Pretzel Bread Pudding

A classic bread pudding using using pretzel bread and a bit of milk chocolate, this pretzel bread pudding is perfect for brunch or dessert!

Prep Time20

Cook Time1 30

Total Time1 50

Course: Afternoon Kaffee, Bread, Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: American, German

Keyword: bread pudding, milk chocolate, pretzel bread

Servings:

Calories: 592kcal

Cut your stale bread into 1"-2" (ish) chunks. If the bread doesn't feel dry, leave it sitting out for a few hours to dry out a bit more.

In a separate large microwave safe mixing bowl, melt the butter in 15 second increments.
Add in the sugar, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon and whisk to combine. Crack in the eggs one at a time and whisk to combine after each egg.
Pour in the milk and heavy cream and whisk once more.
Add the stale bread into the bowl with the custard and really mix it up. I like to use my hands to really massage the custard into the bread.
Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
Leave the bread and custard in the mixing bowl and chop up the chocolate.

Once the oven is hot, add half of the bread pudding mixture into your 10.5" x 8" ceramic baking dish.
Sprinkle the layer with 3/4 of the milk chocolate.
Add the second half of the bread pudding mixture into the pan and sprinkle with the remaining chocolate.
Then sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar, basically sprinkle as much as you would with actual sprinkles. Optionally also sprinkle the top with pretzel salt but not as much as the sugar!
Bake the bread pudding in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 40-45 minutes.
The bread pudding will puff up and become golden brown. If it starts to get too dark, tent the top with foil.
Once baked, remove the pan from the oven and leave it to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving it.
Simply spoon out large servings for everyone.
Then top with a drizzle of this vanilla custard sauce or just a drizzle of heavy cream.
To turn it into french toast the next day, you can just let it cool completely in the pan and then cover it and store it in the fridge.

Tips for making Bread Pudding

You really want stale, crusty, bread for this bread pudding. I've tried making it with relatively fresh bread and it doesn't absorb enough of the custard which ends up giving a weird soggy bottom that's just egg and milk.
If you don't have pretzel bread, use any thick crusty bread and sprinkle the top with a bit of extra pretzel salt to really get that salty sweet combo. I've also used the pretzel rolls from trader joes and they work well! I think you need about 6 of them.
A general rule of thumb is that once this bread and custard is in the baking dish, the custard should be sitting about 1/2" below the top of the bread. If the custard is way below, whisk another egg with 80 grams of milk and 10 grams of brown sugar and pour it on top.
To get your bread stale quickly, tear or cut it up and place it on a sheet tray in the fridge for at least a couple hours or overnight.
Don't underbake it! Bread pudding really needs to be baked fully otherwise the custard won't set up properly. It should puff up just have a light wobble.
You can basically add anything into the bread pudding including nuts, dried fruit, etc or just leave it plain. I added milk chocolate but you could leave it out if you prefer!
I love serving this one fresh and warm with a drizzle of this vanilla custard sauce.