In Good FlavorThis croissant bread pudding is tender and custardy with chunks of cinnamon apple to give it a fall vibe. It is served with a sweet and luxurious maple brown butter glaze. If you like custardy bread pudding, this one’s for you!
This greeting comes a bit later than I had planned, but happy fall!! I have been experiencing technical difficulties and have not had a chance to get a recipe out to you. This blog just got migrated to WordPress, and with that came a lot of issues that requires fixing. Among them is formatting issues. So, my baby here will need quite a bit of work before she is looking good. Please bear with me during this process as it will require some time to resolve.
In the meantime, I will try share a few yummy recipes with you. Apple season is drawing to an end making room for all things pumpkin. I’m still in an apple state of mind. This apple croissant pudding is exactly what I crave on a cool autumn day. And it’s a perfect way to use up some of those apples that no one is eating. This is one great recipe to add to your fall baking.
The croissants are tender, custardy, and eggy. This dish is wonderful for breakfast, brunch, or dessert. With the warm flavor of cinnamon, the nuttiness of the brown butter, the caramelly notes of maple syrup, this bread pudding is both decadent and comforting.
Although you don’t have to, I serve this pudding with a maple brown butter glaze. I love this glaze so much, I use variations of it on on everything. It’s here in my pumpkin flan cake, my apple walnut buns and on my gingerbread donuts. Try them and you’ll see why!!
Recipe Hilights:
- Peel and slice apples into thin bite size chunks.
- Cook on medium heat with sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and water until tender.
Break day old croissants into chunks. Bake at 350° F for 8 to 10 minutes.
- For the custard: Add half and half to a large mixing bowl. Add sugar. Whisk to combine. Add eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla. Whisk well to incorporate.
- Remove and reserve 1/4 cup of custard mixture for making the glaze later.
- Add and submerge baked croissants. Soak for 15 minutes.
- Add cooked apples.
- Pour into a baking dish.
- Cover with foil. Bake at 350° F for 30 minutes covered then 40 minutes uncovered.
- Cook butter on medium heat until milk deposit turns golden brown. Remove from heat.
- Whisk in maple syrup. Add reserved custard sauce. Return to heat. Whisk 1 minute.
- Whisk in powdered sugar and a pinch of salt.
- Serve over pudding.
- See below for detailed instructions.
Serving Suggestions:
- This croissant bread pudding can be served hot or cold. I have it both ways and they are both delicious!
- Add a whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for extra lusciousness and decadence.
Recommended supplies:
These are products I use, or on my wishlist, or are highly rated. (Amazon affiliate links)
- 11x8x2.5 ceramic baking dish – This is similar in size as the baking dish I use.
- 11-inch balloon whisk – I use handheld whisks all the time. This one has a 4.8 out of 5 star rating.
- 2-quart stainless steel saucepan with lid – Perfect for cooking the apples in. This one has a 4.8 out of 5 star rating
- 1-quart saucepan – Stainless steel with cool grip handles. This has a 4.7 out of 5 star rating.
Can this bread pudding be made ahead of time?
Yes it can. Prep the night before and pop into the oven the morning of. You might need to add 5 or so minutes extra cook time to offset the chilled start.
How long does it keep?
The pudding and sauce keeps well for 4-5 days refrigerated. Freeze in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
Helpful tips:
- The baking dish I use is 11x8x2.5 inches. Do not use a smaller size, because the pudding might spill over (it puffs up while baking). If using a 9×13-inch pan, decrease baking time about 10 minutes. The larger size pan has a larger surface area and the pudding will be more shallow, which makes it cook more quickly.
- Avoid using soft apples like McIntosh as they become overcooked and mushy easily. You want the apple chunks to hold its shape through the cooking process.
If you try this recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a message in the comment section.
SAVE FOR LATER
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Apple Cinnamon Croissant Bread Pudding
Description
This croissant bread pudding is tender and custardy with chunks of cinnamon apple to give it a fall vibe. It is served with a sweet and luxurious maple brown butter glaze. If you like custardy bread pudding, this one’s for you!
Ingredients
For the cinnamon apple:
For the Maple Brown Butter Glaze:
Suggested supplies (affiliate links):
Instructions
- Peel and slice apples into wedges. Cut out and discard core. Cut into 1/4-inch thick chunks. Place chunks into a medium saucepan on medium heat.
- Add sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and and 2 tablespoons water. Cook covered stirring occasionally for 10-12 minutes or until apples are tender. Add another tablespoon water if apples begin to stick to pan while cooking. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 300° F.
- Break croissant into chunks. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until firm, turning croissant over once. Remove from oven. Set aside.
- Increase oven to 350° F.
- Add half and half to a large mixing bowl. Add sugar. Whisk to combine. Add eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla. Whisk well to incorporate.
- Remove and reserve 1/4 cup of custard mixture for making the glaze later.
- Add and submerge baked croissants to the remaining custard mixture. Soak for 15 minutes. Add cooked apples.
- Place in a greased 8x11x2.5 inch baking pan. Cover with foil. Baked for 30 minutes covered. Remove foil and bake for an additional 40 minutes.
- Done when the croissants are fluffy, with golden brown edges, and slightly pulls away from the sides of the pan. The custard sauce might look a completely set but will firm up as it cools.
- Brown butter in a small saucepan on medium heat. Butter will pop and become foamy. When the milk solids turn golden brown at the bottom of the pan (about 3 to 4 minutes), remove pan from heat.
- Whisk in maple syrup.
- Whisk in reserved custard. Return pan to heat. Continue whisking for one minute.
- Whisk in powdered sugar then a pinch of salt. Remove from heat. Allow to cool to thicken slightly.
- Serve over pudding. Pudding can be served hot or cold.
For the cinnamon apple:
For the croissant bread pudding:
For the custard:
For the maple brown butter glaze:
Notes
- If using a larger 9×13 inch baking pan, adjust baking time slightly. The bread pudding will be more shallow and will require slightly less bake time. Check for doneness about 10 minutes early.
- If using fresh croissants, pre-bake the croissant a few minutes longer to draw out more moisture.
- If you don’t want to use all half and half, you can substitute part or all of it with whole milk. Half and half makes the custard just a bit more luxurious.
- Bread pudding will deflate slightly as it cools. That’s perfectly fine. It’s going to taste great!
Disclosure: This site contains paid advertising and affiliate links. In Good Flavor is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Sounds so delicious 🙂 I will try it at weekend. Thanks for sharing the great recipe.
Great! I hope you’ll enjoy!!
This looks so tasty and perfect for fall!
Thank you Inger! I think so too!
And good luck on the technical challenges. I plan to redesign my blog after the holidays and am excited but scared!
Thanks Inger. Mine hadn’t gone smoothly as I had hoped. There are a lot of things I have to fix manually. Many people have done it with a lot more ease. I hope you will be one of them. Good luck!!
Sometime in supermarket you can get large bag of ready to expire cheap croissants, they would be perfectly stale for such recipe 🙂
Yes, they are perfect for this recipe!
Really look forward to baking this wonderful-looking dessert. Would like to verify that it actually takes SEVEN cups of half & half?? Thank You, jr
I’m so glad you want to make this. Yes, that is not a typo. It’s 7 cups. If you don’t want to use all half and half, you can substitute part or all of it with whole milk. Using 100% half and half makes it just a bit more luxurious. I updated the Notes section with this info. Thanks for asking!
Have I missed something? when do you add the apples?
Found it above, but left out of the recipe when it is printed. Needs to be fixed.
I’m not sure where you’re printing from. Are you clicking on the print button on the recipe card? The entire recipe is printing when I try it. Please let me know so I can figure out what’s going on 🙂
I’m sorry. The apples are added to the croissant and custard mixture after the croissant soaks in it for 15 minutes. I updated the recipe card.