Ina Garten’s ‘Seriously Decadent’ Vanilla Brioche Bread Pudding Is the Best Bread Pudding She’s Ever Made

Bread pudding may sound like an old-fashioned dessert, but Ina Garten’s recipe proves that there’s nothing outdated about these flavors. Using fluffy and buttery brioche bread as the base and adding loads of vanilla flavor to the custard, Garten’s rich Vanilla Brioche Bread Pudding is the best bread pudding she’s ever made — her words, not ours!

Garten says you can use whatever bread you’d like or have on hand when making bread pudding. She loves brioche for this recipe, but she’s also used croissants, too. To add some nice texture to the finished dish, Garten cubes some of the brioche slices and leaves other slices whole, and then toasts the bread in the oven to release its moisture so that it can better absorb the custard.

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And speaking of the custard, that’s where all that delicious vanilla flavor comes into play. It’s a rich mix of milk, half-and-half, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, and real vanilla seeds.

When the custard has come together, it’s time to assemble the pudding. Garten places the whole slices of brioche at the bottom of a baking pan and then distributes the cubed pieces on top. She pours the custard over the bread, allowing the cubed bits to stick up from the surface (they’ll toast up nicely once baked), and lets the dish sit for a minute or so before baking to allow the custard to soak into the bread.

Garten bakes her pudding in a roasting pan filled with hot water, which allows the custard to bake evenly. After 45 minutes, dessert is ready to be served! She drizzles a bit of confectioner’s sugar melted ice cream to boost that vanilla flavor.

Grab the full recipe here and prepare yourself to taste one of the best desserts ever. With flavor this good, bread pudding will never go out of fashion.