Subtly sweet, ooey, gooey, and bursting with crunchy pecans, this vegan bread pudding is super easy to make and even easier to eat! Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an amazing dessert that you'd never guess was egg and dairy-free.
Have you ever heard the song "Baby I'ma Want You" by Bread? I'd never heard it before either, until one day I was riding in the car with my husband and it came on the radio. "This is Bread," he announced. "Baby Im'a Want You."
"That's how I feel about bread too!" was my response.
I love bread. The food, I mean. The song was okay I guess. I can't remember. I got to thinking about bread (the food), so I kind of zoned out while the song was playing.
The universe heard my plea, because baby, Im'a got a freezer full of bread. I keep making bread and then find that my small household can't quite finish off a loaf before it starts to get old.
It's okay though, because there are plenty of delicious ways to use bread that's over the hill. Ribbolita is my new favorite savory way to use up old bread. And this vegan bread pudding is my new favorite sweet way!
Use Old Bread
Old bread is actually preferable when you're making something like bread pudding. Why? Because when it's a bit stale it's better at keeping some texture when it's soaked in your gooey bread pudding base.
But you can still use fresh loaf if you're really craving some bread pudding but didn't think ahead to grab a loaf yesterday. Just break it into pieces according to the recipe and place them in the oven at a low temperature to dry out for a few minutes.
How to Make Vegan Bread Pudding
Conventional bread pudding is heavy on eggs and dairy, so it seems like it'd be a tough dish to veganize, but it's not! I used a mix of full-fat coconut milk and almond milk in place of the dairy. Feel free to substitute your favorite non-dairy milk for the almond milk, but I recommend sticking with the coconut milk if you can, as it adds some awesome richness to your pudding base.
And in place of eggs? There are so many ways to replace eggs in vegan baking, but for this recipe I used good old cornstarch! Cornstarch thickens and pudding-ifys your base, just like eggs would in conventional bread pudding.
Start by heating your coconut milk, along with some maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla, and a bit of salt. While those ingredients heat up, mix some additional non-dairy milk with cornstarch. Make sure the milk is cold! Otherwise, it won't mix well and you'll end up with a bunch of cornstarch lumps in your pudding.
Once the mixture on the stove starts to simmer, add the cornstarch mixture. Let it continue to simmer for a minute or two — it should thicken up pretty quickly.
Arrange your old bread pieces in a baking dish and pour your coconut milk mixture over them. Distribute the mixture with a spatula if you need to. Let that sit for a few minutes while you make your topping.
Stir some pecans, melted vegan butter, brown sugar and salt together, then pour the mixture over your bread pudding.
Pop it in the oven and bake until thick and bubbly.
You can serve your bread pudding while it's still warm, in which case it'll be a delicious, sloppy, gooey mess, or let it cool off and set. Either way, I highly recommend topping it with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream.
FAQ & Tips for Making Awesome Vegan Bread Pudding
- Can this be made gluten-free? I'm guessing it would be fine with gluten-free bread, but honestly, I don't have much experience with the stuff, so no promises.
- This bread pudding is meant to be subtly sweet. If you like a super sweet pudding, feel free to use extra maple syrup. And if you're not sure, taste test the coconut milk mixture after it's cooked, and then add extra sweetener to taste.
- It's super important that your non-dairy milk be cold when you mix it with the cornstarch. Cool it down with some ice cubes if needed!
- Feel free to substitute your favorite nuts for the pecans.
- On that note, feel free to play with the flavors. Try adding or swapping out the spices and flavorings. Nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, almond extract, and orange zest would all be nice.
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Maple Pecan Vegan Bread Pudding
Subtly sweet, ooey, gooey, and bursting with crunchy pecans, this vegan bread pudding is super easy to make and even easier to eat! Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an amazing dessert that you'd never guess was egg and dairy-free.
Ingredients
- 1 (14 ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
- ⅔ cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt, divided
- 1 ¼ cups unflavored non-dairy milk, chilled
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- 1 cup pecan halves
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup vegan butter, melted
- 5 cups torn (2-inch pieces) day-old bread
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350° and lightly oil a 9 x 9 inch baking dish.
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Arrange the bread pieces in the baking dish.
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Whisk the coconut milk, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon of salt together into a medium saucepan.
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Place the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a simmer.
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While the coconut milk mixture heats up, stir the chilled non-dairy milk and cornstarch together in a small bowl or liquid measuring cup. Stir until the cornstarch dissolves completely.
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Once the coconut milk mixture comes to a simmer, whisk in the cornstarch mixture.
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Bring the mixture back up to a simmer and allow it to cook, whisking frequently, until it thickens up to about the consistency of pudding, 1-2 minutes.
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Remove the pot from the heat and pour the mixture over the bread pieces. Distribute the mixture with a spatula, if needed.
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Stir the pecans, brown sugar, butter and the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt together in a small bowl.
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Spread the pecan mixture over the bread mixture.
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Bake, uncovered, until bubbly and lightly browned on top, about 45 minutes.
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Remove the pudding from the oven and allow it to cool for a few minutes and serve warm, or allow it to cool and set completely before serving.
Looks delicious!! What kind (brand) of bread did you use?
Thank you! I've actually made this a few different types of homemade bread (I've always got some in the freezer) - French, multigrain, and sourdough. They were all great, but the sourdough was my favorite.
For a while now whenever I try pinning one of your recipes, I'm only given one image that I can pin. Even if I go out of my way to try to pin one of the other images, it always comes up as the one with text on it. Just thought I'd let you know in case that's some weird glitch. (If it's somehow intentional, I'd just like to say I'm not a fan.)
Looks yummy! Plan to try it for a brunch tomorrow with non-vegans. I just noticed the sodium count and was surprised. Where is all the sodium coming from, the vegan butter? Weird, because there is no added sodium and I did not think there was much sodium in the other ingredients. Still making it, just curious. :)
There's actually a teaspoon of salt in there - you can cut the sodium in half if you leave it out. :) I hope you enjoy it!!
It must be something on your end because I get more than one option for a photo to pin, including at least one without text.
Can you make it ahead, put it in the fridge overnight and bake the next day?
I don't see why not!
Great recipe, even my non-vegan sister loved it!
I'm so happy to hear that! Thanks Shannon!
Delicious! We halved the syrup and coconut milk because we wanted something a bit lighter, and filled in the volume with almond milk. That said, 1/3 cup cornstarch seemed like way too much. When adding it to the simmering liquid it immediately turned the mix to paste. Maybe this is because of less cream/ sugar but I think next time I'll try it with 1 Tb cornstarch at a time to get that silky translucence going on.
Overall I love, love, love this! The thick, gooey result is reminiscent of pecan pie, which I've been really craving!
Yay! Glad you enjoyed it! Those sound like great modifications for a lighter version!
Very tasty, but I needed a larger pan (overflowed into oven), and I agree with the comment about too much cornstarch. I used sukrin to replace sugar and lakanto sugar free maple syrup. That worked very well.
Thank you.
I Love your recipe!! I just completed it with some old homemade wheat bread (my mothered made) and I added 1/3 cup of whiskey and it came out superb!!! Thank you and keep them coming!!
Oh yum!! I need to try this with whiskey now! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Kiki!!
I always save the end slices from my loaves because I don’t like to eat them for sandwiches or toast. I freeze them for another use like bread crumbs. Have recently gone vegan so thought I’d give this recipe a go. It was delicious! Not what I would call a traditional bread pudding (I’m from the UK where bread pudding is almost like a cake) but this was very tasty nonetheless! I added sultanas and almonds as pecans are very expensive here. Would definitely recommend! Crispy on the top and gooey and sweet underneath! Will be making this again!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I've never had bread pudding that was like a cake, but now I'm intrigued! I'll have to seek out a recipe and see if I can create a vegan version. Thanks Kake!
That was the easiest and best recipe ever! My family loved it and so did I!
Woo-hoo! I'm glad it was a hit!
Do you think the coconut milk gives it a coconut flavor? I'm a bit averse to coconut but I know that sometimes it's masked by the other things!
I couldn't taste it, but if you really dislike it you could try another non-dairy milk. Cashew would be a good option!
Flavor was AMAZING but Texture was a bit snotty. Any suggestions as to what I may have dine wrong?
Glad you like the flavor! Do you mean that it was chunky? If that's the issue it's usually due to the water that you mix the cornstarch with not being cold enough, or just not stirring it enough to dissolve all of the cornstarch.
Can you make this with low fat coconut milk?
I think so! It won't come out quite as rich, but it should still be good.
So delicious! I made this the night before and then baked in the morning and it was great. So moist and gooey! I used about 7 pieces of Trader Joe's tuscan bread which was definitely more than 5 cups, but I wanted a big pan of it. I just added more almond milk, about a half a cup maybe, to the pudding mixture and it still turned into a thick pudding sauce and covered all the bread. It also heated up well in the microwave the next day. I'll be making this one again!
Yay!! I'm so glad you like it! Thanks Deidre!
You say one can ( 14 ounces) cf coconut milk. How many cups is it? It will be easier for us to follow if everything is measured in cups. Thanks!
It's 1 3/4 cups. Enjoy!
I made this last night, it was really delicious! I love how it’s not too sweet! It’s so soft and creamy with crispy edges. I don’t think Anyone could tell this was vegan. Yum!
The recipe looks divine! How would you adjust the recipe if you decided to use eggs instead of the cornstarch mixture?
Thank you! I'm afraid I'm not sure, as I haven't tried it with eggs!
Only have coconut cream! Could I use that instead? Maybe dilute it ?
Thanks!
I think so, and I think diluting it is a good idea! This is a guess, but I'd try diluting it with about 1/3 water.
I tried this and really liked it. Very addicting! What’s the best way to store and how long?
Glad you like it! Any kind of sealed container should work. Store it in the fridge for up to three days.
I had made little sandwiches for a tea party and had cut off all the crusts. I had A LOT of crusts and didn't want to waste them so I used them to make this pudding and it was delicious!!! (PS. The crusts happen to be gluten-free and they worked beautifully.) Thanks a bunch! :)
This recipe looks great thank you,do you think that Coconut sugar could be used instead of brown sugar?
Coconut sugar should work just fine. Enjoy!
Hi Treasa! I used coconut sugar when I made it and it worked beautifully. :)
Instead of brown sugar we used coconut sugar and I added a pinch of nutmeg and cardamom. Otherwise we followed the recipe exactly and it turned out wonderfully! Would be great for Thanksgiving or Christmas occassion.
Sorry, but what sort of fictional amount is 5 "cups" of bread? Is that some sort of bible reference?
Tear the bread into 2 inch pieces and pack it into a measuring cup, per the recipe.
Delicious! My household is a mix of vegans and non-vegans and everyone loved this. My vegan roommate who is from Mexico said it reminded him of Capirotada and really loved indulging in veganized treat from his childhood. I followed the recipe nearly to the letter although I used walnuts since I had them and ended up pulling mine from the oven at 35 minutes. So tasty!
Hi! I made this today for X-mas! It was out of this world! What a delicious treat! This is a winner! Thank you so much!
And have a very merry Christmas!
Do you think I could use day old muffins instead of bread?cathi
I wouldn't risk it. Bread holds together much better than muffins in this kind of recipe because the gluten strands are stronger. I'd be afraid it would turn to mush if you used muffins.