Soft, buttery croissants baked in a rich pumpkin custard and drizzled with the most heavenly brown butter sauce!
Goodbye summer and HELLO fall!
Well, technically Wednesday is the official first day of fall, but my inner basic bitch is already in fall mode. Bring on the chai tea lattes, warm apple pies, maple bars, and pumpkin-spiced EVERYTHING. This season really does offer the most comforting flavors. Oh, and speaking of comforting, get a load of this Pumpkin Bread Pudding…
Are you in love, or are you in love?
Packed with soft, flaky croissants, delicious fall spices, and the natural sweetness of pumpkin, this bread pudding is fall comfort at its finest. PLUS, it’s generously drizzled with the most heaven-on-earth brown butter sauce. Seriously, the sauce alone should be reason enough for you to make this bread pudding. It’s basically liquid crack, no joke. But before we get too lost in the sauce, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
For this bread pudding, I used croissants. Not only are they more buttery than your standard French bread loaf, but they have a way of really soaking up all that delicious custard, creating an almost melt-in-your-mouth texture once it’s been baked. I’ve used croissants in several of my bread pudding recipes, including my Salted Caramel Bread Pudding, Apple Pie Bread Pudding, and Blueberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding. Needless to say, croissants are my favorite kind of bread to make bread pudding with.
Oh, and make sure that the croissants are dry/stale. This is absolutely KEY to ensuring that the croissants soak up as much of the custard as possible. Since I don’t usually keep bread long enough for it to dry out, I just use the oven method. Scatter your torn-up bread into an even layer on a baking sheet, then dry/toast in a preheated 350ºF oven for 8-10 minutes. It’s ok if they get a little toasty–just make sure they don’t get too dark!
The next major component is the custard, aka the sweet liquid that the croissants are soaked in. The custard contains pretty much all of your typical ingredients–butter, sugar (both brown and white), eggs, milk, cream, and vanilla. I strongly recommend using whole milk rather than skim or fat-free, if you can. Whole milk just adds more of that wonderful creaminess and keeps the bread pudding nice and moist.
And of course we can’t forget the star ingredient of this beautiful bread pudding–pumpkin! One cup of pumpkin puree is stirred into the custard along with cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice to round out the flavors.
Now that you’ve got your custard, toss the bread in and stir until every piece is fully saturated. When it comes to soaking time, I prefer to allow my bread pudding to soak overnight. While a couple of hours will suffice, I’ve found that the longer you let the bread soak in the custard, the more the flavors are able to develop since the ingredients have had plenty of time to “mingle”. If you do take the overnight route, I would recommend allowing the bread pudding to sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before baking.
To create that delicately crisp crust on top of the bread pudding, I like to sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon sugar on top right before baking it into the oven. It also adds a little extra sweetness, so why the heck not??
As the bread pudding bakes in the oven, you can make the HEAVENLY brown butter sauce.
For those of you not familiar with the flavor of brown butter, it has a toasty, nutty, almost toffee-like taste to it. During the process of browning butter, the water evaporates, and the milk solids get toasted, separating from the butterfat at the same time. What you’re left with is a golden liquid containing ultra flavorful brown bits of deliciousness.
This sauce might honestly be the best sauce I’ve ever tasted. It tastes very similar to caramel, but it has a nuttiness to it that’s indescribable. If I wasn’t using the sauce for this bread pudding, I would’ve grabbed a spoon and eaten it like soup–it’s THAT GOOD. Thankfully this recipe makes PLENTY of sauce, so there was still a good amount leftover for me to inhale.
Although I love me some pumpkin pie, it truly doesn’t compare to how stunning this bread pudding is. The croissants absorb so much wonderful fall flavor from the custard and you even find little yummy pockets of pumpkin pie filling throughout. Not to mention, the brown butter drizzle adds an extra layer of bliss that will make your taste buds jump for joy!
Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Brown Butter Sauce
Ingredients
Bread Pudding:
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 4 Tablespoons salted butter melted
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups whole milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 12 ounces day-old torn croissants*
Cinnamon-Sugar:
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Brown Butter Sauce:
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Make the Bread Pudding:
- Spray an 8-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place the bread in the dish.
- In a large bowl, stir the pumpkin, butter, sugars, and spices together until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the milk, heavy cream, and vanilla. Add the torn croissants, and stir until every piece is saturated with the custard. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over the bread pudding. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes.
Make the Brown Butter Sauce:
- Combine the sugar, flour, and salt in a small bowl.
- In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. As the butter melts, it’ll start to foam, then turn a clear golden color. Continue to stir the butter, scraping up any browned specks from the bottom of the pan as it starts to brown. It should have a nutty aroma. Once browned and nutty, whisk in the sugar-flour mixture until combined.
- Gradually pour in the heavy cream, and continue whisking until sauce is thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Once thickened, remove saucepan from stove and stir in the vanilla.
- To serve, slice/scoop bread pudding into bowls. Drizzle with brown butter sauce, and enjoy!