Pudding & Bread Pudding Recipes (2024)

Thicker than hot chocolate, thinner than pudding, this rich confection gets even better with a splash of rum.

Recipe: Chocolate-Espresso Soup with Marshmallows

Melted caramel coats this chocolate-chip challah-bread pudding, served warm.

Recipe: Chocolate-Caramel Bread Pudding

Flavor these mini-desserts with Medjool dates, brown sugar, and maple syrup, for a toffeelike sweetness. "Wild rice gives these bread-pudding cakes a pleasing texture," says chef Amy Thielan.

Recipe: Sticky Maple-Date Bread Puddings with Yogurt Cream

This bread pudding is irresistible—each slice is dipped in a mixture of egg and spices and warmed on a pan before being served atop bourbon custard and drizzled with cranberry sauce. "This recipe was handed down from my mother and grandmother," says Chef B. Smith, owner of B. Smith's in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Sag Harbor, New York. "I still feature a rendition of it in my restaurants!"

Recipe: B. Smith's Bourbon-Cranberry Bread Pudding

For a decadent and unexpected twist on bread pudding, serve this savory version, saturated with nutty, rich Gruyère cheese, as a side.

Recipe: Gruyère Bread Pudding

Cook this Southern staple in individual soufflé bowls for a charming side dish.

Recipe: Cheese Grits and Corn Pudding

From an American viewpoint, the British use of pudding to describe any kind of sweet dessert (called the pudding course) seems not only confusing, but even cavalier. For us, it's simple: Dessert pudding means pudding -- which is just as well, considering our great fondness for it. Smooth, flavorful, and sweet on the tongue, pudding can be a light, comforting conclusion to a hearty winter feast or a lusciously rich ending to a simple soup and salad supper. For pudding lovers, that versatility is one of the dessert's great virtues -- as you'll see demonstrated here.

If "Make mine chocolate" is your invariable response to "What flavor?" have we got a pudding for you! It's a silky textured confection whose dark-chocolate sweetness delectably complements the slightly salty caramel that's served with it. Made without eggs, this pudding can be prepared right on your stovetop, then served up in an elegant champagne glass or classic coupe dish as shown here.

Recipe: Deep Chocolate Pudding

SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE
Salt with caramel? It isn't as strange as you might think. It is a classic combination in the Normandy region of France and many American candymakers now offer bonbons featuring this ingredient. Salt enhances cream's flavor and pairs well with chocolate. Try it over our Deep Chocolate Pudding. To make sauce, cook 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup corn syrup over medium-low heat in a heavy-bottomed pot until mixture boils and turns dark amber. Reduce the heat to low and whisk in 1/4 cup cold butter (1/2 stick), 1/2 cup heavy cream, and 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt until the butter melts and the mixture is smooth, about 5 more minutes. Transfer to a heat-proof container and cool. Store refrigerated. To use, bring to room temperature by immersing in hot water. Stir until caramel is thick but pourable. Makes 1 cup.

The vanilla bean that steeps in milk during the making of the pudding is the flavorful secret to this vanilla pudding served in a teacup.

Recipe:Vanilla Bean Pudding

Elevate basic rice pudding with jam and granola. Arborio rice (the variety used for making risotto) lends a creamy consistency to a rice pudding parfait swirled with fruity preserves and crunchy granola.

Recipes:
Orange-Honey Arborio Rice Pudding
Toasted Granola

Bake a simple bread pudding with bananas and garnish it with creme anglaise.

Marry traditional bread pudding with a variation on classic bananas Foster and what you get is blissfully delicious bread and butter pudding sweetened with brown sugar and sliced bananas. Served warm or at room temperature, it's a perfect way to end a winter supper, especially when topped with vanilla or chocolate sauce, or your favorite ice cream.

Recipe: Banana Bread Pudding

Sometimes the trick to these elegant endings isn't what you add to pudding, but how you rethink it. (Ever tried pudding-layered crepes?) Sophisticated and superrich, this crepe cake is just that: alternate layers of wafer-thin crepes and chocolate pudding. To slice the cake, use a long, sharp knife and cut in a smooth sawing motion. Wipe the knife between each cut.

Recipes:
Crepe Cake
Deep Chocolate Pudding

When baking use better-quality chocolate with a cocoa content of at least 50 percent, and elevate any dessert to another level. Here, vintage punch-bowl glasses are set atop cocoa nibs in a nod to the pudding's origins. To make shavings, scrape the edge of a bar of chocolate with a vegetable peeler. Scoop the up with a spatula.

Recipe: The Most Chocolate Pudding

Boston cream pie (really a cake) probably got its misnomer when Early American cooks, for lack of cake pans, baked it in pie tins. Filled with vanilla pudding and topped with a chocolate glaze, this dessert is delicious, whatever it's called!

Recipes:
Boston Cream Pie
Chocolate Glaze

A retro dessert gets a delicious makeover — courtesy of fresh bananas, a vanilla-wafer crust, and loads of gooey caramel.

Recipe: Banana Pudding Pie

This voluptuous eggnog-and-brandy pudding faithfully re-creates the taste of traditional holiday eggnog. We tiered this pudding with gingersnaps, then crumbled more of the same on top. To best display creamy layered desserts like this one, use individual clear glass compotes, or one large glass bowl to bring to the table, and enjoy your pudding family style.

Recipe: Eggnog Pudding

White chocolate and pumpkin pie filling combine in this creamy, autumn-perfect dessert.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pudding