Brioche Bread Pudding with Strawberries

This past weekend was filled with good food, friends and beer. The highlight was a homebrew tour in Brooklyn. After the tour we stopped by our friends’ Kate and Michael’s cute new cafe Little Zelda. They only opened a few weeks ago and have been getting great reviews already! It was closing time so we got to take some bread home and I happily decided on a loaf of brioche. I baked what I thought was best for this rich and buttery French bread, one of my husband’s favorite desserts, bread pudding.

This recipe is adapted from A Chow Life. The original recipe uses half and half, but I ended up mixing in some leftover mascarpone cheese, which resulted in a velvety smooth custard. To round out my bread pudding, I added fresh strawberries, but feel free to be creative and use whatever berries you have on hand. Next time I’d like to try raspberries or even sliced mango for a Filipino twist!

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Pour maple syrup into ramekins, then slice bread into cubes. Whisk custard together.

Place bread cubes in ramekins, then pour custard over top and mix in sliced strawberries. Let soak and bake.

Brioche Bread Pudding Recipe

2 cups brioche bread, cubed

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

2 large eggs

1/4 cup maple syrup, then more for topping

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla sugar

1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

a pinch of salt

salt and pepper, to taste

Heat oven to 350°F. Divide and pour maple syrup onto the bottom of 2 large ramekins, then sprinkle bread cubes evenly inside. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mascarpone cheese, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Pour custard over top the bread cubes. Evenly spread the strawberries over top and mix into the custard. Let stand for 20-30 minutes.

Place the ramekins in a roasting dish. Pour warm water into the dish so water comes halfway up sides of the ramekins. Bake pudding until set and golden brown on top, about an hour. Cool in water 20 minutes before eating. Drizzle with more maple syrup on top, if desired. Serve warm.

Total Time: 90 minutes
Yield: makes 2 large ramekin servings
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