A Simple Summery Peach Bread Pudding Recipe
Soaked in an almond-scented custard, this baguette-based bread pudding recipe is just peachy! No literally, it’s full-to-bursting of fresh, summery peaches. No bread pudding recipe is complete without a truly delectable bread pudding sauce to drizzle on top of that custardy, just-baked, bready panful, and our salted caramel finds a very happy home on top of this yummy dessert. Add a little vanilla ice cream if you dare, and you’ll have made a dish delicious enough to christen the entire summer a season well-lived.
The Best Bread Pudding Sauce Ever? Hellooooo Salted Caramel Sauce!
You’ll have the sugar, salt and cream out on the counter anyway to make your bread pudding, so you might as well make a killer bread pudding sauce to go with it! Caramel sauce is not hard—don’t let people get in your head about it. And don’t think about all of the people on The Great British Bake Off who decide to remake their caramel at the last minute and stress all of us viewers out (seriously, this happens like three times a season, right?). But yeah, put that from your mind! Repeat to yourself: “I know how to turn on the stove. I know how to use a whisk. Therefore, I can make caramel sauce”. It’s really that simple. You just need a few tips and tricks (and follow all the instructions in our caramel sauce recipe here) and we promise you can nail it. Caramel sauce is as simple as:
Sugar
Heavy cream
Sea salt
In a pan, over heat. Pay attention. Follow a good recipe. You can do it!
Fragrant, Rich Almond Custard Bread Pudding In Just 7 Ingredients
If you had to dream up custard bread pudding ingredients off the top of your head, we bet the list would look something like the ingredients list for our bread pudding recipe. It’s so simple, so classic and so custardy. The infusion of almonds and fresh peaches takes that gorgeous bread pudding simplicity and lifts it into the realm of absolute divinity. And all you’ll need to make it are a few really basic ingredients:
Baguette
Peaches
Almonds
Milk
Cream
Sugar
Eggs
How To Pick A Perfect Peach
As summer stone fruits go, peaches are maybe the most beloved and long-awaited of all—and that’s saying a lot! We wait all year for truly great cherries, plums and nectarines, but the peach—well, the peach is queen. The wonderful thing about peach bread pudding is that you actually don’t need the most, most, most ripe peaches. If you happen to get lucky and peach season is peaking when you make this peach dessert, it’ll be a little extra good. But if the peaches are a little early, or not-quite-ripe, or maybe not as flavorful as you wish? They’ll still work just fine for this bread pudding recipe! Baked fruit desserts are wonderfully forgiving like that. Nonetheless, here are a few things to know if you do want to try to buy the very best peaches you can:
Shop at the farmers market instead of the grocery store. Or, better yet, go u-picking and pick your own! There’s no better way to ensure freshness than picking peaches (or any fruit in season) yourself. Plus, it’s always the most cost effective way to buy peaches in season. And, relatedly...
Know when peach season is in your area! Most places in the U.S. grow peaches, but exactly when the season hits will vary region to region, and some areas will have much longer growing seasons than others. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we’ll start to see them towards the end of July, and they last until September.
Sniff, squeeze (gently) and taste before you buy! This is another reason to shop at a farmers market or go u-picking if you can—often farmers will let you taste the difference between the peach varieties that they grow which is not only fun but will help you choose the perfect peach for your own taste.
How to Make Bread Pudding
Peach bread pudding is the kind of dessert that’s worth saving LOTS of room for. Topped with homemade caramel sauce and—if you’re really ready to go for it—vanilla ice cream, it’s a luxuriously creamy, carby, oh-so-summertime treat that you’ll long for all winter long. Here’s how simple it is to make the best bread pudding ever:
Begin the almond custard by infusing the sugar-cream mixture with almonds. This sounds harder than it is! Just bring cream, milk, almonds, sugar and salt to a gentle simmer. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, pull the pan from the heat and let the almondy milk mixture sit for 30 minutes to get all infused with almond-y goodness.
Prep the baking pan! Toss the peaches, bread and some more almonds in a baking dish lined with parchment paper.
Make your almond custard! Strain the almonds out of the milk mixture and slowly whisk it into the eggs.
Assemble your bread pudding! Pour the custard into your prepared pan of bread and peaches. Gently press the bread down until it is fully submerged in the custard.
Bake! Bake covered for about 45 minutes, then uncovered for another 10-20 so that the top can get all golden brown and toasty.
Tools You’ll Need:
Colander and cheesecloth, or a fine-mesh sieve.
More Summer Fruit Dessert Recipes to Love
Just Peachy
We hope you love this rich, almond-scened peach bread pudding recipe as much as we do! Try the recipe, and let us know how you like it, OK? Share a photo and tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper so that we can see your stuff! Happy eating!
