Donut Bread Pudding

A few years ago for my birthday my sister got me a delicious cookbook for Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts. One of the recipes that immediately caught my eye was for “bread” pudding made with donuts. I am a big fan of any kind of bread pudding, sweet or savory. My love for bread pudding can be traced back to my childhood. Bread pudding was one of my favorite dishes made by my Grandma Mo made when we were kids. Her recipe contained bits of apple and raisins and she would put raisins in only half the dish because most of the kids didn’t care for raisins. We would eat it in a bowl doused with half and half. (If you’re not from the Midwest you don’t understand how immensely amazing half and half is in place of milk – like in bread pudding or non-sugared cereals or oatmeal. Delicious!)

Then when I was in my late teens and twenties I worked at a restaurant that was a local chain. One of their signature dishes was bread pudding topped with ice cream and drizzled with a caramel rum sauce. Yum!

I’ve made a handful of bread puddings over the years, my favorite being Pumpkin Butterscotch Bread Pudding and French Onion Bread Pudding. So you can see why I would gravitate toward a recipe that involves donuts + bread pudding. Like most bread puddings, this recipe calls for leftover donuts which cracks me up a bit because … who has leftover donuts?

You want the raised kind of donut for this recipe so think Maple Bars or the classic donut from Krispy Kreme. I bought some Pershing Donuts I found at my local Vons because a) they were free with four Monopoly coupons I had for a free donut or bagel and b) I had never heard of Pershing donuts! But they looked like the right kind and were described as a cinnamon roll in the form of a donut when I googled them – that seemed like the perfect donut for bread pudding. I got the maple glazed kind.

My recipe is based pretty closely on the Top Pot recipe. The main deviation is I substituted maple syrup for rum or rum extract because I didn’t have any. I also I wasn’t sure if the glaze was supposed to be made of 1 cup of powdered sugar that you then sifted or sifted powdered sugar that equaled one cup. (I sifted one cup of powdered sugar.)

This is the perfect breakfast to make for a small brunch crowd or as a dessert if you’re serving comfort foods. I topped mine with the best ice cream ever, Cinnamon Buns by Ben and Jerry’s.

ingredients.

6 c. cubed leftover raised donuts (about 4 whole)
4 large eggs
2 T. maple syrup
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. whole milk
¾ c. heavy cream
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3 T. heavy cream

directions.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×5-inch bread pan and arrange the donut pieces in the baking dish.
Whisk eggs, maple syrup, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla in a medium sized bowl until well blended. Add the milk and cream and whisk to incorporate.
Slowly pour the egg mixture over the pieces of donut making sure to soak the top pieces completely.
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until browned on top and firm. The bread should not be jiggly when you move the dish. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan.
Meanwhile, make the icing by whisking together the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract and heavy cream until smooth. You can add more heavy cream if you think the glaze needs to be a bit more thin. Pour over warm bread pudding.
Cut the bread pudding in slices and serve warm. You want it to cool down enough so that when you cut into it it comes out as a slice. I would recommend at least 30 minutes if not longer.

Recipe rating:  without ice cream

Recipe rating:  with ice cream