Cranberry Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

Custardy cranberry bread pudding drizzled with homemade caramel sauce. Made with tart fresh cranberries, this is one of the best holiday desserts!

Since moving to Manhattan, I’ve realized three things: 1) food is so expensive, and by expensive I mean, I’m thinking of selling my eggs; 2) New Yorkers have to be fitter than most. The amount of walking, lugging, and upstairs-climbing-out-of-the-subway I do, I recognize just how unfit I was before; 3) November, and the start of the holiday season, just doesn’t feel the same. I miss Mom. I miss PJ. Mostly, I miss that their house always contains something just-baked and cinnamony, something gooey with maple. It’s just the winter thing to do. Or so Mom tells me.

This week, after I grocery shopped at my local market (D’Agostino), I made a few of my favorite things. Roasted broccoli, honeyed carrots, tacos with black beans, avocado, and ricotta salata. And then, like any girl who misses her mom and lives in an apartment with a kitchen the size of a single Target dressing room, I baked to remind me of home. I made a holiday favorite of ours: Cranberry Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce. Now, the original recipe is supposed to feature a bourbon caramel sauce, but let me tell you: this morning when I woke up ready to bake and realized that I was, ugh, without bourbon, I really had to talk myself out of walking to the nearest liquor store at 8am to pick up a nip of the hard stuff. It would have been wild. Welcome to NY. I drink bourbon at sunrise.

But this recipe is the one we should be talking about. It’s special. Delicious in its pillowy consistency. My one rule with bread pudding is that it cannot, in any way, be dry or even very crispy on top. No. I want softness—for the bread to be fully puffed with creamy custard. It’s the kind of thing that’s best eaten warm, with a hot drizzle of rich caramel sauce.

I hope you love it as much as we do.

Mom, I miss you. I’m safe. Haven’t talked to strangers yet. Friends, I have a NY post that I’ll publish on Tuesday to give you an update on life here in the city.

Cranberry Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

Course: Dessert, Desserts
Keyword: bread pudding recipe, bread pudding with cranberries, challah bread pudding, cranberry recipes, holiday dessert, thanksgiving desserts
Servings: 12
Calories: 569kcal

Ingredients

For the Bread Pudding:

  • 6 eggs
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 1 loaf challah bread cut into 1-inch cubes (one 14-16 ounce loaf or 5 cups cubed)
  • 1 cup fresh cranberries

For the Sauce:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with butter.
  • In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, heavy cream, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. Add the sugar and whisk well to combine. Add the bread cubes and toss well to coat each piece in the cream mixture. Push the bread down into the liquid and let it sit for 30 minutes so that the bread can soak. Stir in the cranberries.
  • Transfer the soaked bread, cranberries, and any liquid in your mixing bowl to the greased baking dish. Cover the top with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
  • Make the caramel sauce: In a small pot, melt the butter with the brown sugar over medium heat. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring constantly so that the sugar does not burn. Once the sugar and butter are bubbling, reduce the heat to low and slowly add the cream, stirring all the while. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes before drizzling over bread pudding.
  • Serve the bread pudding hot with caramel sauce. Store leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, and reheat as you’d like.

Nutrition

Calories: 569kcal | Carbohydrates: 65g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 191mg | Sodium: 209mg | Potassium: 177mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 45g | Vitamin A: 1203IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 125mg | Iron: 2mg
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18 thoughts on “Cranberry Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

  1. Lauren

    Hi Andie,

    Welcome to NYC! You’re probably already familiar with Trader Joe’s, but I can’t recommend it enough for groceries. It should have the vast majority of supplies for all your baking needs. It saves me exponentially each month …
    with any food budget leftover to truly indulge at Fairway ;-)

    Reply
  2. Nicola

    Oh I feel you!
    When I was living in South Africa, the first week I bought only the most exotic things I could see, later weeks I would trawl the grocery aisles for something/anything I could cook that would feel like my mum was in my kitchen. And sometimes it wasn’t the food itself, it was the smell of it cooking.

    This looks delicious though. Hope your NY adventure is going well! xxx Nicola

    Reply
  3. KCF

    Oh Andie, honey, as a New Yorker for decades, you are not shopping in the right places! D’ag is a fortune. Try the shops in Little India for spices in bulk and at reasonable prices. Trader Joe’s is a must. Fairway’s is excellent, too. And Chinatown! For super duper reasonable fish, produce and Asian goods. You’ll sniff out the better, more economical choices soon. Welcome to the Big Apple! (But you will move a lot! Think of the money you can save on gyms!)

    Reply
  4. Pingback: Cranberry Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce | Yummy Food Market

  5. Sharon D.

    Thanks for the wonderful recipe, Andie. I’ll bet your apartment smells so good! You sound like you’re getting settled into NY. Looking forward to hearing more soon.

    Reply
  6. melissa@thehungryartist

    I love bread pudding — this one looks great. I just made my first one ever for a potluck Friday. It was a New Orleans style one with Bourbon Sauce. Really nice.

    I’m sorry about your shock at shopping here. I remember I had the exact same thing when I moved here 15 years ago from CA.

    I live in BRooklyn now and have been able to find good places to buy food that aren’t as crazy as what I was buying when I lived on the Upper East Side.

    Trader Joe’s is great here (they didn’t exist here before!) and the prices are reasonable. Also, if you can figure out a place to buy veggies at a place that focuses just on that, the prices tend to be better. I find that regular super markets (Gristedes, Key Food, D’Agostinos, Garden of Eden) tend to be more pricey. I’ll go to one place to by veggies and fruit, another place for dairy, and another place for great bread, sometimes the farmer’s market, a Lebanese place for dried fruit, nuts and spices, and coffee. I think that is the key — don’t buy everything in one place — shop around… Also it’s a good excuse to explore the different stores and neighborhoods. Good luck!

    Reply
  7. Susan

    Looks delish!
    I’m from Australia and still have this scary dangerous image of New York, haha. Maybe I’m wrong.

    Never been a big fan of cranberries, but those photos look good! Will have to try it! Love your photo too! You look gorgeous!
    I’m trying to diet and get to that…
    Do you guys know the discipline building book The Path To Willpower? My friend swears by it for discipline for weight loss etc. But I don’t know. Anyone read it?
    learningthesteel.com
    Somewhere there

    Reply
  8. Marie

    Looks yummy! I’m looking forward to the post about life in NY. Are you still going to write about your mom’s weight loss journey?

    Reply
  9. Gwen

    Made this for Thanksgiving dinner and it was definitely the star of the show! My fiance asked me to make it for him every weekend ;)

    Reply

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