Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

7 Comments

16 Servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
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Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding is an easy, gooey mix of soft, toasted bread, vanilla extract, bourbon, cinnamon, and pecans. Perfect for a holiday breakfast!

This delicious Bread Pudding makes the ultimate indulgent Breakfast Recipe, or Decadent Dessert topped off with Vanilla Ice Cream. It’s sweet, toasted, tender, and the bourbon sauce adds a wonderful richness that makes it absolutely irresistible. 

Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding serving on plate with bourbon vanilla sauce

BOURBON PECAN BREAD PUDDING

Classic Bread Pudding is one of those terrific dishes that’s perfect to serve to a crowd. We’re always making different kinds of bread puddings around the holiday because they’re an easy dish to toss together, pop in the oven, and take out to feed a big group. Just put the finished dish out on the table and your family can serve up their own individual servings for minimal work on your part. 

This Bourbon Pecan version of bread pudding takes the classic comfort food to a whole new level. The custard mixture is made with sweet vanilla, sugar, and a little bourbon for a dark, rich, and distinct taste. The alcohol bakes out of the bourbon so you’re left with bourbon’s smooth taste of smoky sweetness. On top of that, the recipe includes pecans for a delicious, crunchy addition to the soft toasted bread. 

TOPPINGS

This recipe comes with a delicious Pecan Bourbon Sauce. However, there are plenty of other toppings you can try to experiment with the Pecan Bread Pudding. 

  • Whipped Cream: You can top each serving of Bread Pudding off with fresh whipped cream. Make your own whipped cream using heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla. 
  • Dulce De Leche: You can also make sweet, Dulce De Leche using 4 cups milk, 1 ¼ cups sugar, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
  • Bourbon Caramel Sauce: Use our recipe for Caramel Ice Cream Topping and add a little bourbon to make a Bourbon Caramel Sauce. 

PREPPING BREAD FOR BREAD PUDDING

When you’re making Bread Pudding or French Toast it’s best to use stale bread. If the bread cubes are a few days old, the stale bread will do a better job soaking up the custard for a more gooey, cohesive, and delicious treat than fresh bread can make.

If you only have fresh bread, you can still make it work for your Bread Pudding. One option is just leaving the loaf of bread out overnight to dry out. You can also toast the cubed bread in the oven. Lay the bread cubes out on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes in a 250-degree oven to dry them out. 

MORE DELICIOUS BREAKFAST BAKES

TIPS FOR MAKING BOURBON PECAN BREAD PUDDING

  • Prep time: Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and prep the casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Don’t skip this step or the bread will bake to the sides of the pan. 
  • Bread: Break the sandwich bread into inch pieces. Then spread the bread into the prepared casserole dish. 
  • Custard: Put the softened butter in a microwave-safe small bowl and melt butter. In a mixing bowl combine sugar, vanilla, milk, eggs, and melted butter. Combine the sugar mixture until sugar dissolves. Pour the combined custard over the bread. Then top it off with chopped pecans. 
  • Bake: Let the custard soak into the bread pudding for 15 minutes before popping the dish in the preheated oven. Bake for 60-70 minutes until golden brown. 
  • Bourbon Pecan Sauce: In a separate bowl combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, egg, butter, milk, pecans, and salt. Once it’s combined pour it into a small saucepan to a medium saucepan. Continue mixing the pecan butter mixture over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. The mixture will begin to thicken and stick to the back of your spoon. Once that happens remove the sauce from the heat and add in the vanilla and bourbon before serving over the Bread Budding. 

Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding in baking dish before baking

VARIATIONS ON BOURBON PECAN BREAD PUDDING

  • Sweeteners: In the Pecan Pudding you can replace the white sugar with brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup. You could also use half brown and white sugar, or use coconut sugar in place of the granulated sugar.
  • Bread: For the bread strips you can use different kinds of bread instead of sandwich bread. Try cubed brioche, croissant pieces, french bread, or challah. 
  • Add-ins: For some delicious mix-ins along with the toasted pecans try adding almonds, walnuts, chocolate chips, or toffee bits. For some extra flavor mix in lemon juice or almond extract. 
  • Bourbon Apple Pecan Bread Pudding: To make delicious Apple Pudding add apple slices to the top of the bread pudding. You can also top it off with caramel sauce before serving so that the apple slices are like caramel apples.
  • Muffin Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding: Make your Bread Pudding into adorable single servings by dividing the recipe into a muffin tin and baking.

MORE SWEET BREAKFAST RECIPES FOR A CROWD

HOW TO STORE BOURBON PECAN BREAD PUDDING

  • Serve: Don’t leave Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding at room temperature for more than 2 hours. 
  • Store: Let the Bread Pudding cool to room temperature, then store it in the fridge. Cover and store it in the fridge for up to 1 week. 
  • Freeze: Stored in an airtight container or covered tightly, Pecan Bread Pudding can last in the freezer for up to 3 months. 

Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding in baking dish

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Dinner, then Dessert

Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding

Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding is an easy, gooey mix of soft, toasted bread, vanilla extract, bourbon, cinnamon, and pecans. Perfect for a holiday breakfast!
Yield 16 Servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding serving on plate with bourbon vanilla sauce
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Ingredients
 

Pecan Bread Pudding:

  • 16 ounces sandwich bread , day old-cubed
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter , melted
  • 8 large eggs
  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons bourbon
  • 1 cup pecans , chopped

Bourbon Pecan Sauce:

  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 pinch ground cinnamon
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
  • 1 1/4 cups whole milk
  • 1/2 cup pecans , finely chopped
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon bourbon

Instructions

Banana Bread Pudding:

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a 9x13 baking dish with baking spray.
  • Add the bread to the baking pan.
  • In a large bowl whisk together melted butter, eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla extract.
  • Pour over bread mixture then top with chopped pecans evenly.
  • Let soak for 15 minutes.
  • Bake for 60-70 minutes until custard is gone and the top is slightly browned.

Bourbon Pecan Sauce:

  • Whisk everything but the vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat constantly for 10 minutes until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
  • Remove from heat and add in the vanilla and bourbon, whisking well. Serve over the pudding.

Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

Nutrition

Calories: 340kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 124mg | Sodium: 219mg | Potassium: 224mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 22g | Vitamin A: 417IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 193mg | Iron: 2mg
Keyword: Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding

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About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. You left off so many items and when to put them in. So I assumed when to add. For example, you never stated when to mix in the bourbon for the bread. Your wording of things needs some editing. It’s kind of just thrown together.

    Reply

  3. It is not Banana Bread pudding No bananas Also says toasted nowhere states toasted. Last nowhere states how to prepare the bread pudding dry for the wet to go int/ I cannot follow the recipe, ugh really looks and sounds good for the

    Reply