Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

Looking for a fun way to amp up your regular old bread pudding? Why not make it boozy and indulge in this Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce?

The super-easy bread pudding base is the perfect vessel for the bourbon cinnamon sauce, culminating in a tender, sweet, and caramel flavored dessert.

As a multitasking mom with a preference for fine food, bread pudding meets all my standards for a great recipe—easy, efficient, and elevated.

Making the bread pudding is as easy as tossing everything together and throwing it in the oven, making the hands-on prep time only about 10 minutes (or less, once you get the hang of it!).

And my favorite thing about bread pudding? It can be easily elevated with a delicious sauce, like the bourbon sauce in this recipe, or the sweet sauce in this Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce or even a something as simple as this 15-Minute Vanilla Sauce.

Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce Ingredient Highlights

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For the bread pudding, really any bread will do, but preferably white, challah, brioche, or French bread. This is because these types of bread are milder and subtly sweet in flavor, making them perfect for a bread dessert!

It’s best if it’s day-old or even stale. Fresh bread may get a little too soggy.

For both the bread pudding and the bourbon sauce, any percentage of milk or any unflavored, unsweetened non-dairy milk works.

For the sauce, use heavy whipping cream (not regular or light cream) or coconut cream.

As for the bourbon, use your favorite! I usually go for Maker’s Mark.

Bread Puddings with Bourbon Sauce Tips and Tricks

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How to Make Easy Bread Pudding

It’s best to melt your butter first so it has some time to cool before you add it to your mixture. Adding it while it’s too hot means you’re risking scrambling your eggs or curdling your milk.

You can melt your butter over the stove, in the oven, or if you’re lazy like me, just melt it quickly in the microwave!

Add your butter to a microwave-safe bowl (I just use my glass measuring cup) and microwave on high in 20-second intervals. Stir in between and just keep heating until the butter completely liquefies. Easy, peasy.

Once your butter is melted, set it aside to cool while you mix the rest of your ingredients.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your milk, eggs, vanilla extract, sugar, and once it’s cooled, the melted butter.

Cut your bread into small cubes. This will allow each piece to absorb more of your mixture, giving it that melt-in-your-mouth consistency and ensuring every bite is full of flavor.

Cubing your bread is easy! If your loaf is whole, cut it into slices about 1-inch thick.

If your bread is already sliced, it’s as easy as cutting it into 4 parts vertically, then rotating it and slicing it roughly into thirds to form little bread cubes.

You can stack your bread to slice it more quickly but I wouldn’t recommend tackling more than 4 slices at once.

Once your bread is cubed, you can add it to your liquid mixture and use a spatula to fold your bread into your mixture. Make sure every cube is completely coated.

Then, transfer it to a casserole dish. No need to spray, line, or butter your dish. The small amount of butter and fat from the milk will make it so your bread pudding does not stick to your casserole dish.

How to Make Bourbon Sauce for Bread Pudding

The best thing about this sauce (besides the bourbon, of course) is the consistency is customizable. I like my sauce a little bit thinner because I pour it over the bread pudding fresh out of the oven.

This allows the bread pudding to soak up all the moisture and flavor of the sauce. I also like to conserve a little and add extra sauce to each piece.

But if you want your sauce a little bit thicker, it’s as simple as leaving it on your burner longer.

To make the bourbon sauce, add your milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk and heat your sauce until the cornstarch is completely integrated and there are no visible lumps.

Then, allow the sauce to heat, stirring frequently until it thickens.

Pro tip: Cornstarch will start to thicken your sauce once the temperature reaches around 145°F. The longer you heat it, the thicker it will get.

I usually heat it until it resembled the consistency of glue. For a thicker sauce, continue to heat until it’s even thicker.

Keep in mind, you’ll be adding more liquid once you remove it from heat and add the bourbon, so heat it until it’s a tad thicker than you want your final sauce to be.

Once your sauce thickens, remove it from heat. Add the bourbon and stir well.

Adding the bourbon after removing the sauce from the heat means the alcohol in the bourbon won’t cook off, making this bread pudding boozy, and this sauce taste strongly of bourbon.

Once your bread pudding is done baking, smother it in the bourbon sauce. Pouring the sauce over the bread pudding while it’s still warm means the bread pudding will soak up the moisture and flavor from the sauce.

Conserve some extra sauce to serve with each slice once your bread pudding with bourbon sauce has cooled.

Storing Your Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

This Bourbon Bread Pudding will last up to 5 days in a sealed airtight container if store in the refrigerator. Reheat at 350°F for 10-15 minutes until nice and warm.

The bread pudding itself can also be frozen for up to two months, but only before adding the bourbon sauce! Freezing the bread pudding after the bourbon sauce has been added will leave you with a mushy bread pudding once it thaws.

If you do freeze your bread pudding, allow it to thaw overnight in the fridge to defrost.

As for the Bourbon Sauce, it will last up to 1 month in the refrigerator so long as it is in an airtight container.