bread pudding needs a custard, so I used a combination of heavy cream and half and half. I split open a vanilla bean and added the “caviar”. (Yes, you can use pure vanilla extract, if you prefer.)
Once the milk mixture begins to simmer (never boil it), remove it from the heat and let it steep so that the vanilla flavor would infuse and become gloriously delicious. NOTE: I did add some freshly grated nutmeg, but left out the cinnamon. While I love cinnamon, but I didn’t want it to overpower the vanilla flavor and the apricot jam.
Whisk whole eggs and now there’s the warm milk/sugar/vanilla bean mixture that need to be combined.
So that you don’t end up with scrambled eggs, you’ll want to “temper” the eggs by ladling in a small amount of the milk mixture into the eggs, whisking well. Add all of the eggs back into the milk mixture, through a fine mesh sieve. (I tossed the vanilla bean into a jar of sugar– vanilla sugar!) Ladies and gentlemen, we now have an egg custard base! Voila!
Here’s my casserole dish, and the custard, just waiting to be married together.
Oooh, la la! Fill up the casserole dish!
Looking good!
Gently “smoosh” the bread down so that the custard really gets into every nook and cranny. Let this sit for at least 15-20 minutes so that the custard gets absorbed into the bread.
If you don’t own a pressure cooker, don’t despair! You could bake this at 350F for about 45 minutes. The reason I decided to pressure cook the bread pudding, is that I hoped that the steam pressure wouldn’t dry out the pudding. SPOILER ALERT: I was right!
I made a sturdy foil sling so that I could lower the pot into the Instant Pot that was filled with 2 cups of water. Lock on the lid and pressure cook on HIGH for 25 minutes. Once the Instant Pot beeped that it was done, wait for a natural pressure release— then carefully opened the lid and lifted the bread pudding out. I was holding my breath!
I exhaled. The pudding looked thoroughly cooked, the raisins had plumped up and a finger touch felt a moist “give”. The aroma of vanilla was intoxicating. Now, comes the wait. It’s piping hot so I need to let the pudding to cool for about 2 hours. It was still warm, just the way I like it.
Bread pudding can be served in many different ways–and they are all good. You could drizzle caramel sauce, dust with powdered sugar, whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
I had spent most of the afternoon making Indian Naan and Butter Chicken. The idea of dirtying up more dishes didn’t appeal to me. But the memory of vanilla sauce haunted me– and I jumped in and made a creme anglaise in 20 minutes!
After dinner, I left enough room for dessert, so I dug in. (The rest of my family was stuffed from dinner, ha!)
TASTING NOTES: Heaven. Buttery. Creamy. Sweetness from the apricot jam, followed by a pool of vanilla sauce… nailed it! Yes, I did! It’s a rich dessert, and reheats beautifully the following day. My husband reheated his serving, the next evening, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Also good! You could have fun with this recipe by substituting orange marmalade. Or, add chocolate chips. Add nuts. For me, I loved the apricot jam and that’s how I’ll make it again. I hope you do, too!
Instant Pot Marmalade Bread Pudding
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- 1.5-Quart Round Casserole Dish with a glass fitting lid (or use tight aluminum foil)
- Aluminum foil strip about 3-inches wide by 26-inches long.
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar or brown sugar
- 1 vanilla bean split open; OR 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon (optional), I didn't use
- pinch nutmeg ground
- 4 whole eggs
- 12 slices Brioche Bread or thick slices of dense white bread
- 4 ounces butter
- 1 cup orange marmalade I used homemade apricot jam
- 1 cup raisins I used golden raisins (optional)
Instructions
- Great a 1.5 quart (this fits into the Instant Pot) ceramic souffle' dish or a metal baking pan with butter.
- Prepare a long foil sling, folded into thirds for added strength. You will need this to lower the dish into the pot, that is placed on top of the trivet (pot in pot).
For the custard:
- Combine the milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla bean (or pure vanilla), cinnamon (if using) and nutmeg into a saucepan. Bring to a simmer (do not boil), stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Temper some of the milk mixture by slowly adding it in, whisking it at the same time. Add the egg mixture back into the milk mixture.
- Butter each slice of bread and then generously spread the marmalade on top.NOTE: Since I was using sliced "French Milk Rolls", I spooned homemade apricot jam on top (much less work). I lined the sides of the casserole dish with the bread slices, and then layered them in the center, spooning jam and sprinkling some golden raisins, then pouring some of the milk-custard mixture.
- OPTIONAL TECHNIQUE: If using slices, cut them into quartered triangles. Place one layer of triangles and scatter with raisins (if using), then pouring some of the milk-custard mixture.
- Repeat the layers, finishing with a topping of the milk-custard mixture.
- Press down on the pudding with a flat spatula to help the bread absorb the custard, and let the pudding sit util most of the liquid has been absorbed (about 15-25 minutes).
Pressure cook:
- Place a trivet, or steamer rack, in the pressure cooker and add 2 cups of water. Using the foil sling, carefully lower the casserole dish into the cooker.
If you don't own a pressure cooker:
- You can make the pudding in a 9×9 buttered baking dish. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes. However, the pressure cooker yield a moist and tender bread pudding– just the way that I like it!
Notes
Nutrition
[…] this dessert sauce was to make– in less than 20 minutes! It’s perfect to pour over my homemade bread pudding recipe. I used fresh vanilla beans, but you can use pure vanilla extract as a […]