Orleans Bread Pudding

This New Orleans bread pudding turns leftover stale bread into something you’d actually request seconds of — soft and Custardy in the middle, golden and a little crisp on top. It bakes up rich and sweet on its own, but the real star is the warm bourbon sauce poured over the top, buttery and deep without tasting boozy. It’s a Classic for a reason, and it comes together with pantry basics you probably already have.

Why You’ll Love It

Custardy center, crisp top— bake it just right and the inside stays soft and custard-like while the top turns golden and slightly crisp for contrast.
Bourbon sauce without the bite — cooked with butter and sugar, the bourbon mellows into something rich and almost caramel-like, never harsh or overpowering.
Made from stale bread — no waste, no special trip to the store, just bread you’ve already got sitting around.
Simple, no-fail ingredients — basic pantry staples turn into a dessert that tastes a lot more indulgent than the effort it takes.

Ingredient Notes

The bread has to be stale. Not moldy — stale. Day-old, two-day-old, whatever you’ve got that’s gone hard. French bread is traditional and what I use, but my daughter swears by leftover challah and honestly I tried it once and couldn’t argue with the results, it’s just richer, a little sweeter on its own.

Whole milk, not 2%, not anything “lite.” This isn’t the place to cut corners — you want the custard to actually set up soft, not rubbery.

Raisins are a house divide. My husband does not care for them, my younger son picks every single one out and lines them up on the side of his bowl like evidence, but I put them in anyway because that’s how I learned it and also because I like them, so. You could leave them out. You could use pecans instead, toasted, which is its own kind of good.

Bourbon — any decent one works, you don’t need the fancy stuff for this. I usually use a little more than three tablespoons, if I’m being truthful with you, but start there and taste as you go.

Ingredients

For the pudding:

• 1 loaf French bread, stale, torn into rough pieces
• 1 quart whole milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup raisins (optional — see above, it’s a whole thing in my house)
• 3 tablespoons butter, for the baking dish

For the bourbon sauce:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons bourbon.

Instructions

Tear the bread up into pieces — not too small, you want some texture left, not crumbs — and dump it in a big bowl. Pour the milk over it and just let it sit there for at least an hour. Longer is fine. I’ve left it two, three hours while I ran errands and forgot about it, came back and it was even better, somehow, softer all the way through. Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 while you’re waiting around anyway.

While that’s soaking, beat your eggs with the sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl until it’s smooth — doesn’t have to be fancy, just a fork or a whisk, whatever’s in the drawer. Pour that into the bread mixture and stir it all together. This part’s a little messy and the bread breaks down some, which is exactly what you want, don’t fight it. Stir in the raisins now if you’re using them.

Melt your three tablespoons of butter right in the baking dish — I put it in the oven for a minute or two while it’s heating up, just to melt it, then swirl it around the bottom and up the sides a little. Pour the pudding mixture in on top of that.

Bake it at 350 for an hour. Somewhere around the forty-five minute mark the top starts to go golden and a little crisp, and the smell fills up the whole house, and that’s usually when somebody wanders into the kitchen asking what’s for dinner even though it’s clearly dessert. Let it cool down some before you cut it — I know it’s tempting to dig in straight out of the oven, I’ve burned my mouth more than once being impatient, so let it sit a good fifteen, twenty minutes. Cut into squares for serving.

For the sauce, just put the sugar, butter, beaten egg, and bourbon all in a saucepan together over low heat. Stir it pretty much constantly — this isn’t a walk-away sauce, the egg will scramble on you if you’re not paying attention, ask me how I know — until the sugar’s fully dissolved and it’s gone smooth and a little glossy. Spoon it warm over the bread pudding right before serving.

Variations or Substitutions

Some variations use cinnamon raisin bread instead of plain French bread for a more complex flavor profile, though standard bread works just as well. Another excellent option is using challah bread and adding a splash of extra vanilla, which helps keep the bread pudding moist during baking. For a kid-friendly or alcohol-free version, the bourbon in the sauce can be omitted and replaced with a little extra vanilla extract, which yields a delicious result that everyone can enjoy.

Storage & Reheating

It keeps fine covered on the counter overnight, though after that I move it to the fridge. It’ll last four  days in there, easy. Reheat individual squares in the oven at a low temperature if you want that crisp top back — the microwave works in a pinch, I use it plenty honestly, but it does go a little soft and gummy that way, just so you know what you’re getting into.

The sauce, separately, keeps in the fridge about a week, and you can warm it gently on the stove or in short bursts in the microwave, stirring between.